#//I don’t mind making 12 pizzas in a row when they don’t have to all come out for the same two orders

[theodosiani]

Bouncing between completely dead at the pizza table and utterly slammed with like seven pizzas an order for three straight orders.

[kerie-prince]

We're Worlds Apart (4)

Draco Malfoy x American No-Maj!reader

series m.list | general m.list | previous chp

warnings: a curse word if you squint, sassy Draco

summary: Draco Malfoy is a pureblood wizard. Magic runs through his veins and has been since his birth. You're a Wiccan No-Maj; a non-magical being with ordinary blood through your veins, but practices what you call magick. And this very practice upsets your neighbor.

a/n: a day late bc i got distracted watching game of thrones lmao i have adhd so i honestly should've known better than to have something so attention demanding in front of me :P

(gif cred)

Three more days.

Three more days until your brother and his girlfriend come to your Buffalo suburban home to spend Thanksgiving. You came home from work on a better day than the ones from the week before, only to walk inside and was almost convinced you entered the wrong house.

Your mother took the liberty of decorating your house while you were gone. The place looked like an IKEA catalogue. Green and cream colored throw pillows were on your black leather couch, your small dining table had a fall-themed centerpiece and a blood orange table cloth. New dining chairs, all of them matched, unlike the mismatched ones you had before. And that god-forsaken ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ wooden sign hung in your kitchen. That damn thing is leaving first thing in the morning.

“Ma, what the hell did you do to my house?” The more you looked, you groaned at what you saw. Your grandmother’s tapestry was no longer hanging at its original place, now hung hidden behind the tv. “Oh, don’t give me any grief about it. Y/B/N is coming and I don’t want the place looking like the Spirit store.”

You knew you couldn't really fight her on this. It would be more frustrating to have to argue and still not be able to put everything back to how it was until she left. Taking a deep breath, you walked yourself to your room to get changed into comfortable clothes and light some sage for your nerves.

Three more days.

—

One more week.

In a week's time, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were to come to New York to spend the month of December with Draco and to say he was excited was an understatement.

He was excited, nervous, and many other feelings that he was too stressed to name. The guest room was prepared for the two of them to share, all he had to do was figure out what to do with them while they were here. He had taken a week off and had no idea what to do. He still hadn’t gone around the city he lived in. He could always ask his friends at Saint Marie but for some reason, he was too shy to.

He could always ask Mrs. Charles for recommendations on what to do. She was a sweet muggle neighbor that he came to like as well as her husband. He could also ask you, but it’s been over a week since he spoke to you in your yards. From glimpses into your window, you seemed so exhausted. Not that he really cared, but he remembered that you would try to get along better and so far, all he’s done was give a nod towards your direction when he walked into his home as you were leaving yours.

His bedroom blinds were always closed now because he knew that if he were to see you doing your… whatever you do in your room just once, he’d change his mind about the whole thing. It still bothered him, but not as bad as it did when he first saw it.

Draco’s stomach growled as he sat on his couch, bringing him out of his thoughts and walked over to the kitchen. To his despair, his pantry, cabinets, and fridge were all empty. Guess I’ll have to grab something. He pondered on what he was in the mood for as he ran out the door. Draco figured he'd just figure it out as he drove around the streets downtown.

Since moving to America, he found so many new cuisines than he had ever imagined. He usually always ate at home, and if his family ever ate outside of home they usually went to the finest restaurants in France. Of course, they were all wizard-owned restaurants. But in New York, he’s been introduced to new things. For one, he had his first ever hamburger with Blaine. Ashley took him to a Chinese restaurant, and Ian bought Draco a traditional New York pizza.

Yes, all these things existed in London. Maybe not so much New York-style pizza, but there was pizza. Draco, however, never had the opportunity to try any of these foods. Lucius was extremely strict about eating out. It was never necessary considering he could afford the best quality foods to be made at home. When they did eat at restaurants in France, it was only because a higher official at the Ministry had invited them for a night out.

Around the streets, the bright lights of buildings and restaurants lit the streets as he drove around them. Draco turned into a street he hadn’t been into yet in hopes to find something else he could find to try. There were a couple places he hadn’t been into; a Greek restaurant, a Brazillian one, and a couple shops. There was one shop close to the end of the street. It was sandwiched between two boutiques and had a neon green and purple sign in the front. Soul Beads. In front of the building was a man with a weird sign in one hand and an even weirder thing that seemed to have made his voice louder in the other. Draco couldn’t make of the rubbish he was yelling into the thing from inside his car.

Draco pulled to the curb to walk around the street and check out the restaurants. A bell jingle caught his attention, turning around to see one person he didn’t really expect to see here. “Draco?” your face showed the same expression as his. He watched as you closed the door to Soul Beads and walked up to him. The weird man that stood in front of the store yelled out, “DON’T TALK TO HER, THIS BITCH HERE WORKS FOR THE DEVIL!”

“Do you know him?” Draco asks with a quirked eyebrow. The stranger kept yelling profanities at you but Draco saw how you couldn’t be bothered by it. “He does this every couple weeks. What brings you out here?” Your hands were stuffed tightly in your pockets for warmth.

“Do you own the street? Can I not be here?” he asked sarcastically. You faced him with a deadpan look as to ask him again without having to say the words to him. Or call him a smartass. Which he is. With a roll of his eyes, he continued, “I’m looking for something to eat but I’ve never been to these places before.”

“Ah,” you started, “Well I don’t know what kind of stuff you’re used to, but I suggest the Greek restaurant right across. Over-priced, but the best gyros you’ll ever have in Buffalo.”

“It’s yee-roh, not jahy-row.” Draco corrected. He couldn’t tell if you were irritated or confused after he said that. Probably both.

“You know Greek?” you asked.

“I studied it when I was a child. My tutor showed me the word once and hit my hand when I had mispronounced it. Learned the hard way to never do that again,” flashbacks to the older woman teaching him the language cursed his mind for a few seconds.

His stomach growled even louder now in the silence between them. Draco blushed in embarrassment, shifting around to look away so you wouldn’t see. You slightly chuckled and tapped his shoulder. “Come on, neighbor’s treat.” And you walked onto the busy street.

This bloody woman is crazy to be crossing a busy street he thought as he rushed to follow you across the street. He got scared as a car got too close and ran to the safety of the sidewalk. “You’re gonna get yourself bloody killed one of these days like that,” he scolded. “If you’re gonna live in New York, you’re gonna have to deal with annoying pedestrians and sometimes be an annoying pedestrian. Be glad you don’t live in Manhattan, they’re worse. A person could be hit by a car and he’d just get on up and keep walking.” you informed.

Draco would be lying to himself if he said that didn’t spook him a little. Sure, he’s seen a few students get hexed, some by him, but they’d never just dealt with it and continued walking in the halls. They’d either have to hope their friends knew the counter curse or they’d end up in the hospital wing and had Madam Pomfrey help them back to normal. These muggles really are just… strange.

The restaurant looked old and desperately needed a remodel but by Merlin, it smelled amazing. “Now, are you getting a yee-roh sandwich or are you getting something else?” you mocked his previous correction with a playful roll of your eyes. Draco looked at the menu but it didn’t matter as he didn’t know the first thing about Greek food. What the hell did my father force me to take lessons for? “Do you want me to just order for you?” you asked as he kept browsing for too long. There were only 12 things on the menu but it still confused him.

He held back a snarl as he agreed to your help. He stood aside as you ordered and waited until it sounded like you were done, then headed up to the window to pay. “Oh, you don’t have to. I insisted I would pay,” you tried to push his hand away and reach for your credit card but he proceeded to hand the money to the cashier. “It’s nothing.”

“Here or to-go?” the lady asked with a thick New York accent. The two of you just looked at each other waiting for someone to say something. “Do you want to just-”

“Eat it here?” He looked at the small space and saw only one unoccupied table by the window. One of two tables. No longer growling, his stomach was shaking nearly violently, indicating that he can’t wait any longer. It was a strange feeling to be starving. Never had he ever had to wait for food at Malfoy Manor nor at Hogwarts. Whether it was house elves or first years, someone always ran to get him food with a snap of his fingers. “Yeah, here’s fine.”

The lady handed your plates to you as he went to claim the small table before someone else did. He looked around the space with a slight disgusted look. It’s not that it was run by muggles, but just because the place looks so old and kind of dirty. Even the house elves at the Manor lived in better conditions. The corner he sat in made him feel slightly claustrophobic. How do they sit and enjoy anything like this?

You sat the food on the table and shook your jacket off on to the chair. Draco watched as you placed the plates as neatly in front of you both. He couldn’t help but notice the rings that covered most of your fingers. Some were simple silver bands, some bronze bands, and some looked like wire that had a wrapped, colorful rock in the center. They were mismatched but coordinated at the same time. If that made any actual sense.

You started some simple small-talk, “So, what brings you all the way out here?”

“I got a better job opportunity,” Draco responded. His voice sounded uninterested, and his eyes stared at the plate. It had three pieces of meat on a bed of white rice, a small salad and a little dipping bowl of some white sauce. He dipped the meat into the sauce and as he tasted it, he nearly groaned in content. The flavors danced around his mouth and he had to hold himself back from devouring the whole plate in a matter of seconds.

He could feel you staring at him but chose not to look up to see judgement in your eyes. Whether it was with amusement or not. The food was so good and he would most definitely order another one to-go on his way out for his lunch break tomorrow. I’m definitely bringing Blaise and Theo here.

“What kind of job do you do?” Draco stopped chewing his food and swallowed nervously. He should’ve expected this kind of question sooner or later, but here he was sitting in silence trying to figure out what to say. He couldn’t just tell you that he’s a Healer because then that would lead to more questions and that’d be more answers he couldn’t give you. “What, you don’t wanna tell me?” you furrowed your eyebrows at him as he continued his silence.

Finally, the word popped in his mind, “I’m a doctor.” Hopefully that ends that conversation.

“That’s cool, what kind of doctor are you?” Shit. There’s more than one kind?

“Uh, I work with people who come into the hospital with major injuries like a broken arm and such,” Draco stuttered.

“So, an emergency room doctor. You work in the ER then,” you concluded with a hand over your mouth as you chewed. “Y-yeah, that.” Draco tried not to sound suspicious. “What about you?”

You cleared your throat, drank some of your soda and pointed out the window, “You see that store over there? Soul Beads? That’s my store.” It was weird how coincidental it was that of all streets to drive into and of all people to run into, he ran into you coming out of your personally owned store. Looking back at you, he saw your face relax and smile at the building. “What do you sell? I’m assuming it’s not food seeing as you didn’t invite me in.”

Now it was time for you to stutter, “Oh, just candles and stuff. Nothing too flashy.” You poked at your food and took small bites of it. There was an awkward silence between you two for about ten minutes before you started the conversation before, “Assuming you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, will you just be working that day?” Draco didn’t know much about the holiday, only that he was getting paid more that day.

“Yeah, I’ll be at the hospital for the night. Probably until four in the morning.”

“Well that sucks. You’ll miss out on the greatest American tradition that is Black Friday,” you chuckled.

“What’s that?” Yet another thing Draco didn’t understand.

“Black Friday is when people fight to the death for a discount on things like appliances and tvs. It’s quite amusing to watch,” you slightly exaggerated. Keyword slightly. Draco had wide eyes as he heard the description. “I’m sorry, to the death?”

With that, you laughed so hard you placed one hand flat against your chest and the other held the table with a tight grip as if you were to fall from your seat. He then realized you actually didn’t mean to the literal death and mentally scolded himself for being so gullible. You continued laughing and he rolled his eyes before chuckling to himself. You leaned back up and wiped some tears underneath your eyes, “Oh my god, I needed that laugh.”

A shiver went up Draco’s spine once he caught a glimpse of your smile. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen you smile at all. Before your little argument, you would smile towards him and all the other neighbors all the time. But this never happened before. He looked away from your eyes and tried to find anything else to look at. Tilting his head up, he saw an air conditioning unit. Oh, that’s why.

Small talk ended there with a clear of his throat and proposed to go home. Draco saw how you looked a little disappointed and forced a small, kind smile on your face, “Yeah, it’s getting kinda late and I don’t want to keep my mother waiting. God knows what she’s done to my house while I was gone.” He wasn’t going to keep pressing on the matter as he figured they still weren’t close enough for that. One dinner didn’t make them friends in his book. It wasn’t terrible, though. Maybe he would do it again.

Walking to their own cars, she said “See you around, neighbor,” and got into her car and drove off. He just nodded his head as he always did and drove off as well. They arrived home at the same time and walked inside without looking at each other, thinking that it would just be weird to keep saying goodbye.

—

It was finally Thanksgiving, and Y/B/N and Stephanie were going to be over around three in the afternoon. Your mother was more of a pain than usual, waking you up at six in the morning to do last minute cleaning, grocery shopping, and starting on roasting the ham. The loud argument over ham or turkey in the grocery store the week before lasted for an embarrassing two hours after your mother caved and let you pick the main entree for dinner.

Once you got an hour to yourself, you went to your closet in the hall and grabbed a small glass jar then walked to your backyard for some lavender. You walked to the kitchen for a stick of cinnamon, placed the items on the kitchen counter and walked quickly to your room for something small. Your eyes found a loose ribbon on the floor and grabbed it then went back to the kitchen.

You put all the items into the jar and browsed the kitchen for one more thing. There was a bouquet of flowers on the dining table that your mother bought. Perfect. You grabbed a couple flowers and took the petals to mix in the jar. Once you were done, you chanted to yourself three times:

“Goddess, please take the negativity out of this kitchen.

Replace it with positivity and love. So mote it be.”

You heard your mother waking up from her nap from the guest room and ran into the kitchen to hide the jar somewhere she couldn’t see it. The spell can’t exactly work if she sees something to nag about. She walks in the kitchen and sees you looking suspicious.

She looks at you with squinted eyes - mainly because she had just woken up - but said, “I’m not gonna ask what you’re up to. Can you make the potato salad? I like the way you make it better.” You silently agreed as you looked for the things in the fridge and grabbed a large bowl to mix it in. Your mother walks up to one of the cabinets to grab a pot to boil the potatoes with, only to find the thing you tried to hide. “What’s this, honey?”

You stammered over your words trying to find an explanation before she cut you off, “It’s pretty with all the things in there. You should keep it out.” She placed it beside a photo on the countertop and walked away to fill the pot with water. You were surprised she didn’t ask any further questions. You continued cooking and had a hopeful smile on your face. Maybe it won’t be so bad tonight.

The doorbell rang and you both looked at the clock on the wall. It read 1:55 and you looked at each other in confusion. “Y/B/N must be early,” your mother guessed and went to the door to let him in. The greeting was loud as she greeted him in. You could hear your little brother’s laugh with enthusiasm as he walked into your kitchen, “What’s up, big sis?”

You placed the utensils down and ran up to him with your arms up, “I’ve missed you too, baby brother.” He was much taller than you as he picked you up and hugged you tightly. You slightly swung your legs to give him the signal to let you go. He got his height from your dad, leaving you short thanks to your mother. Your brother had a big smile on his face and you reciprocated the smile. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen each other.

“Oh, lemme introduce you. Steph, c’mere!” He looked over his shoulder and called for the special guest. A beautiful woman with long, chocolate brown hair and doe blue eyes walked next to Y/B/N. “It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Stephanie.” She held her hand out causing you to quickly wipe your hands on your apron. “Hi, I’m Y/N.”

“Y/B/N has told me so much about you. I was so nervous to meet you,” Stephanie admitted with a slight blush on her cheeks. “I wonder what this dummy told you. I bet you I can tell you more embarrassing stories about him,” you jabbed his arm.

“That’s not fair, I didn’t say anything all that bad. You’ll hex me or some shit,” he had his hands up in defense.

“Y/B/N!” Your eyes widened and you laughed nervously, “Don’t listen to him, he’s an idiot.”

Stephanie looked back and forth at the two of you and finally settled on you, waving a hand, “Oh no, that’s okay. I practice, too.” Wait, what? It seemed your mother thought the same exact thing, only out loud. “Yeah, Stephanie also does the same thing you do. Crazy, right?”

Your mother stood shocked before them, not saying anything. Your brother had a smile that wasn’t exactly fitting the situation. Stephanie had a kind smile, and although you were visibly surprised that your little brother’s girlfriend was, of all things, also a Wiccan, you were laughing inside at your mother.

This is gonna be the most interesting Thanksgiving ever.

—

next chp

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[sunnysviolin]

Kel and Aubrey going around interacting with people to learn about the different cultures everywhere as they travel, wearing cultural outfits, participating in cultural activities, just having an overall good time...

Would they be good at any cultural dances? Since they're traveling to Spain first, I can just imagine Aubrey in a flamenco dress with Kel as they just dance together and enjoy themselves (or maybe Kel wearing the dress- or maybe both of them wearing dresses-)

...I kinda wanna draw them dancing around together now.

-from a videogame-world traveling anon

nonnie.....nonnie wait....if you drew something we created together I would be SO EMO WAIT!!! No oh my god like my brain literally just exploded like art?? ART??? I wanna be able to draw so bad...but I can’t I just gotta continue on w my lil writing bits....here take some more writing bits nonnie

*Singing to myself* This got lonnng againnnn I’m putting itttt under a readdd moreeeee

Kel’s parents are....less than pleased to find out their son isn’t directly going to college like Hero did, and they make that known. 

They don’t approve of his choice to take at least one gap year. They don’t approve of him not continuing his education. They don’t approve of him throwing away his life for that bad girl that spent so many years terrorizing him. Even two years after changing her ways, Aubrey is still regarded as a nuisance among the town old timers. Kel’s parents tell him plainly that they don’t approve of Aubrey, and they won’t be changing their mind. 

Which leads to Kel having a minor breakdown and finally admitting what he’s known his whole life- that he will never be good enough to measure up to Hero, and he’s finally tired of trying to be someone he’s not. He isn’t Hero and he never will be, but for once he wants being Kel to be good enough. 

Seeing their bright positive middle child finally crack under the weight they’ve been unintentionally laying on him is...it’s painful. Kel’s parents never meant to make it a competition between their sons, they just wanted what was best for both of them. 

Having Kel sobbing at their dining room table at 3:00 am on the night of his high school graduation teaches them that they might not know what’s best for Kel after all. 

So...yeah the talk the morning after that is filled with a lot of awkward pausing. Kel isn’t used to sharing his true feelings, and he isn’t used to exposing anything other than cheerful hope. Ultimately they come to an agreement. Kel can go with Aubrey, follow her and his heart on their crazy plan, but he has to spend the year before they leave working and earning and not just hanging around the house

That was Kel’s plan anyway, so he’s ecstatic. He calls Aubrey immediately after, and she comes over so they can plan things out together

That year before they leave is definitely not easy. They’re working multiple retail and menial labor jobs, spending 12-15 hours a day on their feet in steamy kitchens, being screamed at by rude customers, and delivering so. many. pizzas. 

At some point in that year Aubrey and her mother have the inevitable fight that has been coming her whole life, and her mother kicks her out. Aubrey shows up in the middle of the night with her things next to her. Kel’s mother welcomes her inside and gets her a cup of tea. Kel wakes up and comes downstairs the next day to see his partner curled up asleep on the couch under a blanket his mother had just finished knitting

His mother doesn’t explain anything (”It’s her story dear not mine”) but after Aubrey comes to stay with them his parents warm to her quickly. Aubrey and Kel are allowed to share the room that Hero and he once shared, but they’re adamant that the beds stay on opposite sides

((He and Aubrey fit cramped but happy into his twin bed every night, but she always wakes up early to switch beds in order to be respectful to his parents wishes)) 

Soon enough its the afternoon before their journey is beginning (They decided to redeye to Sevilla). They have hostel confirmation numbers for a dozen different European countries, a thick binder of plans and itineraries, and a joint account that has a surprising amount of money in it. 

Turns out working 15 hours a day, taking only your eight paid vacation days, and having all of your dates be creative free dates in the five hours a week you both have off together means that you are able to acquire quite the nest egg. Kel’s parents sit them down at the dining room table, and his father is shocked to see how this year has shaped Kel. 

It’s a strange thing to see your son as an adult for the first time. It didn’t feel strange when it was Hero, he always expected it from Hero. Seeing it in Kel rocked him. 

They drive the two young adults (calling them kids now feels...wrong) to the airport and make them promise to call and write daily. 

There’s an undeniable energy and excitement as they board the plane. He and Aubrey breathe an audible sigh of relief. They shouldn’t, but they sleep on the plane. After a year of running, they’ve earned it

OKAY SO THAT WASN”T AT ALL WHAT YOU ASKED FOR....HERE HAVE DANCE LESSON HEADCANONS

Aubrey planned for everything, so she planned that they would need at least two days to recover when they finally got to Spain. The first two days are spent in a combo of sleeping and eating fantastic food and finally being able to spend a full night in bed together instea of sneaking unsuccessfully around Kel’s parents. 

She splurged and got them a private room at their first hostel in Sevilla. It was more expensive, but ultimately so very very worth it. 

But day three is when they start to explore. They finally venture off of the block around their hostel and began to deep dive into the tiny back paths of the city. They meet a nice handful of locals who invite them to breakfast the next morning (Kel’s spanish speaking skills are undeniably useful to them in this moment) 

And that night...that night is the beginning of the wish fulfillment she’s waited for since she was five years old. A flamenco lesson that promises an authentic experience, real outfits, and a party for all involved at the end. Aubrey was frugal with accomodations, but she spared no expense when it came to the experiences. Especially this one. 

Flamenco is traditionally a single dance with one woman, but she asked and Kel is allowed to come if he likes. The instructor in charge recognizes Aubrey from her call, and drags Kel over to where another man sits with a guitar. He and the man begin to converse in Spanish, and Kel seems to be rapidly making plans. He’s fine with only watching for tonight, this is her dream

Aubrey is thrust into a room with a bunch of other tourists, even a few from her own state, and a gaggle of women who work at the studio. They show her a row of gorgeous traditional dresses, an overwhelming rainbow of frills and explosions of color. 

Aubrey has let her hair go back to it’s natural color by this point, and her long dark locks catch the eye of one of the instructors who pulls her over to a corner of the rack of dresses. The instructor winks at her and pulls out a dress. It’s perfect. 

Kel is also having a fantastic time. He and the guitar player who’s name is Raphael are discussing guitar playing. Raphael wants to teach Kel to play himself so “He can play for his lady when she wants to dance for him again” 

All conversation stops when Aubrey walks out. 

The others are dolled up as well, but Kel only has eyes for his girl. Her dress is black, hugging to her waist and her body. As the ruffles of the dress begin on her arms and her legs, the dress goes from black to a striking bright red. Around her wrists and on her neck is bright gold jewlery, gleaming against her skin. 

Aubrey’s dark hair is wrapped up in a bun with a series of pink to red carnations following the curve of her hair. Her lips are tinged with maroon lipstick. 

Kel is left speechless. Aubrey asks him something and Kel just has to nod and try to catch his breath. The rest of the group giggle at their antics, and Aubrey rolls her eyes at him. She presses a kiss to his cheek, maroon imprint left in its wake, and then she is over with the other girls in front of the instructor. 

Raphael begins to play at the instructors insistence

The dance lesson is fun. Even just watching Kel has fun. Aubrey normally has a hardness in her eyes, a tightness in her shoulders as if she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Within minutes of the instructors careful praise and guidance Aubrey is loose and even giggling. Kel hasn’t heard a sound like that from her since they were children. 

At the end the group performs the dance all together to a raucuous applause form Kel, Raphael, and the instructor. Then they all go to the patio behind the studio which has been decked out in warm golden lanterns with a table of food prepared. 

Raphael begins to play again and the others mingle close to the food. Aubrey takes Kels hand and they go to a separate corner of the dance floor. They don’t dance in any particular way, just holding one another and rocking to the melody. Her hair has begun to come out of it’s tight bun, but her eyes are bright with happiness and she can’t manage to stop smiling

That night under the glow of the lanterns is the night they first say they love each other. It was a given, they already knew it, but those words are saccharine sweet against their lips as Kel holds Aubrey close to him and they spin while the music plays. 

[sleekervae]

Suck It And See [0.3]

A/N: Is anybody actually reading this? I’m finding it hard to tell 🥺

The children were loud and obnoxious, all chattering and boasting about what they'd done on their summer holidays. Jade too was on the bus, sat at the very front seat, alone. All she had to keep her company was her iPod, listening to an emulsion of Radiohead and The Strokes on repeat. The school bus soon pulled into the grand, church-like brick building, seemingly in the process of decay as ivy vines choked out chips of brick and moss was in the process of growing in the cracks. The children all rushed off the bus in a frenzy, passing by the grumpy, grumbling bus driver who sat in his chair with a slump.

Jade stood up once all the kids had flooded out. She stuffed her iPod and headphones into her bag and passed the grumpy bus driver. He looked sad, and not just because the summer was over. So, being the kind soul she was, Jade gave him a smile.

"Thank you. Have a good day, sir," she said. The driver was surprised at her acknowledgement, not many children took the time to talk to him. He smiled back at her and his entire face seemed too light up in a different ray.

"Yeh're very welcome, miss," he said.

Jade hopped off the bus and looked up at the harrowing, looming brick building. The fairgrounds were littered with boistering and bouncing kids ranging between the ages of 12-17, none of them paid much attention to Jade as she walked towards the door. She quickly spotted Oliver standing at the fence, smoking up with his lacrosse mates. He met Jade's eyes and gave her a warm smile and a wave. Jade waved back shyly.

The bell rang and the children flooded into the school halls. Jade kept her eyes focused on the class itinerary that was given to her by the administration. She was trying to find her homeroom. It wasn't as though the school made it easy for her, many of the numbers on the door had been scratched out and faded with age. As she had her head down, she was not paying attention to where she was going, and she suddenly collided into another body.

"Hey!" Jade jumped back in surprise and embarrassment, her cheeks heated up when she realised what she had done. Another young girl, probably about her age, was glaring at her. She tossed her jet-black hair behind her shoulder with an aggravated huff.

"Yeh wanna watch where yeh're going, mate?" She said to her. Jade put her hands up and backed away slowly.

"My bad," she said. The other student was struck by Jade's accent, she clearly wasn't from around here, "I'm just tryna find room..." Jade had another glance at her paper, "A44,"

The other student's glare softened suddenly, and she started to relax, "Well as it 'appens, tha's my 'omeroom. Yeh can come wif me, yeah?" She said.

Jade nodded quickly as the girl started down the hall, "yeah," she followed closely behind her, her toes smashed together in the tight tip of her polished black Mary Janes. The other student took notice of her chunky, strappy shoes and hummed.

"I like yehr shoes," she said.

"Thanks," Jade replied shyly, "Erm... I'm Jade, by the way,"

"Sasha," the girl said, she then took another hard look at Jade, "Why'd yehr folks name yeh Jade? Yehr eyes aren't green,"

Jade shrugged back, "I dunno. Never bothered to ask," she said.

Sasha lead Jade through the ocean of bustling kids until they came to the door marked A44. Sasha marched in without hesitation, but Jade was weary as she set foot on the freshly polished tile. The room was full of young tenth years, none of them paid attention was they settled in. Some were talking loudly, others were making origami planes and throwing them at each other. It was just Jade's luck that Flora was in her homeroom class. Her cousin was sat in the back row with another bunch of girls, talking quietly amongst each other. As Flora saw Jade, she immediately stopped talking and turned her friends attention towards her cousin. Jade felt very self conscious as they stared her down.

She went to grab the seat next to Sasha, but another student suddenly grabbed their backpack and dropped it onto the open seat, stopping Jade cold in her tracks. She looked up at the other student with dismay; she was a pudgier girl with curly, frizzy brown hair and fat fingers. Jade couldn't take her eyes away from the snaggle tooth incisor that peaked out from under her top lip, like some sort of ugly dog. She had a mean glare that would make a bull mastiff jump out of its skin. Jade was beginning to get annoyed with this town's cold demeanor towards her.

"You mind if I sit there?" She asked the pudgier girl. She stuck her nose up in the air and scoffed back.

"I'm using it, yeh see. Go sit at the front wif then other losers," she barked back.

Jade turned her head to the front row of desks. There were only three boys sitting at the front, talking amongst themselves and not paying attention to the scuffle behind them. Jade's irritation reached a new peak as she turned back to the other girl. Without a word, she grabbed the ugly green and red backpack and dropped it back onto the floor with a loud thud. The noise was loud enough to jolt everyone's attention towards her, including Flora's. Including the boys at the front row. Sasha just watched the mousy brunette with surprise, and a smug smirk made it way to her face as Jade glared down at the other girl.

"Looks like the seat's opened up, love," she said. The girl was at a loss for words as Jade took her seat and waited patiently for the teacher to walk in. Sasha chuckled under her breath.

Meanwhile, one of the boys at the front, Alex, small and lanky he was, couldn't tear his eyes off the new girl. He and his mates were taken by surprise at her actions towards Missy Calders, one of the meanest girls in school. The boy next to him, Matt, couldn't help but chuckle as well.

"I've never seen the snaggle tooth 'anging open like tha'," he whispered to him. Alex couldn't wipe the excited grin off his face neither, he had to admit that that was awesome.

And just like that, the teacher walked in, and class had begun...

➿➿➿

A full day of orientation had quickly become exhausting for Jade. It mostly consisted of introducing herself to students over and over again, and constantly being asked where her Geordie accent came from. Luckily, Jade had Sasha in most of her classes for the day, she stuck close by her side as the day passed. Sasha turned out not to be as terrifying as Jade initially thought, she was sweet really, a bit of an outsider from the rest of the grade. Jade could tell from the way she carried herself with such pride how she didn't give a damn what other people thought of her. Jade wished she too could do that just as easily.

Being the new girl in school was tough, especially in the cafeteria. Even just standing in the line for the hot bar, she found herself getting the most obscene looks from other students. Did she attract some sort of weird attention to herself? Was it just her accent that threw others off? She wished she could find Sasha in the crowd of students, she had brought her own lunch instead. Smart her, she didn't have to wait in line.

In her lunch tray was a plain looking slice of pepperoni pizza, an apple, and a juice box. She wasn't hungry, but she knew her mother would urge her to eat anyhow. She missed her mum, desperately. She had tried to phone home last night, but alas, there was no answer. Her mum was probably fast asleep, and her father was probably with his new girlfriend. Neither of them bothering to think of Jade.

"Oi! Helders, you dumb fuck!"

Jade suddenly jumped when she heard a loud slam from behind her. Everyone's heads in the cafeteria turned towards the commotion, finding a large, gruff-looking behemoth of a boy grabbing a younger kid by the lapels of his school blazer. He was one of the boys that had been sitting in Jade's homeroom this morning. He was a bit larger as well, with a head of curly hair and a bad case of acne, but his snarling face was mean enough to match his pursuer.

"Wha's yehr problem, Luke?" He spat in the older boy's face. Luke pulled the younger boy closer to get in his face, seething red.

"I know yeh was the one 'ho wrote about me ma in the loo!" He snarled.

"Yeah? And wha's it to yeh?" The boy replied with defiance. Suddenly, a smaller, lankier boy came running up behind Luke and made a gab from his friend.

"Matt didn't mean it, Luke. 'E were just funnin'," he said.

"Fuck off, Al!" Matt replied, "I meant wha I said and I stand by it. Yehr ma takes strange cock in alley, Fat'ead!"

Jade couldn't believe what was unfolding before her. Where were the bloody teachers to stop this abuse? The students weren't much help either, they all cheered Luke on to meet on Matt some more. She watched in disbelief as Luke grabbed this Matt fool and in a fluid motion, pinned his head down into a random plate of mashed potatoes. The kid whom it belonged didn't dare protest, he just simply got up and ran off before he could get caught in the crossfire. Then the smaller boy, "Al" if she heard correctly, tried to pull Luke off his friend with no results.

"Let him go, yeh big bully!" He shouted at him. Luke shoved him off with ease, "Stay out of this, yeh little pip squeak!" then pulled Matt's head up out of the mash. It was then something sparked within Jade, some form of anger that she had been hanging on to finally bubbled over and snapped. She took the food items off her lunch tray, set them down, and went up behind the giant student without his noticing.

"Listen wisecrack," Luke growled at him, "You and Kermit the Frog over 'ere," he nodded towards the smaller boy, "Are gonna take fookin paint and cover tha' shit up. Then yeh're gonna take a pen and write 'I cream myself in me sleep' over it, and fookin' sign it!"

Matt spat some of the mash out of his mouth and rubbed his eyes, glaring angrily at the older boy, "And if I don't, what'll yeh do? Put me face in the fava beans instead?" He roared.

"Nah. I'm gonna take this tray 'ere," he picked up a lunch tray like Jade's, "And I'm gonna beat yehr arse wif it,"

Jade stood behind the large student, she was too short for him to notice her, unfortunately for him. She slowly raised the tray over her head, "You mean like this?"

With a hard swing, she nailed the big bully over his head and sent him flying into another table. He landed on his back on the open surface of the table, colliding into trays of pizza and pastas, staining his clothes and hair. Everybody stared at Jade with shock, unable to believe that this new little mouse had single-handedly taken down one of the biggest bullies in school.

Matt's jaw had seemed to hit the floor, and Al stood behind Jade with wide, illuminated eyes. He paled as though he had seen a ghost, he couldn't believe then might that had come from this small girl.

"Tha' was awesome," he said to her. Jade turned to him, having it now dawn on her what she'd just done. She was slightly embarrassed, but at the same time, it felt great to let off some steam. For the first time that day, Jade started to smile.

"Thanks,"

[artificialqueens]

Galactica, Chapter 44 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter:  Sutan gave Violet a token of his affection.

This Chapter: Violet works her ass off, Pearl feels restless, Courtney takes action, and Bianca has a surprising encounter.

***

Trixie smiled to himself as he walked around the floor, watching his designers all work on their various bits. They were still only getting into gear, the prêt-à-porter part of the collection now in the hands of tailoring and Bendela. Jovan and Blu were the designers who oversaw that process, the rest of them now focused completely on the runway show.

Trixie had sent out an email to everyone that Monday, outlining the timeline for the couture concepts. Couture was a lot more difficult to plan, since those outfits were typically made in the design department by the same designer from start to finish. It wasn’t haute couture, which meant they still used machines, but it took time to make the elaborate gowns and high detailed pieces Trixie knew Raja and Fame expected them to deliver.

“Hey boss.” Trixie turned to look at Gia, the woman smiling at him. “Can you take a look at these?”

“Of course,” Trixie walked over to Gia’s station, the concepts for their custom-made jewelry all laid out on her desk. They had started to get the first samples from the jewelers they used, Fame insisting that Galactica didn’t use anyone else's designs unless they absolutely had to.

“I like this,” Trixie took the small dangling earrings Gia had handed him. “But I think this,” Trixie pointed at a necklace, “needs to be redone. The chain looks too flimsy.”

Gia nodded, noting it down. Trixie knew Bob was taking care of the shoes, their first samples of the heels Fame wanted arriving in the upcoming weeks.

“Good job,” Trixie smiled, squeezing Gia’s shoulder before he walked away and over towards Violet’s table.

He liked having Violet on his team, the woman clearly more than ready to do the work, but they were still finding each other. Trixie was actually a little sad that Violet’s wasn’t confiding in him yet, that it seemed like she believed that they weren’t on the same team and that he wasn’t there to help her, which Trixie believed to be the most crucial part of his job.

If his designers failed, he failed, and with them the company.

Violet had built what seemed like a little fort of fabric rolls, the sewing table that was attached to her desk piled high with shades of ivory and cream, boxes of golden beads stacked on top of each other.

Violet was leaning over her desk, gigantic headphones over her ears, a miniature embroidery frame placed on it. Trixie watched for a minute, Violet’s clever fingers sewing rectangle beads in long lines on what seemed to be the base structure of a bodice.

She didn’t acknowledge him, whatever music she was listening to drowning him out, and Trixie wasn’t going to interrupt her flow, excitement curling in his belly at whatever Violet was going to pull out.

***

Violet finished the row she was working on, her fingertips raw and red from the intricate work she was doing.

She realized that her back was aching, and as she stood up to stretch it out, her shoulder radiating a moment of pain, her eyes fell on the gigantic clock above the design floor door, time a little past 6.

Huh.

She hadn’t noticed that it had gotten so late, since none of her coworkers had left. Violet looked around, her headphones still over her ears. Normally, the floor would be deserted by now, but instead, she saw Max surrounded by parchment paper and rulers. Alexis was draping a gorgeous golden fabric, Kiara was elbow deep in a structured top, and when she looked over at Jovan, he was bent over a bucket of what had to be dye, the chemical scent reaching her nose now that she was paying attention.

Violet raised her hands above her head, her shoulder aching terribly as she popped her joints. She wasn’t anywhere near done, and didn’t have any reason to go home, but she still needed a break, so she grabbed the glass she had sitting on her desk, making her way towards the breakroom.

Violet kept her headphones on, not really in the mood to talk to anyone, but when she turned the corner, she saw Blu standing by the microwave, the ginger haired woman holding what looked like a cup of ramen, shoveling it into her mouth.

“... Blu?” Violet pulled her headphones off, resting them around her neck.

“Oh!” Blu turned around, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as she swallowed. “Hi.”

“What are you doing?”

“Eating this?” Blu titled her cup of noodles. “I know it isn’t the most glamorous meal-”

“No, I mean-” Violet didn’t know how to phrase it without sounding like a bitch. “You’re usually the first one to leave.”

“Ha!” Blu laughed, putting her food down and leaning against the break room counter. “I am, aren’t I?” Blu smiled. “When we’re not on crunch, we all rush out of here like rats trying to have a semblance of a normal life.”

“Ah…” Violet nodded her head. “That makes sense.”

Violet had thought her new coworkers were just a little lazy, that they didn’t want to work, but it seemed like they were simply sprinters, while she had always seen herself as more of a marathon runner.

“I’ll go back to happy hour as soon as I get the chance, but for now, I’m eating ramen for dinner. Like a champion.” She flashed a bright smile, drinking the rest of the broth and chucking the container into the trash can across the room, lifting up her hands in a victory motion. “Back to the grindstone!”

***

Pearl rested her chin in her hands, watching Adore dig into a pile of Buffalo wings in the hipster gastropub where they’d chosen to have dinner. The first time she watched Adore eat with all the grace and dignity of a 12 year old boy, she’d found it cute. Charming, even. But now, suddenly, it just seemed gross.

She pushed her own plate away, her food barely touched, sighing slightly as she twirled a piece of hair around her finger.

“You okay, baby?” Adore asked, wiping at her face with the back of her hand, which only spread the hot sauce around.

“Uh...yeah. I’m alright.” Pearl smiled, knowing that Katya would tear her a new one if she let her bad mood explode all over Adore. “Just not very hungry.”

“Aww, I’m sorry.” Adore reached out, plucking a steak fry from Pearl’s plate. “Wanna wrap this shit up and take it to go?”

“Nah, that’s okay. You enjoy,” said Pearl.

“Everything okay here?”

A delicate hand slid a stack of napkins onto the table. Pearl looked up to meet the eyes of their waitress, a petite girl with dark eyes, honey-blonde hair gathered in a ponytail, one strap of her tank top sliding tantalizingly down her tanned shoulder. The nametag resting above her perky tits read “Abby.”

“Thanks,” Pearl said, gesturing to the much-needed napkins, and Abby winked at her.

“Is there anything you need?” Abby asked, eyes raking over Pearl’s body in a way that made her shiver. “Another round, maybe?”

“Yeah...I could go for another round,” Pearl said slowly. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, making sure to show off the low cut top she had worn under her leather jacket, her wrist flexing.

“Coming right up…”

Pearl watched as she sauntered away, wondering how much of the swinging hips were for her benefit, when Abby tossed a glance back over her shoulder, giving Pearl a tiny, secret grin before turning to the bartender.

Adore cleared her throat, and Pearl snapped back to attention.

Right.

Date. Adore. Best behavior.

Got it.

“You know, I’m really psyched that you’re coming to Thanksgiving. I think it’ll be good for Bianca to get to know you better. So she can see what a great person you are for herself,” Adore flashed a hopeful smile that suddenly made Pearl feel sick with guilt.

Why couldn’t she just commit to this awesome girl and stop being such an asshole?

“Yeah, no, that’ll be cool.”

“Totally,” Adore smiled.

Pearl polished off the last of her beer, watching as Adore dipped one of her wings into the blue cheese dressing, nose wrinkling just slightly as the chunky white sauce dripped off the hot wing on the way to her mouth.

“Um, I need to go use the restroom,” Pearl said, sliding off her stool.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Adore asked, concerned.

“Yeah. I’ll be right back.”

Pearl steeled her nerves before heading to the bathrooms, just as Abby approached their table with a glass of beer on a tray.

“And where are you running off to?” she asked coyly, fluttering her lashes.

“Bathroom… Is that okay with you?”

Abby giggled. “I’ll try not to miss you too much.”

Pearl laughed, shaking her head as she continued on her way.

***

“Hey Pearl?” Adore asked, pulling her bomber jacket tighter around herself, the November chill an unhappy reminder that winter was around the corner. They were walking home from dinner, and Adore couldn’t stop thinking about that waitress.

It wasn’t like Pearl had done anything wrong--just a bit of light, harmless flirting. Two weeks ago, she’d probably barely even have noticed. But ever since that conversation they’d had about being open, Adore found herself on high alert, mind racing every time her girlfriend so much as glanced at someone else. Which was a lot.

“Yeah?”

“Are you sleeping with anyone else?”

“You mean like tonight?” Pearl joked, and Adore forced out a strained laugh.

“I’m serious.”

“Not at the moment, no.”

“Then why-” Adore paused, unsure of how this conversation should go. “Why not just…try being monogamous?” Adore felt horribly exposed, and even a little scared, but she wanted this to work, wanted them to work. “I mean I know I don’t want anyone else, so…”

“I like the idea of being able to be spontaneous. Without it being like, a big thing,” Pearl explained, shrugging her shoulders. “I mean, I think you’re great. But sometimes…It’s like no matter how great pizza is, sometimes you want a burger. You know?”

“Please.” Adore scoffed, adding an eye roll for good measure.

“Adore-”

“You mean burgers like the waitress tonight? Is she the thing you’re suddenly hungry for?” Adore demanded.

“Will you please chill?” Pearl looked genuinely uncomfortable, the expression one Adore had never seen on her girlfriend’s face before. “There are people around.”

“It’s New York, nobody gives a FUCK!” Adore yelled the last word for good measure, no one turning around, which proved her point. “Answer the question!”

“You’re acting like a child,” Pearl said calmly, and if Adore wasn’t mad before (she was), now she was absolutely fucking furious.

“I am asking a very simple question! Was our waitress tonight the type of girl you like to fuck? Or, I’m sorry, was she the burger you’re craving?”

“Yes! Yes, she was. Does that make you happy?” Pearl asked, stopping and turning to Adore, one hand on her hip.

“Yeah, I’m thrilled. Can’t you tell?” Adore sniffled, trying to hold back the tears pricking her eyes.

“I can’t talk to you when you’re acting like this,” Pearl said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone.

“Fine! Then maybe I’ll just go home by myself tonight!”

“Fine.”

“Fuck you, Pearl!” Adore turned and stomped down the street, back in the direction of the subway, hands stuffed into her pockets, finally letting the tears stream down her cheeks.

***

“Lovely eyes,”

Violet looked up, the expression on Sutan’s face telling her that this wasn’t the first time he had said her name. She was sitting in bed, back resting against the headboard, doing her very best to distract herself from the wrapped ice cubes she was holding in her right hand.

Not that her phone or the puzzle game Katya had suggested she tried ages ago actually helped.

Her fingers stung, but not as badly as her feet had in the ice baths she used to endure as a professional ballet dancer, those sometimes so painful she had cried and had to be held, Milk whispering into her hair that everything would be okay.

“Yes?”

She had stayed at work until past 8, actually expecting to go home and crash, dinner completely forgotten, when she had fished her phone out of her bag, a text from Sutan asking if she wanted to come over.

Violet had been exhausted, getting everything ready for her presentation in the morning leaving her completely drained, but she liked spending time with Sutan, and even if she was never going to spend the money herself, she loved the thread count of his sheets, his bed a guarantee of a good night’s sleep.

The fact that Sutan chest had quickly become her favorite place to dose off not something she’d be willing to admit unless she was being tortured.

“Do you need more ice?” Sutan smiled, looking out at her. He was hanging up his shirts, the dry cleaners bag on the door to his walk in closet. Violet knew Sutan had a housekeeper, but he apparently preferred to handle his closet himself, which Violet guessed she understood. “I still can’t believe you’d-”

“I’m fine.” Violet cut him off, moving off the bed so she could stand up. It was sweet that Sutan worried, actually, really sweet, but Violet knew her body, and most importantly, she knew her body's boundaries, and this, this wasn’t anywhere close. “I am.”

Violet had slaved away all day, Fame and Raja making their judgement calls on who got accepted for the couture line and who didn’t tomorrow, and if Violet’s fingers had to bleed for her gown to be accepted, that was a price she was more than willing to pay.

She walked over to Sutan, stepping into his space, the block of ice still in her hand as she got on her toes, pressing a kiss against his lips.

“I promise.”

***

Pearl closed the door to her room with her foot, her body warm and relaxed, her hands drying her hair with her towel.

She had taken a shower as soon as she had gotten home, the annoyance at how Adore acted crawling under her skin. Pearl threw herself down on her bed, picking her phone up from where she had left it earlier that evening.

“Huh…” Pearl bit her lip. She had expected to see several calls from Adore, or at least a text, but there was nothing, her phone devoid of any notifications from the other woman.

Pearl rolled over, lying on her back and looking up at the ceiling, her stomach uncomfortable with the sensation that she had probably hurt Adore, the expression on her face when they had broken apart painful to look at.

Pearl sighed, tapping her fingers against her stomach. It was a new sensation for her to be unsure, but if there was one thing she knew, it was that Pearl Liaison never texted first.

***

“And you better make it quick!”

Fame watched as Courtney left her office, the blonde closing the door behind her, leaving her and Raja alone. It had taken the majority of the afternoon, but they had finally finished the selection of the looks that entered the final running towards the opening and closing spots.

Fame loved the couture presentations, the designers really showcasing their enthusiasm and personalities since they only had half finished products to present. She liked being able to touch, to see the delicate dreams and the decadence that was a signature of couture.

“Tea?”

Fame already knew that Raja would say yes, the pot on her desk one Ivy had brought over when the redhead had found out that they would be staying at Fame’s.

“Hold the sugar please.”

Fame smiled, grabbing two of the jade green teacups Ivy had brought along too, quickly pouring them both a cup. It wasn’t often that she took the time to just relax at work, that she took time to simply sit with Raja.

“Mmh,” Raja inhaled, the orange blossoms creating the most delicious fragrance.

“Mmh indeed,” Fame chuckled, taking her first sip of the hot tea, allowing herself to sit back on the ivory couch.

“So, we sent the list off.” Raja looked at her. “How are you feeling about the direction right now? You’re not going to decide that you hate cream and ivory on February 2nd, are you?”

“Uh! How dare you,” Fame huffed, actually feeling a little offended. “That was one time.”

“One time too many.”

If anyone but Raja had said it, Fame would have punished them severely, but as it stood, Raja was one of the few people in her life who could get away with openly criticizing her.

“I’m an old woman, Famie.” Raja smirked. “My heart can’t take the pressure.”

“Please,” Fame rolled her eyes. “Don’t take that attitude with me.”

“Someone has to keep you in check, darling.”

“I don’t need to be kept in check.” Fame had to keep from rolling her eyes again, Raja toeing the line of what was acceptable. “If anything, I need support right now.”

“Hmm?” Raja raised an eyebrow, her cup at her lips.

“We’re celebrating Thanksgiving with Patrick’s family, and his mother always wreaks havoc on my skin,” Fame groaned. Patrick’s family was coming to New York, his two sisters and brother all showing up with brats and partners in tow. “I swear, every year it’s the same. If we wanted to have kids, we would have had them by now.”

***

It just wasn’t fair, Aiden thought, staring at his rejected prototypes. He had killed himself all week to come up with 4 different couture concepts for the opening and closing looks, and all of them had been shot down.

This morning, they’d presented their designs to Fame and Raja, each of the designers getting less than a minute to pitch based on sketches, samples, and preliminary construction and then the upstairs bosses had spent all afternoon discussing them, an email sent to the whole design team announcing the finalists a little before 5 pm.

Which was why Aiden was the only one still there at 7, the disappointment of not being included taking over an hour to really settle in. To transform into anger at the utter unfairness of it all. He rose from his desk, wandering over to Alexis’ desk, where 3 dress forms were standing, all of them in looks that made it through. He supposed, though, that was pretty standard, Alexis being one of the most experienced designers there who’d been at Galactica almost as long as Trixie, her specialty being draping the kind of elegant gowns that Fame went gaga over.

No, he wasn’t mad about Alexis.

But Violet...how could that girl catch every single break since the second she walked through the doors? He glared at her muslin prototype, the skirt flaring out, the muslin bodies structured and stuck to the mannequin. On Violet’s table, she had left behind the actual bodice, golden beads sparkling, a portion of the skirt laid out with the intricate pattern. It felt tired and overworked, something he refused to identify burning in his stomach.

Anyone could do beads, anyone could do what Violet did, but unfortunately, he wasn’t in charge, so she continued to get away with it.

Aiden let out a huge sigh, trudging back over to his desk to pack his things.

Another shit week down the drain.

***

After Miss Fame’s comments about her hair, Courtney needed to do something drastic. She knew that Fame’s own salon was a fancy place in SoHo called Jujubee’s, so she’d called to get an appointment. At first, the receptionist told her that there was a 2 month waiting list, but when Courtney name-dropped Miss Fame, sort of accidentally implying that her bossreally wanted to get her in as soon as possible, she’d put her on hold for less than a minute and then informed her that she had an appointment on Saturday with the owner of the salon herself.

Courtney was pretty proud of herself, if a bit intimidated, entering the salon. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting from the owner, but it certainly wasn’t the adorable, friendly woman with a cute little baby bump.

“Hi, you must be Courtney. I’m Juju. What are we doing today?” she said, shaking Courtney’s hand warmly and turning her chair to face the mirror.

“Oh, um...I work for Miss Fame at Galactica, and-”

“Yikes, sorry to hear that,” Jujubee quipped, and Courtney’s eyes widened. “That’s a joke, honey. She’s one of my best friends.”

“Oh. Right.” Courtney laughed nervously. “So, she um...she found out that I was doing my own color and uh-”

“Oy. Okay well…” Juju inspected Courtney’s hair closely. “It doesn’t look too damaged. I think we should fix up your roots, and maybe take down some of the brassy tones in your color, give you a cooler, brighter blonde? That’ll really suit your complexion. And this cut...I’d like to take off a couple of inches, just to make sure we get all of the split ends, maybe some layers in the front...and how do you feel about bangs?”

“I...like bangs.”

“I think they’ll really frame your face nicely.” Juju grinned, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Just relax, we’re gonna take good care of you.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much!”

Pretty soon, Courtney’s nerves disappeared entirely, and she was chatting with Jujubee like they were old friends. She found herself wondering what this down-to-earth, funny, warm person had in common with Fame, and then felt a little bad.

There was obviously a whole side to Fame that Courtney didn’t get to see--she already knew that from Adore. And besides, Bianca was warm and hilarious, and she was also close friends with Miss Fame.

A few hours later, Courtney looked and felt like a brand new person, bouncing from the seat excitedly. That is, until it was time to pay. She’d looked up the prices beforehand, of course. But the cost of an “owner cut” wasn’t listed on the website. She figured it would be a little more than their listed prices, so when the receptionist handed her the bill, she nearly shat out a brick.

Eight hundred and fifty dollars.

Courtney was already planning to split the bill on two cards, but this was insane. Her heart began to pound. What was she supposed to do? It’s not like she could say “oh, forget it”--she already had the whole damn service. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and asked the receptionist in a quiet voice, “Um...can I spread it out on 3 different credit cards?”

The girl rolled her eyes disdainfully, holding out her hand to accept the cards.

“You know,” she said, swiping Courtney’s cards through the reader. “There’s a Supercuts three blocks down. Maybe you should try them next time.”

Less than a minute ago, Courtney had felt like a million bucks, and now she felt like gum being scraped off the bottom of a shoe.

“Are you gonna add a tip?”

A tip? On top of that price? Oh well...she was gonna be paying off this trip to the salon for months anyway, might as well go all in. She took a deep breath, holding her head high.

“Yeah, add another $150 to that purple card,” she said, trying her best to keep her face impassive, put on a haughty air so that the receptionist wouldn’t see how much she was shaking inside. “And thanks for the advice.”

***

Bianca entered the book shop, large sunglasses obscuring most of her face, hair under a silk scarf, trying to be as incognito as possible. She beelined straight for her favorite section, avoiding the few other customers.

Most of the time, Bianca didn’t mind the fame or attention from the paparazzi. After all, it was a sign of her success, and she had nothing to hide--she never left the house with a hair out of place, and she could hold her liquor like a champ. Some days, though, like this one?

All she wanted was to enjoy a lazy Saturday. Pick up some books, treat herself to a nice, simple lunch at the café next door, just be a human instead of a minor celebrity.

She was paging through a Natalie Woods biography when someone interrupted, asking softly, “Bianca?”

Shit. Spotted. She turned around with a sigh, but when she saw the person who’d spoken, her aggravation was instantly replaced with a smile, dimples deep in her cheeks.

“Courtney! Hi!”

She looked like absolute perfection, in a fresh blow-out, hair falling in sexy, beachy waves over her shoulders. Her soft, fuzzy green sweater brought out her beautiful eyes. Bianca found herself amazed at how she managed to look better and better every time they saw each other.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, I know you were probably-”

“No, I’m glad you did.” Bianca offered another smile. “So um, what brings you here? Do you live in this neighborhood?”

“No, I live in the Bronx. But was just over at Jujubee’s getting my hair done-”

“Ahh...well she did a stellar job. She’s a true artist.”

“You think?” Courtney fingered a lock of blonde hair.

“I’d give her more credit, but...she had a pretty good canvas to work on, so…”

Courtney smiled, biting her lip, then asked, “Do you think Miss Fame will approve?”

“Definitely not.”

Courtney’s face fell, for just a moment, brow creasing with worry, until Bianca reached out to touch her arm.

“Fame likes to be the hottest blonde in the room,” Bianca clarified, adding, “So yeah. She’ll hate it.”

They exchanged a small, conspiratorial smile before a pink tinge began to creep into Courtney’s cheeks and she looked away.

“What’ve you got there?” Bianca asked, gesturing to a stack of paperbacks in Courtney’s hands.

“Oh, I’m just...I’m just browsing, really. Killing time for a few hours before I have to go to a class in midtown. But who wants to hang out in midtown?”

Bianca laughed. “And? What kind of books do you like to browse?”

“Um…” Courtney looked a little embarrassed before admitting, “I’m trying to make my way through Oprah’s book club.”

“A worthy intellectual goal,” Bianca chuckled.

“Yeah, well. I’m on a spending embargo after the salon, so I’m probably just gonna get them from the library instead.”

Bianca held out her basket. “Throw ‘em in.”

“No, no, really, that wasn’t, I mean you don’t have to-”

“Throw them in,” Bianca repeated. “You’ve been putting up with my sister’s shenanigans for years, you deserve a couple of paperbacks. I insist.”

“Thanks.” Courtney carefully placed the books into Bianca’s basket.

“You’re welcome,” Bianca winked, strolling towards the register and placing her basket on the counter.

“You know, Adore puts up with my shenanigans too,” Courtney said. “It’s a very symbiotic relationship.”

Bianca smiled to herself, thinking about how sweet it was that she felt the need to defend Adore from the mildest shade. She handed her card to the clerk and turned back to Courtney.

“I’m sure it is. So uh, listen...I was about to head next door for lunch-”

“Oh, sorry to have kept you-”

“No, um…” Bianca chuckled, feeling awkward as fuck. “No, that’s not what I meant. It’s, um, a cute place. You know, if you’re into the whole healthy, organic, locally-sourced seasonal thing...which I take it you are.”

She gestured to the reusable canvas bag in Courtney’s hands, which she’d pulled from her purse to use rather than the bookstore’s plastic bags.

Realization began to dawn in Courtney’s eyes, a smile tugging at her lips as she said, “Guilty.”

“So, um, since you’re trying to kill time...maybe you want to join me?” Bianca signed the receipt and handed over the books, placing her own into her large shoulder bag, knowing that she’d probably not have refused the plastic bag if she were here on her own. Well, whatever--it was still a win for Mother Nature, right?

“Yeah!” Courtney exclaimed, then seemed to catch herself, adding, “I mean, if that’s what you want...”

“I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

“A straight shooter, eh?”

“So to speak,” Bianca smirked, and Courtney giggled.

“What a true role model,” she professed with a flutter of lashes.

“Always,” Bianca laughed, guiding her next door with a hand on her lower back.

***

[differentnutpeace]

Once On The Brink Of Eradication, Syphilis is Raging Again

In certain circles of San Francisco, a case of syphilis can be as common and casual as catching the flu, to the point where Billy Lemon can't even remember how many times he's had it.  หวย บอล เกมส์ คาสิโนออนไลน์

"Three or four? Five times in my life?" he struggles to recall. "It does not seem like a big deal."

At the time, about a decade ago, Lemon went on frequent methamphetamine binges, kicking his libido into overdrive and silencing the voice in his head that said condoms would be a wise choice at a raging sex party.

"It lowers your inhibitions, and also your decision making abilities are skewed," says Lemon.

He's sober now and runs the Castro Country Club in San Francisco, which is not a resort, but a place where gay men come to get help with addiction, especially meth. Lemon says syphilis comes with the territory.

"In the 12-step community, if meth was your thing, everybody had syphilis," he says.

In 2000, syphilis rates were so low, public health officials believed eradication was on the horizon. But the rates started creeping up in 2001, grew steadily for the next two decades, then spiked 74% since 2015. There were nearly 130,000 cases nationwide in 2019, according to data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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In California and the US, about half of syphilis cases are in men who have sex with men. More than a third of women in the western United States who have syphilis also use meth, a drug that has seen its own surge in recent years.

These are just some of the trends causing overall national cases of sexually transmitted diseases to hit an all-time high for the last six years in a row, reaching 2.5 million. And the consequences are now trickling down to babies who are contracting syphilis from their mothers: these congenital syphilis rates nearly quadrupled between 2012 and 2019.

This was all before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the US, and with contact tracers and testing supplies diverted from STDs to COVID, the CDC is predicting 2020 numbers will be no better.

"We are quite worried about this and have seen this trend over time," says Dr. Erica Pan, California's state epidemiologist. "Unfortunately, with years of not having enough funding and infrastructure in public health, and then in this past year, of course, both at the local and state level, a lot of personnel who had been focusing on STDs and syphilis follow-up have really been redirected to the pandemic."

Billy Lemon is executive director of the Castro Country Club in San Francisco, where gay men can get help with addiction. Lemon says that when it comes to methamphetamine use in particular, syphilis often comes with the territory.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

A number of factors are fueling the syphilis surge

There are many factors that contribute to the rise of STDs, and syphilis in particular.

In the gay community in San Francisco, for example, the rise of mobile dating apps like Grindr and Tinder made finding a date "faster than getting pizza delivered to your home," says Dan Wohlfeiler, an STD prevention specialist and co-founder of Building Healthy Online Communities, which uses these apps to improve gay men's health.

When the dating apps first came on the scene around 2009, they made it harder for disease investigators to track the spread of STDs and notify people who may have been infected, because men don't always know the names of the men they hook up with.

"They sometimes only know their online handle," says Dr. Ina Park, associate professor at UCSF School of Medicine and author of the book Strange Bedfellows, about the history of STDs. "And if the sex didn't go well, then sometimes they will block the person from their app and they don't even know how to reach that person again."

Online dating began back in the late 1990s, which was around the same time effective medications to prevent the transmission of HIV became available: first, antiretrovirals that suppress the virus in those who are HIV positive, and then later, in 2012, pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PreP, which prevents new infections in people who are HIV negative, but considered at-risk for exposure to the virus.

With the risk of contracting a deadly disease falling to almost zero, condoms fell even more out of favor than they already were, says Park.

"If one man is taking PreP and the other one is virally suppressed, there's no HIV risk at all," she says. "So why use condoms if you don't mind having a touch of syphilis?"

Diagnosing syphilis is tricky

While syphilis is not benign – it can cause blindness, deafness, or brain damage – it is easy to treat. Typically, a shot of penicillin in the butt will cure it.

But diagnosing syphilis can be tricky, says Park, who treats patients with STDs at the San Francisco City Clinic. She often finds herself crouched low in the exam room, "lifting up their scrotum and lifting up their penis," craning her head to get a look from all angles.

She does these gymnastics to find rashes associated with syphilis. Some are obvious, others subtle. She says doctors in regular family medicine clinics often aren't trained on where to look, or when.

"The patient came in saying, 'I'm tired,'" Park says, referring to a common symptom of syphilis. "How many people are going to say, 'Take off your pants and lift up your scrotum, I want to look? We only do that at the STD clinic because that's what we do."

But specialized public STD clinics, like the one where Park works, have been shutting down nationwide. One reason is persistent underfunding of public health programs, a trend laid bare during the coronavirus pandemic. Another reason is the Affordable Care Act. In a strange way, the 2010 law intended to expand access to health care actually contributed to the closure of STD clinics.

"Honestly, I think everyone thought they weren't going to be necessary," said Dr. Karen Smith in 2019, when she was the director of the California Department of Public Health. She says once Obamacare was in place, the thought was that STD testing would happen in primary care clinics.

"We sort of all assumed that if you've got health insurance and you've got access to a doctor, that's all that you need," she said. "It turns out that that's not really all that you need."

People still had affairs that they didn't want to talk about with their family doctor. And some family doctors didn't want to probe into their patients' sex lives. Young people, in particular, prefer clinics geared to them, out of their parents' purview.

"That loss of anonymous care really was a problem," Smith said.

The spread of syphilis is reaching newborns, too

When Christian Faulkenberry-Miranda decided to become a pediatrician, she never thought she'd become an expert in syphilis.

In 2010, shortly after finishing her medical training and starting work at the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California, she began seeing babies with a rash on their tummies that looks like a blueberry muffin. At first she thought it was a common viral infection, until these babies tested positive for syphilis.

In those early days, Dr. Faulkenberry-Miranda saw perhaps a few instances of congenital syphilis each year. Now she sees two cases every week. It's important to start the 10-day antibiotic treatment right away, to avoid complications, but she still follows her patients through their first year of life, and often through their childhood, to watch for vision and hearing problems, developmental delays, attention deficits, and learning disabilities, all of which can result from congenital syphilis infections. In 2019, 128 of these congenital syphilis cases resulted in stillbirth or neonatal death.

"The disappointing thing is that syphilis is very treatable," she says. "This is something that's completely preventable, with proper screening and treatment of these moms during pregnancy."

Congenital syphilis cases hit a troubling milestone in 2019, increasing 279% over the previous five years, and hitting a high of cases in the U.S. That is more mother-to-child transmissions of syphilis than there were at the peak of mother-to-child cases of HIV in 1991.

"How could this be happening? Testing is cheap and widely available. The same treatment we've been using since the forties still works," says Dr. Park, who has also seen an increase in congenital syphilis cases in San Francisco. "And yet we have this completely out of control epidemic among the most vulnerable babies in our society."

Many of the women who give birth to babies with syphilis have had no prenatal care. They often use drugs – mainly methamphetamine – and they are often homeless, said Dr. Karen Smith, former director of CDPH. This makes them more likely to trade sex for housing, food, or drugs, prompting Smith to call congenital syphilis a "disease of despair." Drug use, in particular, makes women less likely to recognize that they're pregnant at all, and less likely to seek health care if they do.

"They're very concerned about what's going to happen when they're found to be pregnant and using drugs," said Dr. Smith. "They're concerned that their drug use will be reported and then CPS will be involved and their children will be taken away."

Romni Neiman is a veteran contact tracer with the CDC. Before she got redirected to COVID last year, she was working on STD prevention in California, including the problem of congenital syphilis. Neiman says when she tries to reach pregnant women who may have been exposed to syphilis, it's extremely challenging.

Neiman remembers looking for one woman in the late 80s in Chicago. She used drugs, was pregnant and had been exposed to syphilis. The woman's housing was so unstable, that Neiman went to three different places before finding her. The woman had no car, so Neiman offered to drive her to the clinic to get tested. The woman had no safe place to leave her toddler, because a man in the place she was staying was abusive, so Neiman took care of the child while the woman saw the doctor.

"She was just trying to do the best that she can, and she was really afraid," Neiman remembers. "Sometimes it's really taxing and really sad. And you come home at the end of the day and you're like, 'Wow. Wow.'"

Those challenges, combined with persistent underfunding for public health, is what led to the initial spike in congenital syphilis cases in Fresno County in the 2010s, says Park. Local contact tracers couldn't keep up, and the state had to step in with reinforcements. After leveling off for a couple years, congenital syphilis rates in Fresno spiked 900% in 2018.

The state is taking new measures to address the rates, says state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan, like requiring women to be screened for syphilis twice during pregnancy, instead of just once. And, rather than waiting for women to come in for prenatal care, the state is doing more outreach, and screening pregnant women in the emergency room, and in prisons and jails.

Dr. Pan believes the coronavirus pandemic has created an opportunity to invest in a more nimble response to emerging and re-emerging public health issues, like syphilis and congenital syphilis.

"It's been a really long, hard year responding to this pandemic, but people have really acknowledged and realized the impact of divesting in public health infrastructure," she said. "I hope that a lot of the resources that we hope to bring to bear in the longer term after this pandemic will benefit STDs as well."

[consulting-celiac-in-the-tardis]

47 Gluten Free Healthy Meal Prep Breakfasts for the New Year

New blog post! Are you a sweet or savory breakfast person? I'm constantly switching back in forth, but now that 2020 is in full swing and I'm back to my busy grad school and work schedule, I'm alll about healthy meal prep breakfasts...so I thought it would be a great time to share a ton of gluten free meal prep recipes on the blog! Whether you're looking for a healthy keto recipe, general meal prep ideas or healthy grab and go breakfasts to fit your own busy life, this round up has a recipe that will make eating a nutritious breakfast extra easy this year. Sweet and savory breakfast options galore!

And because I'm so excited to dig into these gluten free breakfast recipes, I'm keeping this intro short. So without further adieu, here are 47 gluten free healthy meal prep breakfasts to make your 2020 extra delicious.

1. Crustless Spinach Cheese Pie (Low Carb) - Low Carb Yum

This simple low carb recipe turns pie into breakfast food.

2. Paleo Blueberry Muffins (Vegan, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free) - A Sweet Alternative

These paleo muffins seriously give the traditional wheat-packed bakery muffins a run for their money.

3. Pepperoni Pizza Frittata (Whole30, Low Carb, Keto) - Cook at Home Mom

Healthy pizza for breakfast = mind (and taste buds) blown.

4. Overnight Quinoa Flakes (Vegan) - Casey the College Celiac

If you're craving a warm porridge but can't tolerate oats, this overnight quinoa flakes breakfast is the perfect alternative. Plus, I include multiple different flavors you can make!

5. Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Energy Balls (Vegan, Refined Sugar Free) - A Baking Journey

Is there any better combo than peanut butter and chocolate?!? I don't think so!

6. Green Dairy Free Egg Bites - Really Are You Serious

Upgrade the typical breakfast egg muffins with spinach and tofu!

7. Chocolate Protein Pancakes (Low Carb, Keto) - Wholesome Yum

First of all, droooool. Secondly, this big batch recipe means you'll have plenty of leftovers to eat later that week or freezer.

8. Skinny Mini Mexican Frittatas - Jersey Girl Cooks

Sweet peppers, hot sauce and Mexican cheese give these frittatas some extra kick.

9. Homemade and Healthy Nuts and Seeds Instant Breakfast Mix (Dairy Free Option) - Original Homesteading

Just add water to this nuts and seeds mix for a crunchy breakfast full of plant-based protein.

10. Keto Breakfast Casserole (Low Carb) - Sorey Fitness

This healthy keto breakfast can be whipped up in just 30 minutes, and is packed with ground cheese, sausage, eggs and jalapenos.

11. Easy Vegan Breakfast: Superfood Stone Fruit Rawnola - Stacey Homemaker

Whip up this vegan granola on Sunday so you have a yummy, nutrition-packed breakfast all week long.

12. Breakfast Meal Prep Blueberry Turkey Breakfast Sausage & Roasted Veggies (Dairy Free, Egg Free, Paleo) - Hungry Hobby

I've never eaten blueberries and turkey together before, but this breakfast bowl makes me want to try.

13. Spiced Apple Granola (Vegan) - Recipes From a Pantry

Make your kitchen smell like apple pie season all year round with this vegan granola recipe.

14. Breakfast Chia Seed Pudding, Two Ways (Vegan) - Lathi's Kitchen

Strawberry or mango puree makes these chia seed puddings super fruity and flavorful.

15. How to Bake Eggs in an Oven Tin in the Oven (Dairy Free, Soy Free) - Key to My Lime

Once you try baking eggs in the oven, you'll never go back.

16. Roasted Vegetable Sheet Pan Omelette (Vegetarian) - The Recipe Well

An omelet that you don't have to flip?!? Sold!

17. Super Clumpy Summer Squash Granola (Vegan, Oil Free, Sugar Free) - Casey the College Celiac

Pair this gluten free granola with your favorite yogurt or eat it like cereal with milk.

18. Tortitas de Berro, or Easy Guatemalan Watercress Fritters (Vegetarian) - A Taste for Travel

Popular in Guatemala and El Salvador, you can think of these as bite-sized omelettes packed with good-for-you ingredients.

19. One Bowl Blueberry Oat Flour Waffles - Flavor the Moments

Make your own freezer waffles at home with this easy one-bowl recipe. Just make sure you use gluten free oats to grind into flour. 

20. Cinnamon Swirl Protein Muffins (Keto) - The Helpful GF

I was sold at "cinnamon swirl"...

21. Roasted Tomato, Kale and Goat Cheese Frittata (Vegetarian) - Hot Pan Kitchen

If you've been looking for an easy cast iron skillet recipe, this frittata breakfast is a winner.

22. Easy Chia Seed Pudding Recipe (Vegetarian, Vegan Options) - Two Healthy Kitchens

If you're looking for an extensive guide to meal prepping chia seed pudding, Shelley has you covered with this post.

23. Southwest Tofu Breakfast Bowls (Vegan) - The Fitchen

I'm not even a huge fan of tofu, but this meal prep breakfast still has me drooling!

24. Banana Snacking Cake - Best of This Life

Banana and applesauce combine to make an extra moist gluten free cake that's healthy enough to eat for breakfast or a snack!

25. Sweet Potato Smoothie Bowl (Paleo, Vegan, Nut-Free, Whole-30 Option) - Paleo Gluten-Free Guy

This gluten free and paleo smoothie bowl will keep in the fridge for up to five days, and you'll love how thick and creamy it is.

26. Coconut Chia Pudding (Vegan, Low Carb) - Pepper Bowl

No cooking necessary for this vegan breakfast. Just throw the ingredients together and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

27. Maple Pecan Granola (Refined Sugar Free) - Zestful Kitchen

No gluten or refined sugar needed to meal prep this epic granola.

28. Chickpea Savory Muffins - Mind Body and Spirit Wellbeing

Who knew that chickpea flour could taste so good?

29. Crockpot Fiesta Breakfast Casserole (Paleo and Whole 30 Options) - Pink Fortitude

And if you really want to meal prep ahead of time, you can even freeze this paleo breakfast casserole for future breakfasting!

30. Cozy Cacao Oatless Zoats (Vegan) - Casey the College Celiac

If you want to make a gluten free porridge breakfast while also sneaking in some extra veggies, zoats need to land on your weekly menu ASAP.

31. Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole - Leelalicious

No one will complain about eating this gluten free casserole several mornings in a row!

32. Skinny Strawberry Shortcake Bites Recipe (Vegan) - Bake Me Some Sugar

These shortcake bites are as tasty for a snack or dessert as they are for breakfast.

33. Instant Pot Egg Bites (Keto, Low Carb) - Tasty Galaxy

Using the instant pot makes this healthy keto breakfast insanely quick and easy.

34. Cinnamon Roll Overnight Oatmeal - Pinch of Wellness

Cinnamon roll in oatmeal form? You know that caught my taste buds' attention!

35. Blueberry French Toast Casserole (Dairy Free Option) - This Mama Cooks 

Use your favorite gluten free bread, and you'll never want to eat plain toast for breakfast ever again!

36. Easy Egg Muffin Cups - Fearless Dining

There's no easier - or tastier - healthy grab and go breakfasts than these egg muffins!

37. Tropical Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats (Dairy-Free, Vegan) - Clean Eating Kitchen

Send your taste buds on a tropic vacation with this gluten free oatmeal recipe featuring papaya and coconut cream.

38. Banana Cinnamon Breakfast Muffins (Vegan, Paleo, Refined Sugar Free) - Emma Eats and Explores

Because banana and cinnamon are always a pair made for culinary heaven.

39. Creamy Spirulina Chia Seed Pudding (Vegan) - Casey the College Celiac

Put this chia seed pudding in the blender for a super thick and creamy vegan breakfast that's full of fiber and plant based protein.

40. Western Omelet Egg Scramble with Cheese Sauce - Sweet Peas Kitchen

Who knew you could freeze egg scrambles? The cheese sauce also takes this breakfast to the next level.

41. Dairy Free Waffles - Eating on A Dime

You only need six simple ingredients to make and freeze these dairy free waffles for super easy (and yummy) future breakfasts.

42. Healthy Blueberry Breakfast Bars (Vegan, Peanut Free, Nut Free) - Allergy Yummy

You won't believe you only need three ingredients to whip up these super gooey, chewy bars.

43. Cheesy Spinach Mini Frittatas Recipe - Urban Bliss Life

These easy egg muffins are the ultimate healthy grab and go breakfast option for busy mornings.

44. Vanilla Chia Pudding (Vegan) - Debra Klein

You only need fifteen minutes and four ingredients to make this creamy vegan breakfast.

45. Triple Berry "Whole Grain" Gluten Free Muffins (Vegan, Oil Free) - Casey the College Celiac

'Cause there's muffin better to start the day with! ;)

46. Instant Pot Egg Bites (Keto, Low Carb) - Tasty Galaxy

The instant pot makes cooking a healthy keto breakfast extra easy and quick.

47. Healthy Pumpkin Bread - Claudia Canu

This gluten free pumpkin bread proves that pumpkin is delicious year-round, especially when baked in a naturally sweetened treat like this one.

Happy 2020!

Regardless of where 2020 is taking you so far, I hope that these meal prep breakfasts will give you the tasty fuel you need to kick life's booty! And if you need even more gluten free breakfast inspiration, check out my previous roundup: 49 Healthy Gluten Free Breakfasts For the New Year. Which of these breakfast recipes do you want to try first? Are you a sweet or savory breakfast person? Tell me in the comments! via Blogger https://ift.tt/2T7MhKK

[cmarionthewilkid-blog]

C.O.N.S.U.M.E.D

What happens when we consume more than we need? What happens when our choices are influenced by societal pressures of how things should be? Part 1 of my reflective journal will aim to provide a glimpse at two weeks of a working mom, head of a house of five, who also coincidentally adds event planner often to her job tasks. 

Day 1: I specifically started my consumption journal on Friday, October 25. The day before a large case competition I was hosting on campus. Day 1 starts like most every other day of my life. The 20 minute drive to daycare, followed by the usual ice cap pit stop at Tim Horton’s. This day is special though, with the pressures of ensuring everything was just right for our judges and sponsors. I stroll off to Ferme Beaulieu to spend $328 on gifts. I am thinking that at least I am buying local products (honey, herbs, ketchup aux fruits) and feel pretty great about that. But why do I feel obliged to buy gifts at all? Wouldn’t a sincere thank you be enough? I guess according to Jonathan Porritt (2011), I have fallen victim to consumerism at its best. Somehow, I feel OK about it though. 

 A quick stop at Dollarama for gift bags, disposable coffee cups (cringe!), and plastic plastic trays. Finally, a $148 trip to Provigo for snacks for the case competitors and coaches. Oops, did I mention the trip to the t-shirt printer to pick up the 60 red printed competition momentos. Let’s add the 250+ pages I printed that day! As I sit here and reflect on the necessities (needs) of running a case competition versus expectations (and wants), I come to the realization that most of what I have purchased is simply there to enhance image. 

Day 2 (October 26): Tim’s ice cap (check!). 60 Donuts, 60 pre-packed lunches, 24 cans of Perrier, 60 cans of soft drinks, 40 coffees in disposable cups, 100 plastic glasses of wine. Today, I am completely influenced by materialism and keeping the “image”. Let’s keep in mind that I work for a business school and that comes with some rather large assumptions around how things are supposed to look and be. Not to mention, I am hosting five people from the company who is sponsoring the event, so I need to keep them happy and ensure the event lives up to their expectations. I am reminded of Amitai Etzioni, (2012) and his sentiments about “keeping up with the Jones’”. It is true, when one party sets a certain expectation, we all rise to meet, or better, exceed them.

Today; however, my biggest disappointment was food waste. The boxed lunches were good, but about 25% of people didn’t eat all their meal. Almost 100% of the people didn’t eat the dessert included. We don’t have access to compost, so it went to the trash. Above the clear environmental impact of my event, I am reminded of the fact that one fifth of the world’s richest people consume 45% of all the meat and fish (Shah, 2014). Despite the company providing compostable cutlery and cups, I feel guilty that I sent so many things to the landfill today. To top it all off, Sodexo served a less than stellar menu at the Gala dinner (veal sous-vide). I swear I wanted to eat it, but alas, two bites in and I am done. More to the trash. Exhausted and mentally drained, I wonder to myself where the balance between convenience and waste needs to come into play. Why can’t we have compost stations on campus?

Day 3 (October 27): But first, my ice cap! A friend’s child’s birthday party today so I scramble to get things together. I run to Provigo to grab stuff for mini pizzas to share (forgot my grocery bags, so plastic it is). My friend insisted on no gifts at the party, which I wanted to accept, but quite frankly couldn’t. I’m glad I didn’t because apparently no one else respected it either. I think about this social obligation more deeply (Goodwin, Smith, & Spiggle, 1990). I try my best to make a compromise, we opt for a movie day among friends instead of a traditional gift. I am hoping this small intrinsically motivated action may decrease future landfill waste in the future. Nonetheless, we are filled with waxed juice cups and plates. Back to the Provigo to grab something for the family for supper. I grab peppers in a plastic bag, sausages in a styrofoam package, pasta sauce in a glass bottle, cheese in plastic packaging and pasta in a cardboard box. Nothing much to compost or recycle unfortunately. 

Day 4 (October 28): Monday and back to work. Ice cap, yup! I am starting to get quite the collection in my office recycling bin. My boss just commented on it. I guess it is a bit of an eye sore..haha! 

Two trips to Provigo today. One at lunch to grab George’s bread, deli ham, Coaticook cheese, carrots and dip. Next stop on the way home from work for supper, chicken, baby potatoes and stuffing. 

Day 5 (October 29): If you haven’t guessed by now, ice cap time! Today, my brother (who lives with us) did a fridge clean up. Sigh! I can’t believe how much stuff we threw away. Past date, wilted vegetables, moldy fruits. Why don’t I just throw money directly into the garbage can? Is it normal that the first thing I think about is wasted money? According to a study  by Graham-Rowe, Jessop, and Sparks (2014),  wasting money is indeed a major motivator to minimize food waste. Inspired by this revelation, I am determined to have leftovers for lunch and transform the chicken salad sandwiches tonight for supper. I don’t even have to stop at Provigo today! WOW!

Day 6 (October 30): IC (that’s all I will say). Wednesdays are always tricky because I am running around and teach a class at night. It is one of those days. I grab lunch at Subway (steak sub, chips and a drink) -> garbage.

Run to Provigo after work and grab steak, carrots, potatoes and gravy from Provigo and throw it in pot to cook. I also realize that I haven’t really bought any candy for Halloween for my students in case class. $65.30 later and we have meat and candies! I’ve also been putting out chocolates outside my office door for students. 

Day 7 (October 31): Another ice cap to go please. I don’t even eat lunch today. Now I realize we have no candy for the kids. Drive to Walmart and $68.03, we’ve got goodies. No lunch again, and we go to a friend’s for supper. Off with the 4 year old trick or treating in the rain. She gets a pail of treats, we have 2 boxes of stuff leftover.

Day 8 (November 1): Day of the dead? I think so! Actually order breakfast with my ice cap at Timmy’s this morning. No lunch today. We decide to go shopping after work today as my brother has a 40% discount at L’Equipeur. $218.58 later, my husband enjoys new shoes, jeans, sport jacket, t-shirts, and a pair of sneakers for my mom for Christmas. Oh wait! Marlee needs new winter boots, so $86.22 later, we have new winter boots for her. I also see the cutest dress boots at Marshall’s (fake baby Uggs). I suppose these is what the marketers are hoping for. Top it all off with super for the family at Guido’s. (Wow! I have really been eating like crap!) Day 8 hurt the bank account!  Day 9 (November 2): Maybe I should actually buy some groceries for my empty fridge. I sludge off to Provigo early Saturday morning to spent near $200. At least I have meat, veggies, fruits, and some of the other basics for my family to actually live on. Stop at Tim’s on the way home for the usual. 

Day 10 (November 3): Beautiful breakfast with family (and an ice cap). Spent the day making food (soup, roasted chicken, pasta sauce, etc....). Trying to cut down on the restaurant stops this week. End up at the library with some dear colleagues from GSE503, so I think another ice cap is in order to stay awake (and leftover Halloween Candy). 

Day 11 (November 4): Check that thought. Day went to hell, running late, dead tired, no breakfast, grabbed Rima for supper. Fridge full, but I don’t even care at this point. 

Day 12 (November 5): Today is a new day! I started making iced coffee at home! No Tim’s! I actually did not spend $1 today! Why do I feel so great? Apparently it is something referred to as perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE). When is comes to sustainable buying practices, this PCE is influenced directly by guilt and pride. This becomes important because it means that as a consumer,  my behaviours could be modified by using emotions (Antonetti, & Maklan, 2014).

Day 13 (November 6): Another no spending kind of day! Feeling all pride and no guilt! Maybe Atonetti and Maklan are on to something!

Day 14 (November 7): Last day of recording! No ice caps and going strong.  My husband and I are feeling like we need a little extra family time, so we go out for supper at Mike’s with Marlee. We follow it up by a little Chocolat Favoris. I asked myself why we went to Mike’s again? What a waste!   A quick stop by Provigo to grab snacks for my basketball girls. I make an orzo salad plus pull together fruits, yogurt, cheese and granola bars.

Stay tuned for Part 2 to see if I actually made some changes and what this whole process has meant for me. Until then, I leave you on this note: Waiting on the World to Change

REFERENCES

Antonetti, P., & Maklan, S. (2014). Feelings that make a difference: How guilt and pride convince consumers of the effectiveness of sustainable consumption choices. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(1), 117-134. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/24033218

Etzioni, A. (2012). You Don’t need to Buy This. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/FN3z8gtDUFE

Goodwin, C., Smith, K.L., & Spiggle, S. (1990). Gift giving: Consumer motivation and the gift purchase process. In NA - Advances in Consumer Research. 17, eds. Marvin E. Goldberg, Gerald Gorn, and Richard W. Pollay, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, 690-698. Retrieved from http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7086/volumes/v17/NA-17

Graham-Rowe, E., Jessop, D.C., & Sparks, P. (2014). Identifying motivations and barriers to minimising household food wasteby. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 84, 15-23. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.12.005

Porritt, J. (2011). The trap of materialism. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/DtwXryPNciM

Shah, A. (2014). Consumption and Consumerism: Global Issues. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism

[occasionalfics]

into you // p. 11

main masterlist | steve masterlist | taglist | ko-fi | playlist | p. 10 | p. 12

Summary: Just as Steve begins to wonder why he’s been sent on a mission well below his pay grade, a mysterious, unscented woman steps in and does his job for him. He’s immediately drawn into her allure, and he needs to know who she is, why she’s on a mission to take out some of the city’s most powerful alphas, and why he can’t get her off his mind.

A/N: Okay. I gotta say. This one is super cute. 

Warnings: Steve is a soft bean. Lots of fluff, mentions of sexual content but like...there’s not much that’s explicit about this part.

Word: 2,144

They figure out on day three that taking baths is the quickest way to deal with most of her symptoms. Especially when she’s sore and raw and tired and hungry, when Steve doesn’t know what else to do but get clean. The water helps with cramps, swelling, bruising, and maybe even a little fatigue (or they just fell asleep with the water just barely meeting their ribs because the bed was too hot, too sticky, and too tempting).

On day four, his rut is all but over. And although he’s willing to get dressed and head out of the room, Steve hesitates. He finally sees why she didn’t want to leave him that first night, not even for a little while. She is desperate for his touch at all times, still completely overtaken by the first heat she’s had in years. Nothing really satisfies her, but she’s able to get to a point every few hours where she can at least control her urges and desires. She depends on him still, so he really can’t do much else but put on athletic shorts and do some laundry, even going so far as to write down instructions on how to care for her clothes that she hasn’t bothered to wear in days.

He’s gotten her to sleep while he cooks dinner, and as he has seasoned chicken frying and some repurposed (a.k.a. Leftover, thrown together for a new flavor palette) potatoes in the oven, he realizes for the first time that he’s content. The light, easy feeling in his chest comforts him, makes him realize how much he likes having (Y/N) in his space. In his bed and bathtub. Even when her nature makes her need him more than she normally would, even when his does the same - he still genuinely enjoys having her here.

Steve’s been thinking about Bucky’s statement a lot since getting back from Wakanda. You met a girl who beats you at taking down bullies. Of course Bucky was right, he just couldn’t possibly have known how right he was.

And what astounds him even more is that she’s both sides of her own coin. She’s the badass Reaper who tears criminal and abusive alphas from this world, and she’s his soft, doting, sexy omega. It’s not that he can’t believe the two can exist in one person; what surprises him is that he’s somehow lucky enough to deserve both by her standards.

He almost burns the chicken as he just stands there, feeling something hot but comfortable race through him. Something he’s genuinely felt very few times throughout his long, exhausting life. Something that draws him to (Y/N) while simultaneously making him terrified that she doesn’t feel it too.

But, he thinks as he turns the chicken over and the heat down on the burner, even if she doesn’t feel it now, maybe she will. Or, and he’s hesitant to let his hopes reach so high, she already does.

He finishes up cooking, lets the food cool without turning cold, then plates everything and breaks out a bottle of vintage wine Sam gave him a few weeks ago with a sly, not subtle at all wink. He makes sure to leave them both glasses of water, too, because he has no idea when her heat will start to subside.

Tony’s already left him seven hundred texts (or what feels like it) asking when he’ll be back to work. Steve knows the world needs him, that he has a mantle he can’t just walk away from because of a stupid mistake he made days ago, but he really doesn’t want to go back yet. Every alpha particle in his body makes him want to stay here, with (Y/N), to help her through everything she told him she wouldn’t bear for him.

Once everything is perfectly placed, he goes into the bedroom, kneels by her side of the bed, wants desperately to kiss a trail up her arm but decides against the temptation. She needs to eat, so he pokes her nose instead, laughing softly when her face scrunches.

“Dinner’s ready, Doll,” he tells her.

She yawns, and Steve ignores her morning breath because he’s sure he doesn’t resemble a fresh load of laundry in any way, either. When she settles again, she nods and says, “Smells good, Baby.”

He doesn’t know how other alphas would react to that name, but on her lips, it’s sweet and intimate and just for him. Steve doesn’t care how other alphas feel - never has, never will, to be honest. He smiles and stands, turning to his dresser to find her a shirt. He ends up pulling out his favorite white v-neck, knowing it’s made out of some kind of cooling fabric.

It’s perfect.

He helps her sit up as she yawns again, then raises her arms and pulls the shirt over her hair and down to her shoulders. “Think you can make it twenty feet to the kitchen?” he asks her.

She smirks, rolls her eyes, and stands without even so much as a crack from her joints. “I’m exhausted, not made of tissue paper,” she quips, already halfway out of the bedroom. Almost as if to make her point, she skips the rest of the way to his island, hops right into one of his high chairs, and brings the glass of wine up for a swig.

Steve joins her, watching closely, just making sure she’s as content as he is. He doesn’t start eating until she has, and after her first bite, she takes three more in quick succession and groans.

“Jesus,” she mumbles, mouth still full. Once she’s chewed and swallowed a mouthful, she shakes her head. “You, Steve Rogers, are too good to be true.”

“I take it you like it,” he says with a small nod.

She nods, too, only hers are more dramatic and require most of her body to bounce. “Either I do, or I’ve just eaten too much of your leftover pizza these last few days.”

They laugh together as he says, “Fair enough,” and then they settle into comfortable quiet. Steve is actually pretty proud of the dinner, especially as she eats the last few potatoes on her plate before it’s completely clear.

“Still hungry?” he asks as she pushes the plate a few inches away.

She shrugs. “Maybe a little. This was really, really good though.” She smiles, sitting back in the seat, stretching her legs out so her feet are flat against the floor. “I just feel like I haven’t eaten in three weeks or something.”

Without finishing his own plate, Steve gets up and goes to his freezer. Normally, he eats pretty healthy - a superhero diet apparently consists of more protein than anything else - but his one vice is his sweet tooth. And he knows he’s not the only one in the tower that’s addicted to Ben & Jerry’s, so he feels absolutely no regret or shame in pulling out two full pints of the stuff in two completely different flavors.

“Got a preference?”

She cocks an eyebrow at him, but nevertheless inspects the pints, reading the descriptions carefully before picking one called Chillin’ the Roast. Steve puts the other pint back in the freezer, grabs two spoons, then sits on his chair again, this time facing her. They dig in at the same time, pulling up scoops of coffee flavored ice cream and cookie-covered truffles. It’s one of the more indulgent flavors he’s picked recently, but it’s so good that he doesn’t even care.

“Holy shit, even your taste in ice cream is impeccable,” she states. “Where the hell did you even find this one?”

Steve chuckles. “I know a guy.”

She pauses. “Is it Ben? Or Jerry?”

Instead of answering, he shoves another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. She gasps, her jaw drops, and she nudges his shoulder playfully.

“Come on! Now you definitely gotta tell me!”

As they fall into another fit of laughter, he can’t help but feel that hot, comfortable, contented feeling he had earlier. It fills him up, probably turns his cheeks a little pink, and makes his palms sweat at the thought of asking if she feels the same. If she even has a name for this feeling.

But he returns to the ice cream conversation, because this other one is not only off topic, but also nerve wracking. “Ben asked me if I wanted to be a flavor a few years ago.”

“And?”

He dips his spoon into the pint and brings a scoop back, smirking as he brings it back to his mouth, but then halts and laughs at the look of betrayal on her face.

“Oh my god, Steven I swear if you don’t tell me whether or not you still have Ben Cohen’s number in your phone, I will tear you apart!” She reaches to grab his spoon, but he pulls it out of her reach too quickly.

“I don’t have Ben Cohen’s phone number in my contacts,” he says, “but I did go out to Vermont to try out a few flavors. Didn’t end up picking one because they’re Ben and Jerry’s - every flavor is amazing!”

She rolls her eyes, though her smile is bigger than Steve thinks he’s ever seen. She is so breathtaking that he can’t remember what they were just talking about, and it doesn’t matter. She dips into the pint and says, “You’re such a dork.” Then she stops like she was going to say more, stares ahead of her with her bottom lip caught beneath her top row of teeth, and loosens her grip on her spoon.

Steve immediately thinks the worst - that she’s hit with another wave of painful cramps, or that her heart sped up too quickly and now it’s just shutting off or something, though he’s not sure that’s really possible. He stands, drops his spoon on the floor, and places his hand on her back.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, urgency on each consonant as it tumbles out.

Slowly, she looks up at him. He has trouble putting a word to the expression she gives him - not quite lost, not pained or in shock per se. He thinks it’s an I have to go look she’s giving him, and his stomach sinks heavily.

But she doesn’t move. She studies him like he has all the answers in the universe to any question she could possibly ask. And quietly she tells him, “I’ve seen this night before.”

She doesn’t look particularly worried. Steve can breathe as long as her brows don’t furrow.

“Everything makes sense now,” she says, her eyes darting quickly between each of his. Her pupils dilate, though she shows no other signs of another round of heat taking over. She’s just looking up at him, a smile slowly taking its place across her face again. “I’ve been feeling deja vu all day and-” She stops again, and her eyes widen.

“You’re kinda worrying me, Doll.”

She breathes a heavy sigh, her whole body relaxing. “Well, fate says it’s supposed to happen…” She slides off the chair and stands toe-to-toe with him, and that hot, comfortable feeling fills him up again. She puts her arms over his shoulders, his white shirt lifting up over her hips. “You’re a dork, Steven Rogers. And I love you.”

She gets up on her tiptoes, kisses him quickly, then sets herself back down. Before he can process anything, she goes about the night as if she’s said the most mundane thing. She picks up their dirty plates, bends to get his spoon off the floor, and takes everything to the sink without another word.

For a little too long, he’s stunned. He watches as she rinses the dishes, pops open the dishwasher and loads it, but he can’t think let alone move.

Because she just told him she loves him - that she’d seen the conversation in a vision before, that she knew she was supposed to tell him, that she felt what he felt when he felt that hot, comfortable surge of energy like he does right now.

That’s what it is?

She had just said that everything makes sense. And the longer he sits and stews, the more he agrees. The more he agrees, the faster his heart beats, the hotter his skin feels - not in the painful, sticky way that precedes another round of sex, but in that flushed, thrilling way he wants to always feel.

He finally makes his feet move, walks over to her and wraps his arms around her middle. She stops washing, settles against him with a sigh, and smells so damn good he can’t not kiss her neck, right where her bonding gland is.

“You are a complete surprise, (Y/N),” he says without removing his lips from her. “And I love you.”

Tags!

Global: @wonderlandfandomkingdom @samanthasmileys @sunigyrl @mysweetcookie99 @punkrockhufflefluff @lady-thor-foster @the-resal10 @rogrsnbarnes @xxashy999xx @badassbaker @frenfics @feelmyroarrrr 

Steve: @girlwhoisfearless @mrsdeanwinchester19 @cherrysfandom @captainradicalpassion @patzammit @coffeebooksandfandom 

Series: @whatdoyxumean @part-time-patronus @theunsweetenedtruth 

[ecmlol]

“ I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my mom. Why?”jude asked

“ well there is a guy name bigbro925 that catch my attention. He thinking the picture is tacky and youit would look better in black and white.”

“ well his birthday would be 9/25 if he’s old because I was a early morning baby I think my mom said something like 12:10 so if he was born 11 minutes before me that would be the day before.”

Noah clicks on bigbro925 page.There are a lot of pictures of dogs, food and landscapes.

“ gotcha you. I found selfies kinda”noah shows jude

“ wow that’s just amazing. “Jude says as he sees the first picture of his brother.

Brandon is sitting on a couch with a goatee and a clean cut hair style that looks very much like Jude’s .

“ I don’t know how it’s even possible that you could be even hotter. You’d look great with a goate.” Noah say

“You think?”

“ definitely “noah say.

“ next year for your birthday I’ll grow one for you for a couple of weeks.”jude says

“ only if you want to”noah say

“ sure why not I like the extra sleeping in time in the summer.”jude says

“ me too.I miss your longer hair too.”Noah says running his hand over Jude’s newly cut hair. Noah give Jude’s hair a little tug at the nape.

Noah smiles and kisses Jude’s cheeks. Jude gets goosebumps

“ so do you think I should respond to your brother? “

“ I don’t know but I think you want to.”Jude say

“You know me so well” noah smiles

Noah goes back to his picture and goes to the comments.

“ I will let my husband know. Send” noah say.

Noah looks at Jude and shrugs.

“ I’m trying to be nice to him. You don’t want to antagonize someone like him. I maybe nuts but I’m not stupid.”

“ you said it not me “ jude says with a small smile.

“ haha let’s get going you don’t want to be late to meet officer Murray.”

Jude and Noah headed to the bathroom to get really for the day.

Noah is driving because he wasn’t staying at work he was heading to his old apartment to check on Jamie after dropping off jude with his personal body guard.

Jamie is sitting on the couch doing homework when there a knock on the door.

At first Jamie didn’t know if she should get it or just sit there.

“ Noah should have his key” jamie says to herself. Jamie gets up and takes the headphones off her belly.

Earlier in the week pax sent flowers to the apartment. Normally Jamie would have gotten rid of them but she felt like the apartment need some color.

The door opens and Noah pokes his head in.

“ you dress?”

“ yeah of course”

“ ok just checking” noah walks in carrying a body pillow.

“ is that for me ?”jamie say as she gets up.

“ of course “

“ I’m really happy you came over. I felt her move this morning!This time I know for sure it was her and not gas!”jamie says will a smile.

“ that so awesome. I can wait to feel her kick. If that’s ok”

“ of course “

“ thank you”

“ oh I started to put the headphones on my belly so she can hear yours and Jude voices. I don’t know if she can head it but that’s when I felt her move the first time for sure.”

“ thanks I want her to be comfortable with our voices if that’s even possible.”noah says

“ I’m sure she will. I think you have a nice voice I’m sure she will think so too.

The pop of colors from the flowers on the counter catches Noah’s eye.

“ owww flowers.”

“ yeah about those pax sent them to say sorry”

“He hasn’t been back has he?”

“ no not yet but I’m sorta thinking he will come by at some points.”

“ you don’t think you might need a restraining order do you?”

“I hope not that seems a little extreme don’t you thing. I can handle myself.”jamie say

“ ok.”noah says

At the arena Jude and Murray are doing Jude’s daily walk around. This is the time of the day that jude sees the progress on any repairs that are being done on the arena.

Jude and Murray make small talk as they walk the arena.

“Have you seen the new lays potato chips?”Murray asked

“No I haven’t my husband loves chips though what flavor s are they” jude asks

As Murray tells jude about the pizza flavored chips she gets hit with the feeling that they are being watched.

“ oh those sound good”

“ they taste just like pizza.”

Murray steps a little closer to jude.

“ do you feel like we’re being watched?”

Jude look over his shoulder he sees something move in his peripheral vision.jude quickly turns. Off in the distance jude and Murray hear someone knocking things over like someone is running into thing as they try and get away.

“ Sooo I know it’s none of my business but why am I here.”Murray ask.

Jude has a quick flash back of the first time jude was at Noah’s apartment.

“ Well my husband thinks I’m in danger ...”

“Of....”

“ my ...brother”

“ oh..”

“Identical twin brother “

“ well fuck us.a evil twin. No wonder why my boss told me to pay close attention to your cloth and hands”

“ my hands?”

“ your rings. You wear a lot of rings for a man.”

“ ah ok.”jude wears his engagements and his wedding band and the devil chapionship ring.

“In the back of my head I sorta thought about a double or something. I looked you up and you have one sister but nothing about a twin.”

“ well I just found out and I haven’t even spoken to him yet. Your very good at your research my sister has been mentioned once In social media.”

“Your husband mentioned her once”

Jude nod.

“ ok we need a plan.

Jude sighs

Jude is tired of all the passwords and plans. It seems like Noah is coming up with something new everyday. Even Their back up plans have back up plans. Why should she be any different.

“ ok what’s the plan?” Jude say with fake interest not wanting to make her feel like he is undermining her trying to do her job.

Around the corner Brandon is fumbling to get away when he runs into Snow the security guard.

“ ah huh” snow say.

“ sorry .”

“ your fine what’s the rush and where’s Murray at?”

“ bathroom. I have to go”

“ well have a good one. Mr. kinkade.” Snows says and heads in the same direction as Brandon.

A few minutes later jude and Murray come across Snow.

“ Mr kinkade it a pleasure to see you as always”

“ hi have you seen anything unusual today?”Jude say

“ matter of fact I have your brother just left.” Snow says.

“ you know? How”?”

“ I use to work closely with your father. Let’s say we keep I touch.”jude has never noticed how well groomed the older man is or how expensive his taste in watches are.yes he’s head of security at the arena but what’s his story? Jude thought.

Wow married to a reporter for a couples of weeks has already starting to rub off on him Jude thought to himself.

“Your father and me go all the back to before you two were even born. I was a police officer that came to a call at a accident your father had. Our long time arrangement didn’t happen until a few weeks later when we met again when I was working a side gig at a underground club he use to visit. And the rest is history as they say”

“ wow I had no idea my father has friends.”

“ your father has acquaintance.”

“ ah.”jude says

“ I must go check on something. Always a pleasure. My lady“He tips his hat to Murray and nods to jude before walking away.

“ oh he’s interesting.” Murray say

“That he is “jude says

A few hours later noah picks up Jude in the back of the arena. The proper passwords and are exchanged.

Noah smile and leans in to give Jude a quick kiss. They both wave to Murray and drive off.

“ how is everything at the apartment?”jude ask

“She felt her kick this time it was for real .”Noah say

“Let me guess it was gas last time.”

“ yes I love that your doing so much baby research “ noah say

“ well I’m all in . I want this too. I never thought I would have almost everything I have ever dreamed of before I’m 30. I’m willing to go the distance to get it to.”

“ ok this isn’t some kind or foreshadowing to darth Judius is it?”noah says

“Haha noah Don’t Jedi sometime walk a fine line between the light and dark side.”

“ as much as the geek talk is turning me on there is a down side of Luke crossing the line.BAM hello Kylo Ren”

“ I have full faith that you will rein me in if you think I might cross that line.”

“ let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The week went by quickly. Jude and Noah started to get in to a nightly ritual that they both enjoy. The trips home are a ping pong of their daily going ons and trying to figure out what’s for dinner. Once home Noah tends to start stripping out of his cloths at the door. Jude finds is funny and endearing that Noah is down to his underwear by the time he makes it to the bedroom.At first Jude thought Noah was trying to Initiate sex every night until noah stopped him and informed him he just wanted out of his clothes.That was after the fifth blow job in a row. How was jude to know.Jude on the other hand opts for a slower strip down in his home office. Noah heads to the living room to play video games while jude works in his office most of the time. Tonight Noah has something else in mind.

Noah puts down the game control and pads to Jude’s office.

“ hey I’m going to call my dads want to say hey.” Noah asked .

“ we do need to put that in the schedule don’t we . Family phone calls.” Jude looks up at Noah like he wasn’t that happy about it.

“ three minutes ago you seem like you were in a better mood what’s wrong?”

“ zero”

“ oh?”

“ yeah he’s coming to town and wants to see me”

“ I thought you blocked him”

“ I did but not from email.”

“ oh.”noah crosses his arms over his bare chest.

“ it’s just league business noah”

“ he’s in the European league so what business does he have with you?”

All of a sudden jude looks guilty.

“ ah ...I’m not really ready to answer that”jude say in a uneasy tone.

“ come again jude you can’t just tell me your ex is sniffing around and not tell me why. Don’t start shutting down again. You have been so open with me.There is no reason for you to clam up now”noah says as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“ Nono”Jude gets up and walks over.noah sides steps Jude.

“ Nono? Really?Wow you really have to tell me what’s going on now”

Jude walks pass noah and have a seat back at his desk.

“ your not going to let this go are you?”

“ no I’m not”noah says as he sits on the couch across from Jude’s desk.

Jude sighs

“I’m not ready to talk about this noah. I promise something that I can’t deliver now “

“ so you promised something to zero?”noah ask

“ yes.”

“ what did you promise jude?”Noah asked

“ I don’t want to talk about it noah can’t we enjoy our evening? We can call our families and dance to a few songs. We can have fun tonight your way.”

“ This ride is closed until further notice. “noah says

“ Noah come on I’m too embarrassed to tell you that I wasn’t joking about the 6 sexual favors comment when I got the devils.”

“ wait one of your backers is zero?”

“ you can say that.”

“ Jude...”

“ Fine all of my backers are zero. Of course I have the small investors but zero is the main backer. I never even told Lionel. I told him he owed me for humiliating me by walking out after proposing to him.he is the technical half owner of the devils.It was his idea to tack on the delayed break up sex sessions.”

“Wow Jude. So when were you going to tell me about this little arrangement? Our daughter high school graduation maybe? Or when I walked in on you two having sex?”

“ Noah I had to. I couldn’t think of anyone I could strong arm that kind of money out and don’t say my dad.”

“ well atleast with your dad you wouldn’t have to break a vow”

“ we were not married at the time ! You can’t blame me for not seeing the future.

“ so you didn’t see a future with me then even if it was short term?”

“ Noah I had feeling for you then that I was scared of. I figured I’d screw it up and you would leave just like he did. I never thought I’d be married noah. Please don’t be mad I never thought he would ever want to “collect” on it and if he did I didn’t think I’d ever have anyone that would care if he did “collect”jude say

Noah looks closely at Jude . All the emotions that are clearly on his face are hard to look at.Noah knows that he’s telling the truth. Noah’s frustration starts to melt away.this is part of the messiness her loves about him and a side effect of that love.

Noah gets up and hugs Jude.

“We will figure this out.”noah says

“We ?this is my fault my mess to clean up”

“ do you you want to sleep with him ?” Noah ask . Jude shakes his head no .”it’s not like he has it in a contract.”noah say

“He said if I don’t show up he will come out as co owner of the devils “

“Oh” noah says

“ I’m screwed”Jude say

“ not yet. We can figure something out.”

Jude breaks the hug first.

“ let’s not let my problem ruin our Friday night.”jude says

“ your problems are mine now jude. I just said that. We are in this together “

Jude sighs and walks over to the couch to have a seat.

“ this is two weeks away let’s talk about your game day tomorrow. Hell let talk about anything but this.I think we have all the snack you need.”

“ yeah we should be good “noah sighs

“ what time is everyone coming over tomorrow “

“ around 11“

“ oh ok that’s not bad”jude says

Jude walks out of the office and Noah follows him out.

Jude turns to Noah and smiles.

“ so what do you have in mind for tonight?”

“ how about you come over here a and I’ll turn on the stereo and sees where our feet take us.”

Jude walks over and Noah turns on the stereo . Lately noah has been working on Jude’s slow dancing.

Wicked games by theory of a deadman comes on.

“I like this song” jude says

“ me too and You are getting better.”

“ I have a very patience teacher”jude says

Jude and Noah slowly swirl around the livingroom in almost a sexy way. They are only talking to each in a whisper that sends chills down Jude’s back.

“ I love the feel of you in my arm.” Noah says in Jude’s ear.jude sighs and leans in closer.

“ this is nice . It’s like we have our bubble back.”

Jude and Noah dance for one more song and then head to bed to Jude’s disappointment.

Jude wakes up to noah getting dressed in a tank top and a pair of basketball shorts.

“ what time is it?”jude asked

“1030 I wanted to make breakfast for us before they got here how does smoothies sound?”

“ ok I guess I need to get up”

“ no you don’t have to get up yet .Relax Jude.

Jude lays back down and curls up. It’s amazing how well you sleep when you know you have someone fully in your corner. There is something about falling asleep with someone’s arm flung over you or your head on on someone chest just before falling asleep. Jude smile to himself. Is he worried about zero ? Yes is he worried about the baby situation ?yes but knowing noah has his back makes a big differences to Jude.

The blender goes off in the kitchen and a few minutes later Noah comes in with two tall cups.

“ Dane ? Love you asleep?”

Jude rolls over and smiles at noah.

“ here”

Jude looks in the cup and smell it.

“ chocolate and strawberries?”

“ and half the refrigerators “ noah say as he sips from his metal straw.

Jude takes a sip. As Jude sips he stares at Noah.

“ ah is something on my face?”

“ thank you for being you.”

“ ah your welcome?”Noah looks confused

Jude chuckles to himself. Jude thinks to himself it’s too early for a heart to heart.

“ what’s on your mind my Dane?”

“ just thinking about how grateful I am to have you”jude said screw it because he wants to keep his word to be more open.Jude is shocked that Noah is still here after the talk last night about zero. He didn’t yell or walk out .If zero was his husband last night and not Noah jude would be wondering where he spent the night at.

“ oh..well I’m lucky to have you too Dane “ Noah kisses Jude’s cheek.

The intercom goes ok.

“ hey dude rise and shine.”

“ that Mike”

Noah hops up to let mike in.

Jude gets up and gets dressed in a pair of jeans and one of Noah’s Zelda T-shirt .Jude didn’t want to stand out .he wants to look like one of the boys.

Jude walks out to see 3 men he has never seen before besides in pictures.They don’t seem very happy to be here.

“ ah this must be the new Mr. nice to finally meet the guy that stole my teammate .” The 30 something Chris Pratt look alike says with a edge of hatered that made jude want to turn around and go back to bed.

“Mike don’t be a dick. You can walk right back out that door guys.” Noah says crossing his arms

“Ah hey” jude says from across the room

“ hey nice digs. Yeah still live in the hood though” mark says.

Mark is shorter than everyone else in the room. He looks like he’s might be part Asian to Jude.

“ longtime no see pussy whipped ”

Jake says as his looking around the living room and drops his bag on the floor.

“ hey I get it I have been busy if you guy want to be a asshole to my husband you can all leave.”noah say

Jude doesn’t feel very welcomed at all. After a few seconds of awkward silences. Everyone starts to laugh and properly greets jude with a hand shakes and a hug which catch jude off guard. After the last congratulatory hug , hand shake and apologies jude feels like he can be the hostess with the mostest as Noah would put it

“ did you plan this” noah say.

“ you could have told us asshole.”Mike says with a smiles

“ yeah your getting cursed out the next time you see my lady “jake say

“ what are we chopped liver” mark says

“ I’m so sorry It was a last minute thing. “ Noah says

“This is my fault. I rushed him into it” jude says

“ how about we do this can we have a dinner here to make up for it.” noah say looking to jude to see if he’s cool with the idea.

“ I don’t see why not. Not sure when we can do it with the up and coming season.”

All the gamers seem willing to come for dinner and didn’t mind waiting.

“Good now that that’s settled so who’s ready to get there ass whooped?”Noah says with a smile.

“ man get out of here with that shit” Mike says

“Not a chance dude”mark say

Jude notices Mark keeps looking at him.

As the guys set up the living room how they like it, Jude notices that everyone has there own gamer chair and yeti cup with there perfered drink in it. Jude steps out the way and just watches as they move furniture .when did noah put things on the legs of the couch to make it glide across the floor with out scratch the floor.

Jude smirks and nods his head at noah ingenuity.

“ don’t worry we will put it all back”mark says with a smile and a wink.

“ watch it” noah says from across the room.

Noah makes a gesture that means I’m watching you to mark. Jude has no idea why .

Jude ‘s face must have showed it.

“ really man you didn’t tell him” Mike say

“What that in a nother life mark and I where more than just friends for like 5 seconds”

“ what?”jude say

“ dude what were you thinking?”Jake says

Jude gives Noah a look that he knew he need to talk to him in private.

Jude heads to his office.

“ don’t start with out me”

“Someone in trouble”Mike says

“ man I hate to see what the punishment for this is going to be” Jake say

“I’m sure it will be epic “ Mark say with a smirk.

Noah follows Jude to the home office.

Noah closes the door behind him.

Jude takes a seat at his desk.

[errantknightess]

Writer ask meme

Tagged by @kitty-bandit, @silentium-nightshade and @faeriexqueen - thanks a lot :D Answers under the cut because it’s long and who has the time for that.

1. Explain your AO3 handle.

It's just a variant of the screen name I came up back when I was fourteen and obsessed with Middle Ages. It's pretty dumb, but I got used to it and kinda like the shape of those lowercase letters.

2. Favorite fanfiction trope?

Mutual pining. Give me all the sad idiots that don't realize how much they mean to the love of their life! Give me their awkward fumbling as they fail to express their feelings and stay convinced the other could never possibly reciprocate! Give me the stolen touches and fleeting glances and weak excuses to be as close to each other as they dare!

3. Favorite place to write?

My room, door closed, absolute silence everywhere, or at the very least earplugs/some white noise in my headphones.

4. Favorite ships in your current fandom?

In DGM it's laven, always and forever, my precious lost dorks ♥ And as you can notice, I've also fallen into FFXV and promptis hell recently. Here's your fair warning that I'll be writing quite a bit of it in the future.

5. What are your steps to get into the Writing Mood™?

Basically just daydreaming the scenes I need to write next. When I can see them in my mind clearly enough, I'm ready to write -- otherwise I fumble a lot and they don't come out feeling very natural.

6. What program/app do you use to write?

I draft things out in Notepad and clean the finished thing in Word. I find that Notepad is less intimidating in a way -- I can just drop loose messy notes in it and not worry about things being perfect, while Word and other “proper” programs pressure me to Get It Right on the first try. Recently I've also started turning my laptop off and jotting my notes down by hand instead, and that helps a lot in keeping away all the internet distractions! (I do transfer those notes to Notepad later, though -- actual writing is way quicker on the keyboard, and as a non-native speaker I need my dictionaries and Google).

7. List your zodiac sign, favorite ice cream flavor, Hogwarts House, and your opinion on pineapple pizza.

Cancer, mint with chocolate chips, Slytherin, and sure I'll eat that

8. Link us a fanfic that made you cry.

Two of Cups by @kitty-bandit makes me cry every time I read it. It's so full of raw love and passion, and has such a wonderful, intimate atmosphere. It makes me very emotional.

9. Link us a fanfic that made you laugh.

Tumbling down the ffxv hole, I've discovered that I love Ignis/Gladio written as comedy. Marry in Haste, Regen at Leisure by fictionfinding is a gem, those fast-paced, quippy dialogues had me howling.

10. Link us a fanfic that left you in complete awe at the writer’s ability.

I'm always completely in awe of @kitty-bandit‘s ability to plot out long, complex stories, fill them with action and tension, and see them through till the end. Her Lost Time is probably where it hit me the most. I'm seriously amazed at how she comes up with all her ideas and puts them together so they fit perfectly like puzzle pieces. I also just have to mention Warmth by @carolyncaves as it had literally reduced me to stumbling in a stunned daze for a few days. I fell in love with the narration there, with those vivid descriptions and the striking way of building the scenes so they grip you tight with suspense.

11. List your kinks.

I don't really read porn and I'm extremely vanilla, but I always appreciate heavy makeouts/clothed sex, some non-con with a heavy focus on hurt/comfort later, and certain very specific aspects of the Fuck or Die trope.

12. How do you come up with your ideas?

I don't really come up with ideas as much as they come to me; I tend to write things I want to read myself. Sometimes I draw inspiration from life (one of my current WIPs is based on a really terrible attempt at an omelette I made recently...), other times they develop from random headcanons as I try to flesh out my desperately lacking characterization and get into the characters' heads better.

13. How do you implement said ideas into a cohesive narrative?

I write mostly short stuff, so there's not really a lot of work for me to do in terms of plotting. If I feel the need to see a particular scene, I just put it down and try to build some more context around it until it can pass for a drabble/fic -- so I think back on all the "why"s, figure out how that situation could come to be and where it leads to based on the characters' reactions and dialogue.

14. What are your working on right now? Share a little snippet or a description.

I'm working on a bunch of stuff, jumping form one thing to another, so... have this tiny bit of a very random promptis drabble? (I'm sorry, I promise y'all some laven for Christmas, but for now I'm just. In the mood for this ;;;;;;;;;)

When he needed to, Noctis could be an incredibly patient man.

He had withstood the trials of adolescence that came with being royalty in a public high school. His scarce public appearances were a constant display of diplomacy and self-control as he deflected obnoxious, invasive questions from the press. He managed not to nap in most of the bi-weekly council meetings. And of course, when all of that was done, he could spend hours on end sitting still and silent on a pier with a fishing rod in hand.

All of that patience, however, evaporated like a daemon on a summer morning some time around his third game over in a row.

"Damn it," he groaned, slamming the control panel with his fist. Prompto flinched, but the dull clang of metal drowned in the noise around them. The arcade was busy enough that no one paid any mind to their crown prince assaulting the machines -- even though Noct did his best to make sure Prompto could hear his discontent over the crowd.

"Did you see that?" He waved his hand at the screen, where his avatar was still blinking red in a cloud of pixellated explosion. "I totally had it! This is cheating!"

"You think it's rigged?" Prompto poked the machine with the tip of his boot. If it was, he couldn't see any signs of tampering, other than the peeling stickers and a few choice words of graffiti on the side.

[crispsevans]

2018 in review.

Here’s my year in review. It’s been a tough one. I know, you shouldn’t blame a system that mankind came up with to keep track on time for all of this, but it just happened to happen in 2018.

January: My year started off in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where my former roommate and I went to for New Year’s last year. When we came back home a lot of not so nice surprises waited for me which led to a mental breakdown in...

February: Probably one of the worst months of my 2018. I spent hours and days of locking myself up and cry and feeling empty, just like I did all those years ago. I knew it was time for a change and since we had to move out of our flat anyway, I took a step back and instead of looking for a new place for myself, I made the decision to go back home to get healthy again. I looked for an open therapy spot and arranged everything to go back home to my dad’s house.

March: Saying goodbye to Cologne wasn’t very easy for me at all. Packing all my stuff, I realized I’d be leaving with way more stuff than what I have moved in with. I packed up 17 huge boxes and tons of bags and suitcases filled with my life and it took us three days to get everything back into my old hometown and into my old bedroom. Thanks to my boss at this point, because he was such a big help, really!

April: Back in my hometown, I felt relieved. So much pain was just gone in a snap and I felt so much better now that the weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I felt a lot more free than I have in the 7 months before and my anxiety slowed and stripped down, which was a nice change. But I kept being dumb and made some stupid mistakes which led to bad things in the following months.

May: Being a wedding photographer, I only took on very few weddings this year which meant financially I was basically ruined. I haven’t thought about this too much, but I thought I should take care of myself and my health first, since I overworked myself in 2017. Well, not my best idea, let me tell you. I should’ve worked a way out to stabilized both, my health and my finances. Instead, I didn’t and a huge mess was waiting for me by the end of the year. But for now, in May I had my very first wedding of the season and it was a very good and beautiful one. I won new friends and clients through this and in general that day was one of the happiest of my 2018. Shoutout to Patrick for sticking with me that day.

June: Shot my second wedding of the year in June and it was so interesting and also made friends again through it. Amazing, really. And then I went to London, the only place in the world that makes me feel home and secure and happy. I went there with two friends to actually see Ed Sheeran in Wembley. Hell, what a day that was. We stood like 6th row and it was phenomenal. Probably a day I’ll never forget - EVER. Also we were staying in this really nice AirBnb and the hosts name was also Kate which was very funny. On my last day in London, I had a few hours for myself and walked through the city as I always do. My feet brought me to the V&A, my happy place in my happy place. It’s a place where I can think and get my mind off all the bad things that surround me. I was getting inspired by paintings and pieces of fashion - I’ve seen it all a billion times but it keeps inspiring me every time. I was very sad when I picked up my suitcase and made my way to Heathrow to catch my flight. 

July: Probably the month I have the least memories off, because barely anything happened. I just tried to survive with the growing feeling of emptiness and numbness. I probably annoyed all of my friends with my moodswings, I mean I even annoyed myself with it. Shot my third and originally my last wedding of the season and it was meh, but thanks Tascha for making it a great day anyway and we found this really good Italian restaurant near where I live - we need to go there again. Never thought Spaghetti Aglio e Olio can taste THIS GOOD.

August: Favourite month of the year and also my birthday month. August is not necessarily my favourite month because it is my birthday month, but it marks summer for me and I’m a summer person. To me, it has the most beautiful days of the year and I can’t get enough of it. I like the number 8 as well... so yeah.  My August started with a visit to Vienna, where I saw a whole bunch of my friends who did their best to make me feel better (looking at ya @promisedmistake and @uneven-odds ), even though I had a moment, where I kinda fell apart, but I guess that happens. I cherish those days very much, because they were also a big part of the best days of my year. Spending the days by the pool, getting a sunburn, turning like really brown afterwards... having a birthday party for my friend we were all staying with... be reckless for some time, having tons of laughs with those great people, eating good food and some great pizza, drinking delicious drinks, watching “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” and just simply having a good time. When I headed back my anxiety hit me really hard again, because I actually left a letter to my father before i left saying many things about myself that are very true to the core but that I have never managed to tell him. He tried to talk to me about it, but then again anxiety hit me so hard that I ran away and we haven’t talked about it ever since.  My birthday came up on August 14th and it was a pretty boring day. Didn’t really celebrate it at all, also was reminded on my real friends who really thought of me that day and how they treated me and wished me a happy birthday. It’s not necessarily the fact they remember your birthday, but to me it’s also the way someone wishes you a happy birthday that shows you how important you are to them.  I also met one of my wedding couples from 2015 (or 2016???) again, because they were expecting a baby! AHHHH! We had always planned to see each other again but we never made it due to our busy schedules and then it finally worked. It was a beautiful summer evening and to be honest, I took many of my favourite images during that photoshoot. The rest of August was pretty calm, started to work in a the pub again more often and well...

September: A game changer month for me in many ways. It was so stressful but so inspiring and a good month for me with a few bad days in between, but that’s just the way life should be, right? I started September with working and then I actually flew to GREECE (yes GREEEEEECE!!!!!) to shoot my last wedding of the season. Okay, I was second shooting it but seriously - best wedding of my entire career. Not only because it was beautifully planned and decorated, but this wedding felt like a freaking friends wedding where I just happened to be. It didn’t feel like work for just one second. Everyone was so kind and so nice and caring, the food was incredible and the photographer girl I went with is probably one of my closer friends now, because we learned so much about each other in those 3 days, insane. What an experience. I also flew business class for the first time and I’m a bit sad that I’m so broke, because that experience was just AWESOME. Luckily, I didn’t have to pay for any of that. I got paid instead. What a dream. When I came back from Greece, everything felt like a dream, because I still couldn’t believe it. I went back working in the pub and then the event I had been waiting for the whole year took place - photokina. Seeing all my amazing colleagues in one place was a very good thing for me and something I needed so bad. Listening to very inspiring talks (Christian Anderl, WHAT A GUY) and seeing my one and only Nadia again was so refreshing and healthy for me, I don’t think these people know how good this was for me and how much I needed it. I spent three days straight on this fair and looked at new gear, tested out new lenses and listened to many inspiring people, as well as shopped some new stuff for my business. I also met some people again that I literally haven’t seen IN YEARS and that was also one of the best days I’ve spent this year. Seeing Lynn and Jan was really something that lit up my mood by a 1000.  What else happened in September? I captured a christening by the end of the month, I went to see my favourite football club (YES FOOTBALL, NOT AMERICAN FOOTBALL OK) in the stadium and something happened I never thought would happen - my love for this one stupid person finally started to freaking FADE. 

October: I don’t like October very much until the 8th, because the 7th is a very ... memorable day for me, where I always feel very bad. Coincidentally the two men I have shared the biggest love for in my life actually were born on this freaking day. Like there were only two.. AND BOTH OF THEM WERE BORN ON OCTOBER 7th ... two years apart from each other but seriously, PLEASE. So that day didn’t turn out to be very well, I spent it in bed and I tried to sleep through it as much as possible. October 9th marks a very life changing day for me, as on Oct 9th in 2006 my little brother was born. I was 12 years old back then and spent the day in an amusement park. I got the news when I came back home in the evening. This year, he turned 12 himself and it’s ridiculous how fast time flies, because I feel nothing like 24, I still feel the same like when I was 14 and yet I can see time run when I look at my brother. He eventually grew taller than me this year and his voice lowered down by an octave already. Like how is this happening.  Other than that, October was a pretty boring month but it opened up the more or less catastrophe in my life that I created myself in April this year. Great. 

November: Even though November isn’t far away time wise, I barely remember what happened in that month, because I actually just lived from day to day, trying to survive. It was a bad month, a really bad one. The only light in that month was probably that I went to see the Mamma Mia Musical.

December: Wow, I don’t even know where this month went. It was shorter than ever before. For the first time in years I actually made biscuits again, like german christmas biscuits. I tried to bring up the christmas mood, but well. Didn’t really work out that much. I ordered a new phone, because my old one is actually dying. And I started to go to the cinema more often again. A real plus side. My anxiety level is probably around 90 of 100 and I am scared of what 2019 holds up for me - like literally. But my number one favourite memory of December and probably also of 2019 is seeing my best friend again after two years. We rarely talk, but she is still my best friend, because I know she’s there when I need her - always.

So in general, I had some pretty good memories this year. I went to see a lot of movies in the cinema, I made some new friends, I went to Greece for a wedding, I lost my love for photography at some point and gained it back at another one, I had a ton of bad days this year, so many that I just stopped to count them and it all felt like a huge blurry mess. 

Thank you 2018 for teaching me and showing me the life I don’t want to have, but I am not strong enough yet to change. 

Just keep swimming.

[flynnerider]

Day in The Life AND Special Announcement!

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.”- Steve Jobs

Hi everyone!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last update! It really is true what they say- no news is good news! I still LOVE my job, and that’s what I’m here to talk about today! A lot of people ask me what exactly I do, and when I was looking into the DCP I had the same kinds of questions, so I’m here to walk you through a day in the life of a Slide Operator at Blizzard Beach!

First, hours. I usually work five or six days in a row, then have two days off- rarely the same days each week. Blizzard Beach is open from 10AM-5PM every day, so when I work I always get off at 5:30 PM. There’s four possible Slide Op shift start times: 8AM, 9AM, 9:45AM, and 11AM. 8’s and 9’s are assigned “morning jobs” like filling water coolers, cleaning sand areas, and occasionally slide testing to help get the park ready for guests. 11’s are “breakers” (more on this later), and 9:45 is a “normal” start where you clock in, go to our morning meeting, or “breakout”, and head to your first stand. I started at 9:45 this morning!

Every morning I get up, get dressed in my swimsuit, Disney Parks polo, and blue shorts:

Then I eat breakfast and pack my backpack. Here’s what’s in my bag:

From left to right: My lunch (today, Trader Joe’s pepperoni pizza mac and cheese; usually, salad or a sandwich) and a snack (tortilla chips today), my wallet, my hip pack and water bottle (we don’t say “fanny pack” at Disney; my hip pack always has sunscreen, a towel and rubber gloves, and a tiny rubber ducky to bestow upon a kid who needs it), my sunscreen AND backup sunscreen (I’m loyal to the Trader Joe’s brand but I just ran out yesterday), my whistle, my nametag, a padlock for my locker, my keys, and my hat. As you can see, I have a lot of little accessories that I need for my role! Not pictured: my watch, which I wear out the door, and my sunglasses, which I keep in my car.

At Disney, starting at 9:45 doesn’t mean clocking in at 9:45; you have to be in the park, in uniform, ready to work at EXACTLY 9:45. I leave my apartment 40 minutes before my shift start time each day. It takes me about 20 minutes to drive to Blizzard. Once I’m there I can clock in 15 minutes before my shift and pick up my assignment 10 minutes before my shift.

Your assignment is the rotation you are on for the day. There are six Slide Op “rotations”; each one has three “stands”, or positions. You rotate through these 3 positions in order throughout the day. When we open at 10, the 9:45 starts on the first stand, the 9 starts on the second, and the 8 starts on the third. When the breaker comes in at 11, they go to stand one and “bump” the 9:45 to stand two, the 9:45 bumps the 9 to stand three, and the 8 takes their first break. Then, when the 8 comes back from break, they go to stand one and bump the rotation through and the 9 gets their break, so on and so forth. Make sense?

Today, I was on Tike’s- my favorite rotation! The Tike’s rotation is Summit Plummet/Slush Gusher bottom, Tike Solo Top, and Tike Tube top, so at 10 after morning breakout I went to Summit/Slush bottom to start my day.

My job is to sit there between the slides, welcome riders when they reach the bottom, make sure they exit the catch areas, and push the green “dispatch” buttons to let the Slide Ops up top know it’s safe to send down the next person. It’s fairly easy- watching two slides at once takes a little getting used to, but I got the hang of it pretty quick and I don’t mind Summit Bottom at all!

Now to the place that gives Tike’s its name- Tike’s Peak! Tike’s Peak is our play area for little ones 48 inches and under and their families. There’s a very shallow wading pool with fountains, a play structure with some teeny tiny slides for our smallest skiers, a racing slide for guests of all heights, and two slides for folks 48 inches and under only. 

When the breaker comes to Summit bottom and bumps me off I go to Tike Solo, the first of the two slides.

Tike Solo is so easy it’s criminal- I sit in a chair, check heights (no big kids or parents allowed!), make sure kids go down on their backs or bottoms, and watch to see that they’re clear of the slide before I let the next kid go. It’s a really relaxing stand and you get to have so many cute interactions with kids.

When the next bump comes through, I go to Tike Tube. This one is also 48 inches and under only. I stand in the pool at the top of the slide (about two and a half feet deep). Kids bring their tube up and hand it to me, and I help them get seated the right way- legs out in front, handles facing in. The tube may be a circle, but contrary to popular belief, it does matter which way they sit! Then, when the lifeguard at the bottom gives me the all clear signal, I guide the kid’s tube into the slide and watch them go! Good, clean, cute fun. My lovely friend Aimee was kind enough to take a picture of me on Tike Tube today- here I am in all my fully-uniformed Slide Op glory!

(My whistle is backwards because otherwise when I bend over to help kids into tubes it hits them in the face, but I promise it’s there!)

Then I took my first break, a glorious half hour, at about 12:45, and did it all over again! I took my second break, a fifteen, around four. I ended my day out on Summit bottom. After we close at 5, we do “closing jobs”: my closing job today was cleaning the bottom of Summit Plummet with magic erasers. Living the dream. Then we have our evening breakout and I go home!

In the evenings, I’ll either go home and relax in front of the TV or go out with my friends or roommates! We obviously love going to the parks (I go two to four times a week at least), but we also love going to dinner (the staff at our regular Pei Wei recognize us; one time they gave us free donuts!) and shopping at Trader Joe’s. Tonight I went into Downtown Orlando with my roommates Misty and Georgia!

We went to the library and got frozen yogurt!

Speaking of fun and parks, I have a big announcement! Blizzard Beach closes for refurbishment every winter, and this year, when we close on October 27th, all of the Blizzard CP’s will get sent to new roles and locations! We’ve all been very anxious to find out where we’re headed, and the wait is finally over!

Yours truly (and a couple amazing coworkers) are moving to Main Street to bring a little extra magic to the holiday season! Main Street Daily Ops is an umbrella term that covers a number of locations; Cast Members are responsible for Parade Audience Control (PAC) for the fireworks and parades throughout the day, running the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, checking FastPasses at Town Square Theatre for guests meeting Tinker Bell and Mickey, and operating the Magic Kingdom Railroad! Because we’re arriving so late in the season, we’re expecting to just be PAC, but my friends and I are SO excited to be in the most magical place on earth during the most magical time of the year! I start in Magic Kingdom in late October- come see me in my new digs!

Thanks for your continued support, everyone! I appreciate all of your encouragement and interest in my life. Coming soon (for real this time): my Disney do’s and do nots! This is something I’m very excited to share- should be coming about two or three weeks from today!

See ya real soon,

FR

[merely-player]

Rugby Tour to Edinburgh

written by Tom Hiddleston, The Chronicle No 1416, 12th October 1998

Rugby Tour to Edinburgh

It all started at 11 am on Sunday 23rd of August, when the proud new members of the Eton 1st XV squad gathered from all over Britain to meet at the BA Desk in Heathrow's Terminal 1. After a relatively smooth ride north on the Super Shuttle, we arrived in Edinburgh Airport and besieged the baggage reclaim conveyor belt with all our rucking shields, tackling pads and body armour. We then took the ride through the teeming Scottish rain and past the Castle before we arrived at our base for the week: Craiglockhart Campus, now part of Napier University, but once the war-time retreat of Siegfried Sassoon, where his wounds were nursed in 1917 (see Pat Barker’s Regeneration). Don't let that mislead you; it was clearly student accommodation with some interesting graffiti on its pin-boards, but it was convenient in that the staff didn't mind the mud, dirt and general filth that comes with a rugby tour.

Our first training session that afternoon was wet. Very wet. But it was ideal for getting everybody back into the swing of things and practising basic handling skills, although the hot shower afterwards was more than welcome. Our hopes of a first evening of sampling the Edinburgh nightlife were a little dashed by the weather. The rain had unfortunately somewhat dampened the festive spirit of the fringe that we had been expecting, and so we split up and hit Burger King, Bella Pasta, and Pizza Hut respectively. But all hope of amusement was not lost, and around ten minutes after curfew, just as everyone was thinking of turning in, Leo Dugdale performed the first anecdote-worthy mishap of the tour by setting off the fire alarm in an innocent attempt to find the light switch in the TV room. Three fire engines...

After a hearty breakfast the following morning (credit to Craiglockhart) the next day was spent training in preparation for our first match against George Heriot's on Tuesday 25th. On the day itself the afternoon came quickly and after a 'Neighbours' lunch, we began to prepare ourselves mentally. Although it hadn't strictly been classed as a 'match' (as with all three of our Edinburgh games), but more as competitive training with three sessions of twenty minutes and plenty of substitution, we really wanted a win to start the ball rolling for the rest of the season. After a full warm-up from skipper Earris Salah, we were soon in the thick of it and fighting for a victory. Summer rust showed up a bit and some aspects of our game, such as lineouts, needed a little more organisation. Nevertheless we recognised that doing the basics well was the key: good handling, solid rucking, quick ball, tackling, depth and pace. The forwards were sufficiently solid; Alex Loudon was the play-maker at fly-half, while John Thompson and Tom Jefferson were strong in the centres, and Max Crewe provided some pace on the right wing which ended in his try. The ball went from end to end unpredictably, and they gave us a run for our money but we held out, and the game ended in a 15-15 draw. At least we didn't lose.

Our second game was two days later against Strathallan, PJMcK's old school, in a picturesque setting of rolling hills, cloudless skies and a small lake behind the pitch. We arrived quite early, and this gave us time to have an informal run-around on the field, check out the pitch and warm up. In the match itself it took a while for us to gather up steam, but after the first ten minutes we realised that our advantage was in our pace, handling, decision-making, and just plain confidence with ball in hand. Our rucking had infinitely improved since Heriot's and we were also quicker to the breakdowns, while our scrummaging and lineouts looked more solid overall. Miles Macinnes had a good first game at scrum-half after Sam Brodie's early departure, giving good ball to Alex and his backs, who more often than not whipped it down to Finlay Wright on the left wing, allowing him to take the ball at pace and score more than his fair share of tries. As our handling built up, we were almost unstoppable and we scored try after try, with even the long-standing hooker Leo Dugdale storming through the defence and around their winger like a steam train to score his first for the XV. The end result was 51-0. Need I say more?

We always knew that our third match on Saturday 29th would be more difficult. Firstly, it was to be played in the morning, something most of us had never done before, and secondly it was against Edinburgh Academy, who had just returned from a successful tour of Zimbabwe. It would not, we were warned, be another Strathallan victory. After some huge take-away pizzas and a good session of Friday night television we got to bed early and the following morning we were on the bus by 09:30 in time for the 10:30 kick-off It was easily our hardest game on tour and we had to work to stay in the game: they were a good side. Fundamentally, it was the forwards' triumph. Their rucking, pace, aggression and overall endurance was the best all week, with a solid front five and Farris at No.8 leading his strong back row of Florian MacLaren and James Holburn from the front, punching holes into their defence for our backs to run into. Our own defence was of a high standard, Ed 'Bimbo' Stratton making a crunching tackle on one of their men and then turning round to ask if he was all right: he wasn’t, and soon left the pitch. The backs made good decisions with the quick ball that they had, and the penalty moves worked well, so in the end we clinched it 14-12.

All that was left to do was to fly back that afternoon, safe in the knowledge that we were as yet unbeaten and providing a good basis for the coming season. Overall I think the tour was a great success. We played some good rugby (2 wins, 1 draw: not bad at all), but also had some fun along the way, the bustling Edinburgh atmosphere creating a good backdrop for that essential postmatch 'rugby player' entertainment, if you know what I mean. Many thanks to WEN, PJMcK, CJS, and TEB for organising it all, doing the coaching and rather a lot of shouting from the touchline; without them none of it would have been possible.

Tom Hiddleston

[dccomicsnews]

What would it take to be the Dark Knight? What would your eating and training habits have to look like for your body to stand up to the riggers of jumping off buildings, to be agile, yet strong, fast, and mentally sharp all at the same time?

I have personally been into health and fitness now for over fifteen years, and my ideology has drawn inspiration from Batman and what Bruce Wayne had to become to put on that cape and cowl. I’d like to share with you my personal thoughts on what it would take to be Batman.

Diet

Let’s start with the hardest component, and the most important one. Given how much money Mr. Wayne has and through the services of Alfred and other resources, Bruce really doesn’t have an excuse in this area. Everything would be tailor made for him, however, even with that you would need the willpower to stick with a clean diet for 80-90% of the time. Remember, with diet there are so many debates about what to eat, when, and how, that it can be endless. Given the amount of physical movement needed and the time in which is happens (between midnight and 4am), a good balance between the right carbohydrates, protein, and good fats would be essential.

A split across those three categories daily would be required without skipping meals, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner every day, and with a busy schedule that can get difficult even at the best of times. Some of the following are based off what I consume as part of my regular diet:

Breakfast Options (each of these options would be 1 meal per day):

6 Egg Whites / with Two slices of toast

High protein / low carb greek yogurt with plain oats. Mixed with berries and strawberries

Salmon, half an avocado with grilled greens and 4 poached eggs

Protein Pancakes with natural peanut butter X3

Lunch Options 

Lean hamburger meat (no more than two fist fulls as a portion size), grilled with herbs and spices / Brown rice / boiled broccoli

Tuna in Spring water (2-3 servings), cottage cheese, salad with mixed green vegetables

Grilled Chicken with sweet potato, broccoli, and beetroot

low fat mince (beef), grilled with beans. Mixed with broccoli, zucchini, herbs, carrot.

Dinner Options

Protein Pasta, with home made tomato sauce, herbs and cottage cheese

Steak, broccoli, with sweet potato

Homemade Beef meatballs mixed in a stir-fry of green vegetables

Grilled Salmon steak, brown rice, with salad

Fish Whiting with lemon, mixed salad with feta, olives and brown rice.

Cheat Meals (once or twice a week)

Home made pizza (get that stove going, Alfred)

Pasta

Home made chips

Fluid Intake 

Water

Tea (unsweetened)

The occasional wine (while playing the role of CEO)

With protein, I have always tried to take the approach of consuming 2x in grams per Kg of my body weight (Yes I am an Aussie, sorry I don’t use pounds). If your weight is 100kg, then you should be trying to take in 200 grams of protein a day as part of your diet. Not easy while keeping your carb intake at a balanced level. Now, given the amount of physical activity you would exhaust as the Batman, then you would need to consume your carbs straight after those events. So instead of going to bed at 4:30am after fighting crime for 4 hours and training during the day, you would need to eat after then ensure you have a good night’s sleep. Hard to do when you need to back it up night after night. I average 6-7 hours of sleep a night, to do what Bruce Wayne does your sleeping patterns would need to be around 8-10 hours.

Cheat meals would be a required component of your diet, given how much your body would be going through night after night. The body would need the sugar, and other elements as part of the overall process.

I’ve always said, Hydration is important. I have read so much about water intake and there is no definitive answer to how much your intake should be. It is different for every single person. Again, based on movement and energy that you’ve used, my metric is actually the colour of my urine. The darker it is, the more water you need. Better ensure your Batman Outfit has a handy zipper!!

  Training (Based off parts of my own routine)

For the type of work required to be the Dark Knight, one of the priorities is to be able to push and pull your own body weight. There is no point in bench pressing 200 pounds if you can’t do 50 push-ups and 50 pull-ups! Jumping off buildings, crawling and pulling yourself across all sorts of surfaces means you have to pull and push your own body weight and then some. Add your suite, gadgets, outdoor conditions, and in the event you have a side kick; well you may need to help that person out a few times!

  Body Weight Training (Executed every day)

100 Pull Ups: 10 sets of 10 reps with a 10 second rest

50 Pull Ups: 10 sets of 5 reps with 40KG hanging from your waste

Upside down pull ups (concentrating on your back): 10 sets of 5 reps

100 Dips: 10 sets of 10 reps with a 10 second rest

50 Dips: 10 sets of 10 reps with 60kg hanging from your waste

500 Push-Ups: 5 sets of 100 with a 1 minute rest

100 Push-Ups with 20KG plate on your back

A weight training program would consist of two body parts (A small with a large) 4 days a week, with no weights over the weekend for recovery, but ensuring that every two months the program is altered to ensure you body doesn’t get used to the routine.

Each of the days below would be your weights session + the body weight training above.

Monday (Chest and Triceps) 

Dumbbell Chest Press – 4 sets of 12 reps

Dumbbell Flys – 4 sets of 12 reps

Clap Push Ups – 3 sets of 20 reps

45 Degree Bench Press – 4 sets of 12 reps

Overhead Tricep Extension – 4 sets of 15 reps

Tricep Push Downs – 4 sets of 20 reps

Tricep Kick Backs – 4 sets of 12 reps

Tuesday (Back and Traps) 

Seated Row – 5 sets of 15 reps

Cable Cross Overs – 5 sets of 15 reps

Bent Over Row – 3 sets of 12 reps

Laying Down Overhead Dumbbell Extension – 4 sets of 12 reps

Barbell Pull Downs (wide grip) – 4 sets of 15 reps

Wednesday (Arms and Shoulders)

Standing Dumbbell Curls – 4 sets of 15 reps

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 sets of 12 reps

Medicine Ball Slams – 4 sets of 12 slams (15kg ball)

Kettle Bell Swings – 4 sets of 20 swings (40kg, no rest)

Barbell Curl 21s – 7 reps low, 7 reps mid level, 7 reps high = 1 set. Execute 4 sets, no rest

Thursday (Cardio only with Body Weight Exercises) 

7-14km Run (depending on the state of your body), OR

30 Sprints, 1 min at 15-19km per hour, 30 sec rest

5km Sprint, as hard as possible

Interval 8km Run

Friday (Legs)

45 degree Leg Press – 4 sets of 15 reps

Seated Leg Extension – 4 sets of 15 reps

Barbell Squats – 5 sets of 10 reps

Box Jumps – 10 sets of 20 reps

Sled Push – 30 meters with minimum of 200kg, up and back = 1 set. Execute 5 sets

Saturday (Cardio only with Body Weight Exercises) 

7-14k Run (depending on the state of your body), OR

30 Sprints, 1 min at 15-19km per hour, 30 sec rest

5km Sprint, as hard as possible

Interval 8km Run

5km Swim

  Sunday (REST)

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So there you have it, it would take a monumental effort to have the body, mind, spirit, and eating habits of the Dark Knight. To make time and eat those meals every day, find the hours to train to the routine I have designed, and then you’re fighting crime at night, time would catch up with you very quickly, and given 3-5 years of that type of intense workload, your body wouldn’t be able to keep it up. Unless you use your imagination and think about what advantages you could buy with Wayne’s billions.

Let us know if you’re into health and fitness. If so, what does your training and diet look like?

Eating and Training to be the Dark Knight What would it take to be the Dark Knight? What would your eating and training habits have to look like for your body to stand up to the riggers of jumping off buildings, to be agile, yet strong, fast, and mentally sharp all at the same time?

[gentlemanmendes]

Beauty Behind the Madness 12:

a/n: If you like the please double tap the hoe

previous chapters are in my masterlist under beauty behind the madness:

12:

As I take my usual seat next to Mitch from the corner of my eye I notice that he is  watching me closely. Thankfully my hangover from last night has faded but the after math is still affecting me deeply. I feel exhausted and drained but I'm not sure if that is thanks to the drinks I consumed last night or the amount that I cried. All I know is that my mum freaked out last night because she had no idea where I was and like usually went straight to the worst conclusion she could come up with. Of course I called her in the morning letting her know I had stayed at Mitch's and I think that relaxed her a lot more then it probably should have. She said she was glad I was becoming my normal self again. If only she knew how far from the truth that was.

"Are you meeting up with Miranda tonight?" Mitch asked me causing me to drop my pen and frown as I turn to him in confusion.

"No, why would I?" I spit probably a little too defensively. but I'm sick of everyone, specifically Miranda, thinking that we are friends. We have spoken three times and all three of those times was because I was forced to.

"Because we have that assignment." He states causing me to roll my eyes. Since when did Mitch ever care about school or grades, now he wants to be a hypocrite and lecture me.

"Can't, I have plans." I inform him as I pick up my pen and continued copy the work out of my text book.  

Truth be told I do have plans however it wasn't exactly how I planned on spending my Tuesday afternoon. Another meeting with Jenny where I will sit silently giving her one worded answers for the whole hour.  Who knows maybe something good will come out of it and I can see Layla but the thought of fucking Layla doesn't appeal to me as much as it should right now. Maybe something is seriously wrong with me and instead of wasting my parents money I should use it to get the help I need.

"Arleigh and I are meeting up to work on ours." at Mitch's words my hands form into a fist as I bang my hands loudly on the table causing everyone in the class to turn their heads in panic and look over at me disapprovingly.  

When everyone attention turns back to what they were previously doing I turn my attention over to Mitch. The idea of him being alone with her is not okay with me. He is just as guilty as I am, maybe he refuses to acknowledge it but he is, he shouldn't be anywhere near her.

"Since when do you give a shit about school." I hiss wanting to know what his reason was. Knowing Mitch it was probably something as simple as knowing that he would bring discomfort to Arleigh and if he gets a rise out of me, well that's just a bonus.

"Relax, she's forcing me to work on it with her." He huffed in irritation causing me to roll my eyes in response. Why would Arleigh force him to be around her? She could barley stand him before what happened, why would she want to be around him after?

"Yeah and I'm sure Mr Axle is going to welcome you into his home with open arms." I retort sarcasm lacing my tone. Mr Axle didn't like me in his house of course he doesn't like Mitch so why would he even consider letting him in his home especially after everything that happened.

"Don't be stupid we are going to the library  after school for like an hour or something." He corrected in irritation. It makes sense. Arleigh was a smart person. She knew better than to be alone with Mitch so she was choosing a public area where she felt safe to work with him. Yet I couldn't help the uneasy feeling that settled over me. She shouldn't be so close to Mitch. He isn't a good person. I even consider skipping my appointment with Jenny just to make sure Mitch doesn't try anything.

I'm able to turn my attention back to my work after that though my mind keeps racing with possibilities of what Mitch could do to her.

When the bell rings I'm more than grateful and I hurry out of my seat and down the hallway, that was until someone called my name from behind me causing me to come to a complete stop.  

Turning around I find a familiar blonde haired blue eyed girl hurrying to catch up with me.

"Hey, I was wondering when you wanted to work on our assignment?" Miranda wondered smiling up at me and by the way she fidgeted with her hands I could tell that she was nervous though I couldn't understand why.

"Umm." I hum as I think to myself when I want to get this stupid project out of the way. I know it's not going to be a one day thing and I can't exactly tell her to do it by herself.

Suddenly I feel a body press against my side and bringing my arm around them and I know it's Layla before I even look down at her.

"What's going on?" She wonders giving Miranda a friendly smile that didn't come off as genuine as she had hoped for it to.

"We were just figuring out when we are going to start on some project." I elaborate for Layla causing her to nod her head in response.

"Well you can't today remember." Layla informed me causing me to roll my eyes.

"Yeah I know. But Miranda come over Friday night and we will get it done, my dads friends birthday is then and my parents are going out to dinner so the only other person in the house will be Aaliyah." I tell her and I don't mean to make Layla jealous or anything like that it just seemed like a good idea to have Miranda over when no one else was around. I don't want my parents getting the wrong idea and there is no way they would let me explain being around a girl without jumping to conclusions.

"Okay I'll see you then." She smiles before walking off. As soon as she is gone I unwrap my arm from Layla, my strict no PDA policy coming back. I don't know why I was okay with wrapping my arm around Layla while Miranda was there but now Miranda is gone I can't stand the thought of anyone seeing me be all cuddly with her. Shrugging off the thought I keep moving down the hall to my locker to get the rest of my belonging before going home.

"Do you want me to drive you to your appointment?" She asks hopefully causing me to mentally roll my eyes.

"No my mum is picking me up." I answer simply not giving her any attention.

I hear Mitch approach us and slaps Layla's ass causing her to shove him into the lockers and yell at him. I ignore the pair as I get my belongings and get ready to go meet my mum.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Layla questions me causing me to frown. Why would I say something? I didn't do anything wrong so why should I have to apologies. They shouldn't be dragging me into their bullshit.

I shrug in response causing Mitch to let out a chuckle in response.

"How does it feel to know he doesn't care?" Mitch taunted and honestly I'm kind of glad he did. Layla needs to realize that I don't care about her as much as she cares about me. She needs to learn sooner or later before she gets hurt and I'm not leading her on, so whatever excuses she's making up for  me in her head she needs to stop.

"Don't worry, Shawn's just too much of a coward to stand up for people he claims to care about." I don't know who is more surprised Mitch, Layla or I. None of us had expected anyone to join in on our conversation especially not Arleigh who was only a few lockers down from us gathering her things. She closed her locker door and walked by us passing for a split second. "Trust me, I know." She retorted before walking down the crowded hallway.

The first one to break out of their trance was Mitch who began laughing hysterically. Layla did not look happy. Something about Arleigh's approach had ticked her off. Even if to anyone else it sounded like Arleigh was sticking up for Layla the reality was she was trying to make a point and that point was that I'm a jerk.

"Your girl's still got a mouth on her." Mitch winked still finding the humor in all of this.

*

Mitch cheered again as he won for the third time in a row. We have been playing COD for the last hour and the fact that Mitch keeps winning isn't fun for any of us. Especially because Mitch is the cockiest guy on the planet. If he is better than someone at something then you best believe he is going to make sure you hear about it.

"I'm going to order some pizza." Arleigh informs us getting off the arm rest of my chair. While Mitch, Andy, Jonnie, and I where all playing COD she decided to just sit and watch even though I knew very well that she was board out of her mind. The boys all gave words of agreement in response as she made her way to the kitchen.

Mitch followed in suit not long after needing to use the bathroom and I went up stairs to let Aaliyah know that Arleigh was ordering pizza for us all.

As I made my way downstairs I heard Arleigh yelling causing panic to rush through my body. I hurry down the stairs faster and find my way to the kitchen where she is shoving Mitch and swearing at him which is something Arleigh never usually did. Jonnie and Andy were watching the scene play out while Mitch just laughed, whether she liked it or not Arleigh wasn't really that strong so the harm she was trying to cause Mitch most likely didn't have an affect on him the way she had hoped which I knew very well would only make her more mad.

In a matter of seconds I'm across the room and wrapping my arms around Arleigh's waist pulling her away from Mitch who is still laughing. Arleigh kicked her legs and attempted to break free from my grip but it was no use. I placed her in the corner of the kitchen only to have her attempt to run at Mitch again but thankfully I stopped her.

"Arleigh, calm down!" I instruct only to have it fall on deaf ears. Her face is scrunched up in a deep frown and her brown eyes are filled with tears while her face is flushed with a deep pink colour. I had never seen her this angry before. Whatever Mitch did must have been bad.

"He's a fucking asshole!" Arleigh screamed. Causing me to hold her sides carefully.

"Arleigh just tell me what happened." I sigh.

"I hung up on the phone and then he was right behind me and he was pressing himself against me. I told him to get off but he wouldn't instead he started running his fingers under my shirt and saying the most disgusting shit." Her words come out rushed and unclear due to her outraged state.

I sigh tugging on the roots of my hair in frustration. As usual Mitch was being Mitch. The room fell silent as all eyes were on me. Arleigh was giving me an expectant look while the boys seemed unsure of what I was going to do.

"Well?" She probed when I didn't respond causing me to frown slightly.

"Well what?" I spat back probably too harshly. Her frown deepens and I'm sure I see hatred aimed at me in her eyes.

"Well aren't you going to do something?" She asks causing me to frown in confusion.

"Arleigh what am I supposed to do?" I wonder

"Um I don't know, something, anything. Your my boyfriend!" She shouted causing me to sigh.

"And he's my best friend." I add causing her mouth to gape open as if she were in the middle of watching a horror movie. "Look Arleigh, Mitch is Mitch, what do you expect?"

"I can't believe this!" She chuckled bitterly. "Your making excuses for him!" She announced causing me to roll my eyes.

"Arleigh stop being one of 'those girls'." I grown wanting this all to be over. The thing I had always liked about Arleigh was the fact that she had never been one of those girls who made me choose between her and my friends. She always respected that both were important to me.

"One of those girls?" She retorts. "He just did something seriously wrong and your excusing it! You are such a fucking coward." She fumed. "I can't believe you." And with that she pushed past me and made her way out of the kitchen.

Reluctantly I follow after her. Why do girls have to be so dramatic about everything.

"Arleigh." I call as I make my way out of the front door. "Arleigh." She ignore me again as she makes her way down the drive way. Picking up my pace I run towards her calling her name out again. After the third attempt I grip onto her arm forcing her to stop walking away from me.

"What am I supposed to do? Please tell me!" I beg completely clueless to the whole situation. Mitch always said things to her and she always ignored it, why was it such a big deal now?

"Your supposed to be there for me!" She yells the tears still falling from her eyes. "I've always looked at you as my hero Shawn. Your always the one to be there for me and help me through things but in there, that was a wake up call. You aren't who I always thought you were, you are a selfish jerk." I have to admit her words do hurt but they shouldn't  be aimed at me I'm not the one who did anything wrong Mitch is.

"Arleigh I'm seventeen years old, I'm not superman." I admit.

"You don't have to be superman or Albert Einstein to understand that what Mitch did was wrong." She claimed as if it was obvious. "I need to be alone right now." She continues when I don't respond.

"Are we over?" I ask hoping my voice doesn't come out as small as I feel right now.

"No, but from now on I'm not going to be looking at you the same." She answered before walking up the footpath to her house leaving me alone to try and figure out what that meant.

*

In a matter of seconds I'm running down the hallway chasing after Arleigh. I had never apologized to her for that time that I had chosen Mitch's side over hers and now I realize how much of a messed up fuck I was for doing that in the first place. Mitch had done something wrong and I had been so quick to defend him. Why had I been such a fucking idiot?

However when I make my way outside into the parking lot I can't find her anywhere in the swarm of students causing me to huff. I do however see my mums car where she always picks us up from. I get into the car as quickly as possible not wanting to have to face Mitch, Miranda, or Layla right now. I've had enough of other people to last me a life time.

"Hey." Mum greets which I mumble a response to as I lean my head on the window just desperate to get as far away from here as possible. I wish I could get as far away from myself as possible. I'm deeply disgusted with myself. I let Mitch get away with something he shouldn't have been allowed to do.

The drive to Jenny's office is silent and I'm sure mum can sense that my mood is off but doesn't say anything. When we get to the office I say goodbye before leaving the car and storming into the building abruptly. I walk straight past the receptionist and don't even bother taking a seat in the waiting room for Jenny to come and get me. Instead I barge straight into her office, which is thankfully free of clients, slam the door behind me and take a seat on the leather lounge. Jenny hides her surprised face well but not well enough. She is about to open her mouth to talk but I cut her off.

"Over a year ago I let someone get away with something that I shouldn't have excused. I love a girl and I let her get hurt. I could have done something to stop it, I should have! But I didn't. And now this girl hates me more than ever. But I'm still madly in love with her and I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get over her, but the thing is I don't think I ever do want to get over her." I surprise myself with my honesty. Never have I ever sat here in this spot and said a thing to Jenny and now here I am finally opening up. If she is shocked she doesn't show any expression to tell me. Instead she stays seated in her chair in front of me with her legs crossed and pen and note pad in hand.

Jenny asks me to tell her the story which I do only I don't give her any names. I tell her Arleigh is A and Mitch is M. If I give names I could get a lot of people into trouble and the last thing I want to do is open up one hundred percent to Jenny. I'm just choosing to finally stop wasting my parents time and money. However I'm positive I will never tell her what happened that night even though my parents want that to come out more than anything I just can't bring myself to do it. All I tell her about is the moment I just remembered. Mitch with his hands on Arleigh and how I let it happen.

"And this girl do you think about her often?" Jenny wonders.

"More than what should be considered normal." I answer disappointed in myself for allowing Arleigh to consume my thoughts so much. The girl is driving me into insanity.

"And do you talk to her?" She continues causing me to from and shake my head.

"I hurt her really bad and now she hates me and I don't blame her for it."  I summarized causing Jenny to hum.

"Shawn it seems to me that the only person who needs to forgive you is yourself. We are all human, we all make mistakes but you need to let it go." And this is why I never open up to Jenny. She gives the stupidest advice. She doesn't know what I did so she can't talk. She heard one small piece of something and now she thinks she knows me better than I know myself.

Yeah I can easily forgive and forget but that won't change what I did and it sure as hell won't change the rest of my life so what is the point in that? Here I am looking to her for advice in hopes of making things right and she's treating me like a puppy who accidentally splashed his water every where but is still rewarded with a treat.

And just like that I go back to my dark hole. My silent self giving only yes and no responses.