#Investing in Life Insurance for College

[retirenowis]

A Strategic Approach to College Savings Using Life Insurance for Long-Term Financial Security

Saving for college is a significant financial commitment, and families are constantly seeking strategies to ease this burden. One often overlooked option is saving for college with life insurance. This strategy offers flexibility and financial stability since it not only creates a safety net but also lets cash worth increase with time. Understanding the benefits of a life insurance college fund strategy can help families create a versatile and effective college savings plan.

What is Saving for College with Life Insurance?

Using a permanent life insurance policy—such as whole life or universal life insurance—saving for college with life insurance means building cash worth over time. Permanent life insurance policies generate cash value that is accessible to the policyholder for the duration of their lifetime, whereas term life insurance only offers coverage for a predetermined time. This growing cash value can be borrowed against or withdrawn to help cover the costs of college tuition, books, or other educational expenses.

Why Consider a Life Insurance College Fund Strategy?

A life insurance college fund strategy offers several unique advantages over traditional savings plans. Unlike 529 plans or other college savings accounts, the cash value in a life insurance policy can be used for any purpose, not just education. This flexibility ensures that if your child decides not to attend college, the money can still be utilized for other significant financial goals. Furthermore, the cash value grows tax-deferred, making this strategy a valuable tool for building long-term wealth.

How Does Life Insurance Help with College Savings?

The life insurance college fund strategy is particularly appealing because of the potential for tax-advantaged growth. As premiums are paid into the policy, a portion goes toward building cash value. Over time, this cash value grows, and when it’s time to pay for college, the policyholder can borrow against or withdraw from it. Since loans from life insurance policies are not taxed, it’s a tax-efficient way to access funds for higher education.

Flexibility and Security in College Planning

Unlike traditional college savings vehicles, saving for college with life insurance provides more flexibility. In cases where a child may receive scholarships or choose an alternative career path, the funds in a 529 plan can face tax penalties if used for non-educational purposes. Life insurance, on the other hand, does not have this limitation. The cash value remains available for a wide range of uses, offering financial security beyond education.

Start Early for Maximum Benefits

Starting alife insurance college fund strategy early is crucial for maximizing the benefits. The earlier a policy is purchased, the more time the cash value has to accumulate. By the time college expenses arise, there will be a substantial amount available to cover educational costs. Additionally, starting early ensures lower premiums, making it a more affordable long-term solution for families planning for the future.

Conclusion

Saving for college with life insurance is a flexible and tax-efficient strategy that provides both financial security and peace of mind. With a life insurance college fund strategy, families can build wealth, ensure protection, and fund educational expenses without facing the restrictions of traditional savings plans. Visit retirenowis.com for professional advice to investigate how this strategy might be customized to meet your financial objectives.

Blog Source URL :

[evilminji]

Actually? You know what would be darkly hilarious?

If, when the GIW can't get ghosts declared both malicious AND non-sapient/sentient? They push for "dumb animals" instead.

Which is accepted. Ghosts are animals. Checks out, says scientists everywhere.

HOW "dumb"?

What? Says the GIW, mid-victory high fives. They did not expect a follow up question. They SHOULD have, as this is the SCIENTIFIC community and that is literally their job, but here we are.

How. "Dumb"? The scientists repeate slower. What methodology did you use? What is your sample size? Are their different sub-species? Is this dimension like ours? Is Ghost the equivalent to Mammal? It says here their are humanoid ones.

What IQ are we talking about here and HOW DID YOU TEST??

A goldfish, parrot, and dolphin are all animals. WILDLY different levels of intelligence. You can't treat them the same. Technically speaking, WE are animals.

The GIW does not like where this conversation is going. Tries to shut it down.

.......well NOW the scientists are both offended AND invested. How DARE you try to push faulty science and hide the Truth from them! They're gonna do their OWN studies! *picks up the phone and dials that one embarrassing spiritualist friend they had in college* Hey! You still think you can summon ghosts? I'll pay you to try it for Science!

And like? As a Ghost? It's degrading as hell. But ALSO these fuckos just Whoopsie'd you into having both protections under the law, since animal abuse IS illegal, AND just put the ENTIRE planets scientific community on their asses.... by accident.

So you take a deeeeeeep breath you don't even need. Remember you're doing this for the little ghost babies and fluffy ghost animals. And show up at a research facility like "yes, hello, I am Ghost. Here for you to poke and prod at. Please ask me to name the object on the flash card or whatever IQ tests do these days."

Should you HAVE to prove your own fucking sentience? No. But? You do it. You're even polite about it. Ask for a copy of the study they plan to publish so you can BEAT some mother fuckers with it. The scientists nod in understanding and use the BIG font for your copy so it'll hurt more.

They've been there.

And just? Shitty people getting what they wanted only to have it blow up in their faces?? I see all these angst "but what if they were declared ANIMALS" prompts and I just?? Are we talking PARROT or goldfish!? One has the average intelligence of about a human 4yr old and the other is a FISH! People get RIGHTFULLY furious when you treat INTELLIGENT animals badly.

And would, in fact, adapt pretty easy to discovering one of said animal has become HUMAN lvl intelligent. It's easy to grasp the idea of human intelligence lvl dolphin or monkeys. Maybe there was some mutated strain, maybe in uetro tampering. Who knows. But if I tried to sell you a human intelligent housefly? Gold fish? Lizard?

You wouldn't believe me. There is some kind of trick at play.

So if GHOSTS are seen as animals? Everyone nods and then later? Someone comes in TV and very excitedly informs you "we found INTELLIGENT LIFE amongst the ghosts!" You'd believe it. Probably be really excited by your conversation starter for the day. Get a taco and move on with your life.

But? Having to willing sit for a barrage of testing? Is going to suuuuuuck so bad. Poor Danny. SATs all over again. For HOURS. At multiple facilities, just to be CERTAIN it's not a one off. All because he not certain he can insure good behavior from other ghosts and This Is IMPORTANT. He ALSO can't be certain it's even SAFE.

Might be a trap.

But if he has to do it again and again and again? Mexico to Bavaria to China to the Maldives? If this is what it takes for the scientific community to bitchslap the GIW into ORBIT before the UN? Hand him that pencil.

He has no where more important to be.

@hdgnj @nerdpoe @mutable-manifestation @ailithnight @the-witchhunter

[financeprincess]

I spent, at a minimum, at least $500-$1,000 a month exclusively on my self improvement. Here is most of what I spend on, in no particular order:

Education (classes, books, courses, certifications, college tuition, seminars, etc.)

Private lessons for languages, musical instruments, sports, etc.

Personal hobbies and passion projects

Crest whitening strips (great when in a pinch), Invisalign, professional whitening, preventative dental care, prescription whitening products from my dentist

Investments such as index funds, REITs, ETFs, CDs, individual stocks, commodities, appreciative luxury items, precious metals & gems, etc.

Organic food, vitamins, supplements, high quality healthcare, therapy, massages, prescriptions (Rx skincare, etc.)

New glasses & contacts (getting some bayonetta glasses from Burberry soon, very excited)

Sports, gym membership + sauna, hot yoga, Pilates, kickboxing, tennis, skiing, dance, etc.

Personal care such as bath/shower products, body care, haircare, skincare, makeup, brightening eye drops, perfume, etc.

Travel, events, concerts, festivals, etc.

Shopping (clothes, accessories, home goods, etc.)

Eating out at restaurants and going to coffee shops

Beauty treatments such as manicures, pedicures, waxes, brow tint & threading, salon blowouts, hair cuts & colors, facials, lash lift & tints, vitamin IVs, etc.

Regular visits to my dermatologist, dentist, psychiatrist, eye doctor, primary care physician, gynecologist, and any other specialists

Semi-regular appointments with a personal trainer, holistic nutritionist, and dietitian

I don't do all of these every single month, but most of these are recurring throughout the year and budgeted accordingly. Eventually I might add in more intense cosmetic work like medspa services, Botox, etc. If you can find a workplace with a great benefits package such as high quality healthcare, an HSA/FSA, health & wellness reimbursements for the gym, disability & life insurance, etc. I would highly recommend it and max out all the benefits you can.

[dreamdolldeveloper]

back to basics

mostly free resources to help you learn the basics that i've gathered for myself so far that i think are cool

everyday

gcfglobal - about the internet, online safety and for kids, life skills like applying for jobs, career planning, resume writing, online learning, today's skills like 3d printing, photoshop, smartphone basics, microsoft office apps, and mac friendly. they have core skills like reading, math, science, language learning - some topics are sparse so hopefully they keep adding things on. great site to start off on learning.

handsonbanking - learn about finances. after highschool, credit, banking, investing, money management, debt, goal setting, loans, cars, small businesses, military, insurance, retirement, etc.

bbc - learning for all ages. primary to adult. arts, history, science, math, reading, english, french, all the way to functional and vocational skills for adults as well, great site!

education.ket - workplace essential skills

general education

mathsgenie - GCSE revision, grade 1-9, math stages 1-14, provides more resources! completely free.

khan academy - pre-k to college, life skills, test prep (sats, mcat, etc), get ready courses, AP, partner courses like NASA, etc. so much more!

aleks - k-12 + higher ed learning program. adapts to each student.

biology4kids - learn biology

cosmos4kids - learn astronomy basics

chem4kids - learn chemistry

physics4kids - learn physics

numbernut - math basics (arithmetic, fractions and decimals, roots and exponents, prealgebra)

education.ket - primary to adult. includes highschool equivalent test prep, the core skills. they have a free resource library and they sell workbooks. they have one on work-life essentials (high demand career sectors + soft skills)

youtube channels

the organic chemistry tutor

khanacademy

crashcourse

tabletclassmath

2minmaths

kevinmathscience

professor leonard

greenemath

mathantics

3blue1brown

literacy

readworks - reading comprehension, build background knowledge, grow your vocabulary, strengthen strategic reading

chompchomp - grammar knowledge

tutors

not the "free resource" part of this post but sometimes we forget we can be tutored especially as an adult. just because we don't have formal education does not mean we can't get 1:1 teaching! please do you research and don't be afraid to try out different tutors. and remember you're not dumb just because someone's teaching style doesn't match up with your learning style.

cambridge coaching - medical school, mba and business, law school, graduate, college academics, high school and college process, middle school and high school admissions

preply - language tutoring. affordable!

revolutionprep - math, science, english, history, computer science (ap, html/css, java, python c++), foreign languages (german, korean, french, italian, spanish, japanese, chinese, esl)

varsity tutors - k-5 subjects, ap, test prep, languages, math, science & engineering, coding, homeschool, college essays, essay editing, etc

chegg - biology, business, engineering/computer science, math, homework help, textbook support, rent and buying books

learn to be - k-12 subjects

for languages

lingq - app. created by steve kaufmann, a polygot (fluent in 20+ languages) an amazing language learning platform that compiles content in 20+ languages like podcasts, graded readers, story times, vlogs, radio, books, the feature to put in your own books! immersion, comprehensible input.

flexiclasses - option to study abroad, resources to learn, mandarin, cantonese, japanese, vietnamese, korean, italian, russian, taiwanese hokkien, shanghainese.

fluentin3months - bootcamp, consultation available, languages: spanish, french, korean, german, chinese, japanese, russian, italian.

fluenz - spanish immersion both online and in person - intensive.

pimsleur - not tutoring** online learning using apps and their method. up to 50 languages, free trial available.

incase time has passed since i last posted this, check on the original post (not the reblogs) to see if i updated link or added new resources. i think i want to add laguage resources at some point too but until then, happy learning!!

[theweirdwideweb]

I'm on my second career path choice after disliking my first choice (both fields required schooling), and I'm finding that I also strongly dislike my second choice. I'll be 27 soon and I'm feeling like a failure. All I want is to make decent money and not be miserable. I really thought the fields I chose would be right for me when I chose them and had to learn the hard way that they weren't. I'm tired, tired of being a perpetual beginner and of spending so much time and energy on schooling and "figuring it out". I just want to be doing the thing and move forwards so I can focus on the things that really matter to me. Any advice for someone in this position?

It sounds really frustrating. I wish we lived in a world where a person was free to explore careers without attaching a university size price tag to it. Here's the deal though: 27 is not old. I know it feels old, but I promise you it's not. I'm 37 myself and exploring my options and I don't feel too old at all. Many people do it. Since you're asking for my advice, I think for now you can work the highest paying job you can stand and pay off debt. Personal fulfillment in one's career is something to be envied, but obviously not the reality for most people. Show up, cash your check, pay down debt, and invest time and energy into your relationships and hobbies. I imagine your disillusionment with the first two careers might have been caused by any number of factors: 1) A misunderstanding of what working the career looks like day to day. 2) A youthful ignorance to the realities of capitalism. 3) The personal transformation that occurs between the ages of 18-27 changed you into a person that's no longer interested in the things you once were. The good news is that your personality begins to settle as you approach 30. You know much better what you need and want, your limitations, and the limitations of the world around you. I think you'll find the career path you're looking for. Just buckle down, make some money, make a secure place for yourself financially and socially, then revisit the subject when your sense of self solidifies.

Now I never talk about this because it's plain rude and makes me look like a jackass. When I went to college at 18 I had a small fortune from my dead father's life insurance. $250,000 or right about there. I spent all that money in 4 years and landed flat on my ass at 22 with nothing. I worked assembly line, food court, drug dealing, writing for scam websites, retail, online sex work, and even sold buttons at sports games. It took me until I was 28 to go back to school and I had to take out student loans to do it. But by that time I knew what I wanted. That initial failure of losing all that money, in the end, gave me the life experience to make wise choices. It was soul crushing the entire time but even the poor can make due with friends and a sense of humor. Don't beat yourself up. The past is the past. You will be fine.

[creatingnikki]

things to remember in 2023

goodbye emo era, goodbye empath era, goodbye all you eras that have been putting others + emotions at the center of everything. hello self-serving era. self-serving, not selfish. see, more accurate vocabulary can make all the difference. 

choose people who choose you. bare minimum is not impressive. it’s only an indicator that hmmm maybe I can explore what something with this person could lead to. it’s the basic eligibility criteria for opening up your time/schedule to someone, not heart. only time. 

new people don’t need to know life stories and trauma from before 2018. if you want to talk about it just write about it, write it into your book. 

do not listen to your parents. I mean this in the most respectful possible way. you are an adult now, you make your own decisions. because 20 years from now if you are sad and miserable and hating your life and you tell them hey it’s because you made me la la la chances are they are going to turn around and be like nobody forced you, you were an adult, you made your own decisions. so just make your own decisions. and they would be right. like just dodge the emotional manipulation and the drama and the guilt and lack of validation from them for a bit and go ahead and do things you want to in your life. and you already have daddy issues, right? pacify them in bed or something idk. just make your own bloody decisions independent of what your family/others expect of you.

explore more Hindi music. 

channelize certain things you’ve seen in most men around you. channelize compartmentalization. channelize binary problem solving. channelize cutting your losses and exiting at the right time from romantic situations that do not have any future no matter how much you feel for them in the present. 

do not force yourself to write fiction. maybe you don’t want to create stories. maybe you just want to write down what you already know. maybe you just want to write creative non-fiction. why is that a bad thing? don’t you think it’s time to let go of the ideas you have hyper-romanticized and see things for what they really are and then work with them? 

dating apps are not where you will find love. hook-ups, maybe. but drama-free hook-ups? yeah, not quite sure about that either. let’s just go back to how we were before? let’s just focus on our life and believe that love will happen if and when it’s supposed to? 

self-dates must make a return. you found that amazing second-hand bookseller next to your home and your favourite cafe from Bangalore is now in Mumbai and so many new art galleries are opening up around and when was the last time you went to Marine Drive and maybe it’s time to sneak into your college to go have your favourite food again from the canteen and maybe after work you can stay around and explore the popular bars and maybe you can find a post office next to your new apartment so you can start sending letters and packages to your best friend again. I know, I know 2022 was a year of such dramatic highs that gave you such adrenaline rush that coming back to things that were more grounded and brought you joy seems difficult but baby please. you cannot run towards psychosis so soon, okay? come back. 

on that note, let’s find a yoga class around your apartment and also a gurudwara. 

sign up for experiences and invest for the long term but do not invest in material things like furniture. at this point you are the typical mid-20s person who is free to up and leave whenever and wherever and you haven’t found a place you want to call home yet anyway. so keep your money liquid, don’t lock it up in stupid things, but invest for the long-term in equity assets to create wealth. also, go meet your accountant please. and get life insurance. 

do not let family stuff get to you emotionally. deal with it in a logistic, functional, and objective way. as much as possible. 

you really don’t have to respond to people within 24 hours, 48 hours, or even a week. I mean other than very few selected people (family, best friend, and your partner), nobody is owed your immediate attention. and even these inner circle people are owed your immediate attention only in a way where you keep them in the loop to let them know you are alive and doing okay. 

you are a warm person and it’s easy for people to like you wherever you go. but you have such limited time, energy, and brain cells. you cannot scale yourself like a company. which means if you more people want to get to know you, talk to you, etc., you can’t supply them with that because you are not a scalable product. okay? okay. 

earning more money will help only in a limited manner if you do not budget and control your spending. it’s not the person who earns more that is rich but the person who saves and invests and doesn’t take debt for consumption purposes. you can no longer be the ironic financial writer like in the confessions of a shopaholic. you are no longer a kid, you are an adult who has to take care of yourself and soon your dependents and so you cannot keep ranting on about capitalism while falling constant prey to it. instead you have to benefit from it.

figure out what is your choice of poison. for when you wanna just vibe, for when you want to get drunk drunk, for when you wanna be bhand. figure it out. 

think of studying Korean as doing an undergrad degree. so you know you have to stick with this for the next three years. this way you don’t see it as a short-term fancy but as a longer term commitment and reach level 6 of fluency in the language. this way, by the time you are in your late 20s, you will actually be able to read Korean books in Hangul and not the English translation. that’s your goal, isn’t it? and writing poetry in Korean too. 

your high school friend answered the question no doctor was. when you drink alcohol, make sure there is a 3-hour gap between that and your medication. but also keep the drinking in check. I mean honestly, iced coffee and fresh fruit juices for the win. 

you go through people like you go through books. but people are not books. time to pick up actual books again and press pause on people. 

do not commit anything to anybody because you have no sense of stability or certainty in your life right now. that doesn’t make you flighty. that doesn’t make you irresponsible. in fact, it makes you responsible because you aren’t making promises you aren’t sure you are capable of keeping even if you want to keep them. actions > intentions. 

time to have a skincare routine. your sister has written you a whole blog on it - just follow that. 

also oh my god. being twenty five/twenty six does not make you old. you don’t have to look at the younger people you interact with and feel uncool or outdated because then that’s how you’ll always feel. like when you were younger, you would look at the older people and think they are so cool, graceful, smart, and badass. divine, even. then that’s what you are becoming now. not knowing what certain emojis and slang means really has no bearing on how relevant you are. 

this isn’t an exhaustive list, so come back. don’t just write this and forget all about it. come back, review, revise, add. but most importantly, remember. remember this is for you. so that you minimise pain and failure and shitty feelings and maximise peace and success and joy. and you do like optimum utilisation of resources, don’t you? so do that. apply yourself for yourself. that’s where the returns are the highest. 

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Possible trigger warning for mentions of death!

So in 2016, my aunt passed away of cancer. She had 2 kids who, at the time, were 14 and 12. My aunt ended up leaving a solid chunk of life insurance and every month from the time she passed away, until they turned 18, the children were given checks. Well the youngest just turned 18 in July and is starting college. She just found out that her sperm donor wasted all the money and she has nothing. He is telling people he "invested it" and the business went under a few years ago and he lost it all. (that doesn't explain the missing checks though). Yet somehow, he was able to build a new home, buy an RV, and a truck, and take weekly camping trips plus monthly plane trips to Vegas with his new (unemployed) wife. Well he made a long rambling post on Facebook about how proud of his "little girl" he is cause she was just dropped off for college, and he is sad he isn't with her. (he is on one of his many Vegas trips with his wife instead of being with his daughter while she moves on to campus). I called him out. I shared the post demanding where her, and her older brothers money went, since she had to take out nearly 40k worth of loans for 1 year old college. Apparently none of his family knew about this and he's calling me every name under the sun because I handled a private issue with him publicly. Hell, even my family said I should have kept it private. Should I have?

What are these acronyms?

[esoteric-chaos]

Let’s Talk Money Magic

Money bowls. Green candles. Magical Cashbooks. These things all work but how effective are they really in the brand scheme of things?

Let me let you in on a little secret. They aren’t that effective. Well, they are, but they aren’t, and I’ll tell you why. Have you ever done a spell or a manifestation for money, but your car may have broken down, and your insurance gave you a large sum of money to fix it? You still have your money, but at what cost? Or perhaps you came into a large sum of inheritance out of nowhere due to a family member passing. This is more of an extreme example, of course.

This all ties into mundane and magical. If you don’t have a mundane path for that financial sorcery to fall upon, how else are the spirits/universe going to give you what you desire? They are going to find a way, just might not be in the way you want.

At the end of the day we live in a capitalist society, everyone is one paycheck away from becoming homeless these days. In order for financial magic to work we need multiple lines of income. Either that be a job, investments, a business, etc. That’s just the reality of things. You may receive that occasional sum of money from the government for an unclaimed amount but how often does that actually happen? The answer is not often.

Money and Mindset

I’m order for us to become successful with money we need to change our mindset about money. A lot of us have trauma stemming from generations having to due with finances. Some might call these energetic blockages that stop us from reaching our full potential. Which in a way that is true. It stops us from deciding and reaching our goals.

Through changing our relationship with money and our mindset. We start to notice a shift in our life. Maybe we find our passion that leads us to what we want to do as a career that’s more prosperous. Maybe we go into a business and we have great sales. We look into proper investing techniques and make a big decision and it happens to pay off.

Look at your ancestors relationship with money, your parents, and yourself. This is where you need to dig deep and look at it. Once you change your relationship with money, it flourishes in other aspects of your life. Healing that wound with finances is what’s really going to help you.

Being abundant is not about getting a check here and there. It's about enchanting your life.

Money Magic and Disabilities

In a world where we need to constantly learn, adapt and change we need to look at ways for us to make money in order for us to be financially abundant. However we run into situations like being disabled and not being able to work a career, relying on the government. Not everyone will be so lucky to even be able perform successful constant money workings.

Pushing this financial magic can be harmful, especially to those who are disabled and can’t work. So what can we do in the meantime? Here is my post on what we CAN do in the meantime.

For those who are able-bodied, the reality is that in this day and age, you will have to monetize your craft and seek higher education if you are to be financially abundant. Here is a link to a post on different avenues to do just that to build upon skills.

Also, bad grades? No problem. Check out your local community colleges; they sometimes offer free course upgrades.

The Mundane Before Magic

The spirits cannot grant you wealth without a direct avenue for it to deliver itself.

For example, you want a job but are not searching for one. If we look at probability here, there is a very low chance you'll be getting that job without actively looking. Magic can only give you so much before you have to start putting work into it.

Now, if we consider you wanting to get a raise at your job, you've put in the mundane work, lined up all of your avenues, and finally done the magical to set it all up. Your chances of getting that raise are much higher.

Now, the more avenues of income you have, a business, a job and investments, AND you did prosperity workings on top of that. That's where you'll get the real results. However, let's be honest, who has the time for all of that? It is true, though, that the more avenues of income you have, the easier time prosperity magic will come to you.

How to use Money Magic

Now let’s go into how to really work with financial magic. I talked a bit about this in this post.

Prosperity altars are so important, in my opinion, if you want to start building wealth in a magical sense. What not a better way to build wealth than by working with the spirit of money itself?

Here are some basic item suggestions to get started. You're going to want to keep within the gold and green colour scheme, which symbolise wealth and prosperity.

Altar cloth

Corresponding prosperity crystals

Corresponding herbs

Money tree

Prosperity incense

Candles

Coins

A money bowl, Jupiter cashbox, manifestation mirror box, etc

(Realistic) Petitions

Alcohol offerings (Rum or Whiskey)

Want to change your mindset when it comes to money?

In Jason Miller's Book Financial Sorcery, a ritual called Moving Your Setpoint helps you transform your past mindsets into your desired mindset. I have not personally tried this ritual, but I've heard success from those who have.

Alternatively, you could try a dedication/values ritual where you dedicate yourself to the best version of yourself or even a phoenix ritual of transformation.

Blessings

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #79: Harry Potter, but make it Petunia Evans

I once asked my mother If you could travel into any fictional world, which would it be? and she unhesitatingly answered Harry Potter. While there's much to be said about the HP universe, it's not exactly a world I'd want to live in, and so I spent the last several months figuring out how, if I were to write an HP SI, would I do it, and eventually came up with this.

Or: What if the SI were to replace Petunia Evans as a young girl?

Just imagine it:

Rather than a true self-insert, I see this as more of modern muggle meets the British Wizarding World, with a middle-aged HP fan waking up in the body of 5-year-old Petunia Evans following a minor illness. The keyword here is fan - or rather, a critical fan - who enjoyed the books but is not unaware of their problems, be they with they author or the text - and particularly the way that, as one gets older, the less benevolent Dumbledore seems.

Once the SI has resigned herself to waking up in the body of Petunia Josephine Evans (two wars, puberty, and all of the 80s to live through again!), she realizes very quickly there is very little she can do to change the events of the first Wizarding War. All she can do is try to live the best life possible and provide a better life for young Harry Potter when he eventually shows up in her care.

(Starting with choosing to go by a short form of her middle name, Jo, instead of Petunia, as she thinks she might stab the next adult who tries to call her Pet after less than a week in her new life.)

Jo does this in number of ways - mainly by taking advantage of once having been a middle-aged woman with an engineering background and breezing through her education. Having been born only 18 months before Lily, Jo is 12-and-a-half when Lily gets her Hogwarts letter in January 1971 and studying for her A-levels and preparing to go to Oxford in the fall.

Unlike canon Petunia, Jo has no desire to go to Hogwarts - not only does she know exactly what the professor who comes to introduce Lily to the Wizarding World isn't telling her overawed parents, but she's never been close with her sister. Or any of her family. She's tried - she really has - but the Evans family had a clear favorite long before Lily ever learned of her magic. (Jo knows her parents' wedding date, precisely five months before she was born, and thinks that explains much of their feelings towards her; and the way her father in particular is taken with magic makes her think he might be a second-generation squib over the moon to see magic return to his line.)

While Lily is studying magic, Jo attends Oxford. By age 16 she has a BA and MA in Medieval History - specializing in the history of science (Think Diana Bishop in A Discovery of Witches). She gets herself emancipated the same year and starts in on her doctoral studies.

Once a week, she'll slip into the magical section of the university library system and pick up some back copies of The Daily Prophet, just to keep abreast of all the things Lily never tells their parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans die in a car crash in late 1977, when Jo is 19 and Lily has just started her Seventh Year. Lily doesn't come home for the funeral, which Jo is left to plan all by herself. As Lily is not yet an adult in the muggle world, her care is left to Jo for the last few months, but when she finally gets a reply to her letters it's all don't pretend you care now, you abandoned us the first chance you got and you were always jealous of my magic anyway. This is the last Jo will ever hear from her sister, not getting so much as a birth announcement for little Harry.

By Halloween 1981, Jo has earned her doctorate in Medieval History and is working as an associate professor at the university. The pay is terrible, but she has all the insurance money from the Evans and some healthy investments based off her knowledge of her original world, enough for her to buy a small house near the college.

She stays up all Halloween night, waiting.

Harry Potter never arrives.

Jo spends all of 1 November fretting over what she might have changed to change this and falls asleep early, exhausted. When she wakes on the morning of 2 November, she finds her 15-month-old nephew on her doorstep.

And here's where things truly start to change.

That first week, Jo reaches out to a friend in the muggle child welfare department she may have originally cultivated for just this reason, explaining that her estranged sister's son has just appeared on her doorstep without any documentation other than a letter saying that his family has been killed and Harry's care falls to her.

Once the emergency paperwork has been filed on the muggle side, she girds her loins and heads to Gringotts. The goblins aren't the friendliest beings around, but they are fastidious. Jo has the muggle paperwork and a mildly threatening letter from Dumbledore stating she is to be Harry Potter's guardian, and so she gains control of the Potter financials and another layer of paperwork to back up her claim.

From there, a trip to a Wizarding lawyer to 1) file everything with the Ministry and 2) keep her underage nephew's name out of the papers is all she needs to finalize things. It may be overkill, but she's taking no chances when it comes to Dumbledore and his greater good.

And then she settles down into the business of raising Harry.

Jo is not the maternal type, but she manages to be a fairly decent parent nonetheless. Besides, Harry is a happy, easygoing baby, eager to explore his new home even if he doesn't quite understand why his parents had to go away.

So it's a surprise when, nearly a year into the endeavor, an auror and a representative from Wizarding child services arrives at her door. (Apparently her paperwork was all that was needed to remind the wizarding world that they had a duty of care to a magical orphan, no matter how famous, and the last year has been spent in legal battles where Dumbledore tried to suppress all knowledge of Harry's whereabouts and various others tried to attain that knowledge for various reasons, none of which anyone bothered to inform Harry's muggle guardian about.)

Regardless of the exact reasons for the delay, the visit goes well, and Jo ends up inviting the auror - Kingsley Shaklebolt - to return and tell Harry about his parents and the Wizarding world as he grows up, as she certainly can't tell him anything.

Harry's childhood is a montage of exactly what you'd imagine growing up in the care of an Oxford don would be. Kingsley is his most regular visitor, but with a Wizarding section to the college he eventually is introduced to others and their children for the occasional playdate. He's happy and healthy and a little more bookish than canon - a Ravenclaw with Gryffindor tendencies - and never quite forgets his aunts early lessons that critical thinking should be applied to everything, be it textbooks or news reports or children's books.

Harry's Hogwarts years pass exactly as one might expect when a child with an active and motivated guardian is placed repeatedly in danger. Particularly when that guardian is close friends with an auror who continues to pay weekly visits even after her charge leaves for boarding school.

Dumbledore is placed on suspension on allegations of child endangerment following the events of First Year, meaning Lucius Malfoy never feels the need to drop the Diary into Ginny's cauldron to cause trouble for the Light. He makes it out of the legal proceedings with all his titles, but with more than a little egg on his face. Part of the settlement involves increased security at Hogwarts - and changes to the ward scheme mean both Sirius and Wormtail are found shortly after the start of Third Year, given trials, and dealt with accordingly.

Sirius tries to gain custody of Harry immediately, but Jo refuses to even let him near the boy until he's gotten some of the mental help he so clearly needs after so much time with the Dementors.

Jo absolutely puts her foot down for the Triwizard Tournament, which Harry manages to get out of with her help, but he still ends up kidnapped at the end of the year while everyone is too busy watching the Third Task to notice. Voldemort is resurrected with help of Barty Crouch Jr - but because Crouch failed to check Harry for emergency portkeys, is able to escape as soon as his bindings are cut. He's dropped, covered in blood, straight into the middle of the Auror Offices.... which helps a lot of people to believe someone at least tried to resurrect Voldy, even if very few believe he succeeded and it's not an imposter running around.

With the Wizarding World aware there's someone running around calling himself Voldemort, even if very few believe it's the original, events of Fifth Year are vastly different. Dumbledore tries to pull most of his HBP tricks - the lessons, Slughorn, Snape taking over DADA - but they fail, largely because of that critical thinking thing Jo hammered into Harry as he was growing up. He passes along everything he's learned to Jo and Kingsley - the latter who, with some nudging from Jo, puts together Horcruxes and mobilizes the parts of the Ministry he can trust.

Sixth Year is largely Kingsley and co tracking down and destroying Horcruxes while Voldemort rages war across the Wizarding World. It goes so well he makes an open play for the Ministry at the end of the year - only to be killed by Kingsley during the battle, the last of his Horcruxes having been destroyed without his knowledge not long beforehand.

Kingsley is hailed as the new savior of the Wizarding World - a position Harry gladly abdicates - and is very quickly installed as the new Minister of Magic.

Harry goes on to graduate Hogwarts, gain a Mastery in Alchemy, and make several advancements in medical fields that earn him an Order of Merlin in his own right.

As for Jo? Well, she continues teaching at Oxford, eventually gaining a full professorship and writing several well-received books popularizing the History of Science. She never marries, but by the middle of Harry's third year is more or less living openly with Kingsley. They end up having one child together - very much a surprise, as Jo was convinced it was early onset menopause until the fifth month - born May 2, 1998, whom they name Elizabeth Evans-Shaklebolt. There are many in this Ministry who take umbrage at their Minister's ongoing affair with a muggle, but oddly enough its Kingsley's openness about his relationship with leads to an easing of tensions between the purebloods and muggleborns on the theory if a muggle is good enough for the minister, there must be something to them. Things are still far from perfect in the British Wizarding World by the time he retires, but the political situation is less tense than it's been since before the First World War.

Bonuses include: 1) A slow-burn friends to lovers arc for Jo and Kingsley that surprises both of them, with their friendship developing over the years as he visits Harry and not switching gears to romance until Kingsley continues to visit Jo's little house in Oxford after Harry goes off to Hogwarts (and realizes those visits were never just about Harry.) Theirs is not a grand, fated romance, but sneaks up on them like a sunrise after a long, dark night, and settles quite quickly into domestic bliss; 2) The Evans family being portrayed as not evil or intentionally cruel so much as personal circumstances led to Mr. and Mrs. Evans playing favorites with their children, and Lily internalizing herself as the "good" child and Jo as the "bad" one, deserving of scorn, regardless of her actions. For Lily, this was helped along by her childhood friendship with Snape, where she internalized the magic good, muggles jealous of magic, and the political situation at Hogwarts, where it became Light magic good, Dark wizards bad, everyone else in need of our guidance. It's a very black-and-white view and she might possibly have grown out of it in time, but she was never given the chance. (Or she might have played favorites with her own children, as her parents had done with her). She, like James, was far from perfect; and 3) Harry portrayed as a Gryffindor-leaning Ravenclaw who is friendly across all houses but who occasionally runs into trouble for not being Gryffindor enough for those who grew up hearing his story and a bit off-putting to children his own age after spending so much time around adults growing up. He grows out of the latter in time - though, as with Hermione in canon, there are growing pains - but not the former - which leads him to go after the stone in his first year in the first place. He should always be a little disappointed there's not more to Hogwarts and should always keep one foot in the Muggle world, earning Chemistry degrees to go along with his Alchemy Mastery. This too works to popularize Wizards getting advanced muggle education, which paves the way in time for greater advancements in the Wizarding World.

And that is all I have - admittedly light on Harry's Hogwarts years, but then again my issue with HP SI is that I, personally, would not want to attend Hogwarts. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you ever do anything with it.

Other SIs: Lysa Arryn | Petunia Evans | Princess of Dol Amroth

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[jbfly46]

More people in America have college degrees than people who can read at the level of the standard 7th grader. These people are not blue collar workers, they are administrators. People who are barely literate are overseeing your child's education from elementary to college. They're deciding if your child's behavior deserves expulsion, or recommending your child be put on prescription drugs. They're overseeing your cancer treatment at hospitals. Some are doctors, some are telling doctors what they can and can't prescribe you, some are telling doctors to put people on ventilation when they don't need ventilation. They're denying you medical treatments at health insurance offices. They're denying your claims in other types of insurance offices. They're overseeing your 401k and other retirement plans. They're in police departments deciding what to charge people with, and telling officers to raid the wrong house. They're in Sheriff's offices denying law abiding citizens carry permits. They decide what goes on your legal background check and medical records. They're developing "treatment plans" for people with mental health and addiction problems. They've been in the Navy deciding who needs to be spied on and who to drone strike. They're in judge's chairs deciding who deserves life and who deserves death. They're in real estate investment firms deciding how much your house is worth. They've been in big tech deciding what content should be censored and who to ban. They're in consulting firms telling politicians what is and isn't a good idea. They're denying people housing based on just a Google search of their names. They're in the white house deciding how to interpret the constitution, and how much leeway the wording of the constitution gives them. They're in colleges deciding recruitment quotas. They're voting based on feelings. People who can barely read have been, and still are, running your lives.

[princessnijireiki]

money is such a funny thing, bc it's always simultaneously way less and way more than you would think, too.

like there's the easy joke of $5, $20, $100 is HUGE when you're a kid or young adult, but I also fairly recently was in a position where I had like $1K in the bank (in a sweet spot between a TON of major bills hitting) and it was like oh wow so $1K is a lot until it VERY SUDDENLY ISN'T bc it only STAYS a lot if your needs are already met. if your needs surpass your means, or frankly, you've been scraping by below or within your means but really shouldn't have been, that shit evaporates in an instant. car, teeth, emergency vet bills, food. poof!

or I saw a hypothetical, would you rather know every language on earth fluently, or get $3 million dollars? and I had to crunch the numbers, because if you work every year from 18 to 78 (as in well past retirement age/at the end of a lot of people's projected lifespan), you'd have to make $50K per year AFTER taxes, every year for 60 years, to earn an ACCUMULATED $3 million. at $30K/year, you'd have to work 100 years.

and then, the flipside of that is, unless you die at exactly those ages, peacefully and in perfect health, how many people still struggle to make ends meet at $30-50K even when they ARE young and healthy? what's that look like in a hurricane, or after a car wreck, a disability, having a pet, having a KID, a marriage, a divorce, a funeral? how many people make $30-50K and when that check engine light comes on, or their child needs braces, or grandma needs a home health aide, or they get injured or sick and need to take FMLA, they realize that one thing now has them financially fucked? how many people making $30-50K per year do you know who have 6 months' worth of expenses set aside in an emergency savings account?

meanwhile, for $3,000,000, that money as a lump you don't have to touch or live paycheck to paycheck on also means you can accumulate interest, invest money, and so on. the access to lifetimes of funds to provide ease to this one life is a huge privilege most of us will never, ever know, and then you find out some stupid as fuck movie or commercial campaign cost tens or hundreds of millions. those rich people who got squished in the idiot submarine... lifetimes of wealth between them and their imploding stupid boat.

and so you look at all that, and you look at what medical debt looks like, or recovery from a fire or something, and once you see enough of that, the lottery fantasy answers get a lot more boring. like, I'd still have to finish this degree, get and keep a job to carry insurance and max out my retirement— maybe a flexible enough job that you grind for a few years to replace your house's down payment in the lump sum, then pull mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc. out of that interest, and the job income is pure health insurance, 401K, and takeout/walking around money. you pay your debts, help take care of a handful of loved ones, retire them early or pay off a house (over time, so the interest can still accrue on a bigger amount of money than the new sum from X minus $house). splurge on a vacation every so often. set up a college fund for a few kids, or neices, or nephews, or cousins.

and then it's like... go fishing. eat well! learn to sleep without fear of poverty, I don't know. know that if the money can grow, it can help a LOT of people feel safe, and that succumbing to the emotional urge to take care of everybody before that egg can grow bigger is what keeps people in multigenerational poverty, and that it's gonna mean things don't get to be easy for you mentally, emotionally, or even in terms of labor unless you're cashing out your chips right now to take care of yourself (which is also valid!). pick a charity every year to make their day.

and it's bonkers that $3mil feels like such a real number compared to some of these lotteries or very wealthy people/their property in the world, that even though it's cartoonishly out of reach, among the stars, it feels like, "is it even that much?" and like... yes, it very much is lmao, even though if you're under 50 it's not guaranteed "never have to work again" money. but that also means it's not "buy a castle & become a beekeeper slash professional poet as my only sources of income" big dreams & fantasies money, either.

[xiafeng]

Invest

So much of my life has felt like some scam of a time-investment pyramid scheme. Work hard in high school so that I can go to a good college. Do well in said college to get a good job. Do well in that job to get a better position. Perform well in that new position to work for a better company. Keep working well to earn good money to use when I want to settle down, buy a house, have a wedding. Continue working well to maintain the cost of mortgage, utilities, insurances. And after all that is paid off, I better still have saved enough so I can retire at a reasonable age. But don't spend it all at once, I need to have money on hand to support my next generation through the unknown future.

And all the while, there's a romantic investment happening simultaneously. Spend the time swiping through options, getting to know females from work, or this event, and see if there's chemistry. Try not to ruin that chemistry by being overbearing, but show interest so that there's no wrong messaging. Talk, but don't overdo it. Initiate, but don't set a precedent of always being the first to open. Go on dates, show that I put in time to think of a proper outing, but space them out far enough that I don't come off as desperate. Emotionally invest, but don't put too much in, or I'll end up disappointed and hurt through unfulfilled expectations. Decide when to be vulnerable, revealing your scars when they're not at risk of being salted or reopened. And when it all comes tumbling down, rinse and repeat. Most of my life has been arduously investing and waiting for that satisfying end-goal; I'm tired of waiting for the next better step. I want to profit now. I want to be happy and content, not worrying about what comes next or struggling with only the hope of a better tomorrow pushing me through. Fuck that better tomorrow, just give me a good today.

[lboogie1906]

Norris Bumstead Herndon (July 15, 1897 - June 7, 1977) was the second president of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, founded by his father, Alonzo Herndon. Alonzo Herndon took the seven-year-old to the founding meeting of the Niagara Movement, the precursor organization to the NAACP.

He was born in Atlanta. He was the son and only child of millionaire African American businessman Alonzo Franklin Herndon and Adrienne McNeil Herndon (born Elizabeth A. Stephens), a well-known actress and professor of dramatics and elocution at Atlanta University.

He graduated from Atlanta University and Harvard University’s Business School. He was one of the only two African Americans in his graduating class. He joined his father’s firm, first as a cashier, and then eventually as the company’s first VP.

After his father died in 1927, he was elected the second president of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. When he took the helm, company assets totaled just over $1 million, but through decades of cautious management and prudent investments including some significant acquisitions, Atlanta Life’s assets grew to $54 million. At the time of his retirement, Atlanta Life had grown to a company with assets of $84 million.

He gave generously to the UNCF, the local African American YMCA, Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, First Congregational Church, the NUL, the NAACP, as well as many other organizations. He donated the land on which Atlanta University’s Herndon Stadium sits, and the money to build the structure. He was a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Grand Order of Odd Fellows and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha

[ragingstillness]

While I’m musing, I think everyone should be required to take a gap year between high school and college. For a whole bunch of purposes: to buy all the stuff you need for independent living, to do the research required to get used to your school including something like a sleepover where you could live in the dorms for like a day then a week then two weeks so you can anticipate some of the challenges you’ll face, but more importantly to take a class on basic life skills.

This class would be sort of like home ec but full of skills that modern people all need to have to be successful living independently, to be equal partners in relationships, etc, regardless of gender or upbringing.

Things like, how to do laundry: not just how to run a machine but the differences between lights and darks and delicates.

How to get stains out of clothing: all your common stains, blood, sweat, food, sauce, chocolate, coffee, spices, soda.

How to sew: fixing small rips, putting buttons on, hemming pants, adding elastic, taking clothing in, how to use a stitch ripper, the difference between fabric scissors and regular scissors, how to thread a needle, how to pin something.

How to cook: the difference between stick and non-stick pans, adjusting heat in an oven or on a stovetop, using a whisk, a spatula, measuring cups, knives, how to crack an egg, how to handle raw meat, how to clean fruits and vegetables, how to clean pots and pans, a few basic dishes that’ll allow you to survive.

How to clean a bathroom: proper chemicals, proper tools, proper safety precautions, proper technique.

How to have your own money: stocks, investing, taxes, insurance, avoiding scams, keeping a budget, balancing a checkbook.

How to find a trustworthy source: for internet browsing, for work research, for school research.

How to change a tire

How to replace a light socket

How to fix a sink

How to unclog a drain

How to build something small out of wood

How to use power tools

How to paint something that isn’t a picture

How to work machinery like lawnmowers, leaf blowers, string trimmers, and snowblowers

How to change a lightbulb

How to sort garbage and recycling

How to do basic first aid on yourself and others

How to treat burns

How to keep a calendar

How to use an iron

How to pack a suitcase

How to grocery shop efficiently

How to optimize a google search

I could make this list even longer but I’ll stop here. All of these are things I had to know in order to live in a college dorm properly and I’ll admit I did not enter college knowing all of them and I regretted not knowing.

If we give our kids who are on the cusp of being adults better life skills going into college, they are more likely to succeed later in life and also to transition more effectively. I know not knowing how to do something has always given me major anxiety and having to navigate a college transition with that was very difficult. I struggled. If I had something like this I would have struggled much less.

[simsofsanmyshunoandmore]

The Feists were abandoned when they were at a very young age. Their mother left when Emerald, the oldest of the sisters, was only at fourteen at the time. She found it difficult to believe that her husband would go back alive when a military operation at Strangerville sealed any military man’s life. Left as orphans with their father’s wealth at their hands when they reach legal age, Emerald had to stand up to care for the rest of the family. Innocent, frightened and too young for a responsibility at that weight, Emerald carried the burden for several years without knowing anything about their father’s fate.

                At her ripe age of 19, Emerald pursued higher studies all the while being a parent to her siblings. The money their father left behind insured them was enough to get her through college without her having to spend a day working. They had money, but it was comfort they never had. Emerald knew that at some point life would demand her to be more independent than she were, and so she feared for her younger siblings when she could fail as the foundation of their broken family. Ruby, the second of the four, had high functioning autism and was an artistic savant who garnered recognition, awards and prizes as she scaled through her education. She was a challenge growing up but Ruby attracted the opposite of what people expected of her. She was an inspiration to her siblings as she dreamed and dreamed of a day that life wouldn’t feel so unfair to the four of them. It was something that Topaz, the third of the siblings, did not share at least. She resided in resentment against her parents for abandoning them. She figured that it would’ve been a much better trajectory for everyone should their mother stayed and hoped despite the impossibility of their father’s return. Fortunately for her, life wasn’t all cruel that she found an extension of their family through her friends in high school who understood her anger and depression through the years. The youngest, Sapphire, was a baby when their mother left. She barely knew her reasons, nor knew her mother was not going back. She grew up under the wings of her tenacious big sisters and thus, she inherited their strong will and dedication to life.

                The Feist sisters went on to their lives as they grew older and become more self-sufficient. Emerald went on to be a scientist and researcher where she met her future husband Eric Sturman, a successful businessman who invested in one of her researches. Ruby joined an elite art organization in San Myshuno as she lived with Emerald in Windenburg at that time. Topaz studied performance art and so she would do gigs as a stand-up comedienne in the bars of San Myshuno City. Sapphire lived with Topaz as she started college where she studied archaeology, a path that led to her secret ambition to uncover the reality of her father’s death in Strangerville. While Emerald felt successful that she ushered her sisters to a life that they were satisfied with, she couldn’t help but feel lost and downtrodden when their family of four became even less when they lived separately. Ruby stayed with her but she had always yearned the day they could live together without a worry in their lives. Anyhow, growth and development was part of life and it was inevitable that her sisters would soon find the track they would trudge as much as she had for herself. Soon after, Eric married her in a rich and affluent wedding by the cliffs of the Crumbling Isle. She had a lovely son, Aurum, who displayed much intellect like his parents since the day he was born.

                A year after, Ruby got pregnant from a hookup she had in a party her organization prepared. It was the second major event in their lives that shook Emerald to her bones. She was as frightened as Ruby was when they both didn’t know how Ruby could be able to raise a child on her own. The father was never identified but Ruby and Emerald still welcomed the sweet little boy, Argent, in their lives without questions or doubt. In her unconditional love for her siblings, Emerald begged Ruby to live with her and Eric for as long as she could so she would have all the help she could do to raise Argent. It was an offer Ruby couldn’t refuse, but it was an offer Eric wished she would. Eric Sturman was a gallant man but with a strict and austere personality that demanded everything to be in place in the right order and in the proper fashion. An extended family was not in his plans with Emerald and this tremor fractured their relationship that got deeper and wider as years went by. Eric was an absent parent for Aurum but he worked day and night that watered their financial resources to grow at an exponential rate. He provided everything but his presence in the house when Emerald managed her lab as well as their mansion. Eric buried himself in his workplace office as well as his home office when he couldn’t find the peace he demanded in his own home.

Eric loathed the idea of having more people in their house than they should have. Despite their extremely large mansion at Windenburg heights, Eric preferred the quiet environment that allowed his mind to think on how to grow his business further. He set a deadline for Emerald to let Ruby go but Emerald chose to keep a close eye for her younger sibling who might need her help. With all the strength she had in her system, she braved to accept Eric’s condition to divorce him should she choose to keep Ruby in her home. Her savings were enough to buy them a decent 2-storey home in a subdivision at Strangerville. By her own efforts and Ruby’s support, they nursed an antique home back to a livable condition where Emerald figured she wanted to grow old. It was a house that overlooked a cliff, a reminiscent piece of her wedding day and a hopeful horizon that reminded her of possibilities in the future; it was a perfect retirement home for her and maybe even for Ruby.

Siblings should be a lifelong assurance of love and haven for anyone. With three more of those, Emerald felt secure of herself that she would never have less love to give and to receive from. Having to prove to herself that as a little girl, and as a woman, she accomplished so many things in life all by being a ray of hope for herself. She became the embodiment her mother never was to them and that’s what she wore as a crown to her head everyday.

Emerald’s work as a remarkable woman in science garnered her recognition from the Queen herself. She received her honorary tiara for her research in Biochemistry and was regarded as the top scientist of the year for her work in Diabetic care. A mother, sister and an empowered woman, Emerald stood tall from the tribulations she faced growing up. Despite all these evidence that anyone had a chance at life, a wishful thinking of ‘it shouldn’t have been that way’ never left Emerald’s mind every night. She wondered that maybe if her mother only became the Emerald was, maybe she reached higher platforms for her and her siblings. Moreover, Emerald would always spend her free afternoon relaxing and basking at the rays of the sunset knowing when she would go back inside her home, a happy and small little boy was waiting for her and that she knew that he knew he would always have a mother to rely on, more than from himself or his cousins for the rest of his life.  

[abbatoirablaze]

Porcelain Doll, Chapter 4

Word Count:  2.1k

Warnings:  angst, manipulation, foreplay, implied smut, violence/fight.

“Alright Margo…so tell me…is anything new with school?  Or the track team?”

You sighed, “Mist-“

“No excuses,” he began, cutting you off, “you’ve been distant since last week, and it’s showing.  What happened?”

“Bucky!”

Bucky turned and he took a deep breath.  His lips parted like he wanted to say something, but he immediately stopped.  Romeo started tugging on his leash to head towards him, but you held firm, keeping your dog from going up to see him. 

“I-I don’t know why I’m here…”

You continued to stay planted at the edge of your driveway, Bucky remaining stock still on the edge of your lawn.  There were so many emotions that passed his eyes as he stared at you.  Confusion.  Sadness.  But you only felt the pain that resonated deep within your belly.  The pain that he’d abandoned you. 

“Y-you could come in if you wan-“

“No!” he said quickly, cutting you off, “no…I mean-“

“It’s fine,” you shrugged, pushing past him, feeling the rejection all over again.  Romeo wanted to go see him, but you pulled your German Shepard towards the door, “come on Ro…”

“Margo…wait…”

“Have a good day, Mr. Barnes…”

“Margo!”

Your head snapped up towards your therapist.

Over the past few months, you’d managed to avoid Bucky Barnes.  Or he would avoid you.  When you were on your walks with Romeo you purposefully avoided his street, and if you saw him out running you would do your best to evade him. 

It’d felt like the man who had stood up for you to move back into your childhood home had abandoned you ever since the kiss.  And you didn’t know what to do. 

“Margo?”

“Sorry,” you sighed, pulling yourself out of your own thoughts.  You looked back to your therapist, “Track is over…and it was an alright season…I guess.  I-uh…I’m going to city college in the fall.  Got my early acceptance in, so that’s cool…yay college.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it…”

“I mean, four years of school after I get out of high school…not seeing the upside to that.”

“Well…don’t you want a career?”

You shrugged, “my parents each had a million dollar life insurance policy…after paying for the funerals, even if I didn’t get a degree and worked some janky job with the correct investments I don’t really have a need for anything.  I already own the house…”

“You sound like you’ve disassociated from your life, Margo…”

“Wouldn’t you?” you asked, staring him down, “my parents were gunned down for trying to get dinner at the wrong place at the wrong time.  All of my high school friends feel awkward around me so I’m alienated.  I’ve got good grades, but no ambition for college anymore.  Why should I feel happy?”

“Margo…you are the one alienating yourself,” he said firmly, “I know for a fact that my daughter and her friends have all reached out to yo-“

“I don’t need their fake pity!” you growled, shooting him a glare, “I don’t need your daughter or her friends.  She’s dating Jacob Barber…the fucking prick is in my grade.  I know him and his little friends were the ones that vandalized my house in the first place.”

“Do you have any proof of that?”

“Whose side are you on?” you growled, “because for a therapist, you kind of suck at helping me with my problems and listening to them.”

“It’s the end of Summer!” Jacob grinned as he held up his bottle of soda.  You rolled your eyes, annoyed at how you had allowed yourself to be conned into coming to the block party that your neighborhood was throwing.  You hated yourself even more for ending up in the Barber’s back yard while they grilled out, played in the pool, and had a great time. 

“This is really fun!” Viv grinned, shooting you a look, “right?  I mea-“

“Just because you’re friends with Ashley and her…and she’s dating Jacob the jackass, doesn���t mean we are friends.  Don’t talk to me.”

Viv bit her lip, embarrassed that she had tried to talk to you.  She took a step away, “I-I’m sorry, Margo.”

“Holy shit!”

Your head turned when Ashley swore.  You followed her eyes and your heart instantly broke.

“No way…”

“Is that-Mr. Barnes…with a girl?”

“And here I was thinking he was taking it up the ass from Captain America all these years,” Jacob scoffed, wrapping his arm tighter around his girlfriend as he sipped on his soda, “oh hey…Margo…looks like the super soldier doesn’t like dick…he just didn’t have a thing for you!”

“Jacob!”

“Fuck off, Barber!” you spat, angrily pushing your way out of the group of kids from the neighborhood.  You pushed past Bucky and his date, as well as some of the other guys from the neighborhood.  You were almost to the door when you heard Mr. Barber’s voice.

“Margo…”

“Shit,” you whispered, hoping that your tears weren’t visible to him, “What is it, Mr. Barber?”

“Grab some more of the burgers from the freezer, will ya?”

“Sure…”

“Thanks sweetheart!”

You rolled your eyes, making your way into the garage, where you knew the deep freezer was.  While you were bent over, grabbing another box of burgers you heard the door open.  You snapped up, only to see Jacob standing there, a shit eating grin on his face, “well look what the cat dragged in.”

“Fuck off, Jacob.”

“Oh, come on, Margo…don’t be like that.”

“I said, fuck off, Jacob.” You pushed him away as he tried to come near you.  You could smell booze on him, “why do you smell like booze?  Have you been drinking?”

“Slipped it from my dad’s liquor cabinet,” he grinned, holding up his bottle of soda, “why?  You want to party?”

You sneered, “No.  Just go back to your little girlfriend and leave me the fuck alone.”

Jacob took a deep breath, continuing to step forward until he had you pinned between himself and the freezer.  His glassy expression studied you, “you know…for a little tease…you’re pretty fucking cute…you ever actually fuck a guy or are you just holding out for the reformed, brainwashed fuckhead.”

“Go fuck yourself!”

You went to slap him, but he caught your hand, despite his inebriated state.  His grin turned dangerous as he tsked you, “shouldn’t have done that you little fucking slut.”

He used his other hand to backhand you.  Your head snapped along with it, and he stepped back, unpinning you from between himself and the freezer.  A dark laugh escaped his throat, “you know what…I think I like you down there…on your hands and knees.  It’s where you belong.”

You sniffled, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing you cry. 

“What…you going to cry, you little slut?” he taunted, “I haven’t even done anything to you yet.”

You didn’t get the chance to answer.  The next thing you knew there was a heavy thud and Jacob came crumpling to the floor.  You looked up to see a pissed off Andy Barber standing there, his own jaw tensed. 

Jacob glared at his father, holding his jaw.  You looked up at him for a moment, before looking away.  He rushed you, a look of worry crossing his features, “shit…what the hell happened?  Are you okay, Margo?”

“What the fuck, dad?”

“Why is she bleeding, huh?” he growled, “did you do this to her?”

“What?  No!  I don’t know!  The stupid slut probably ran into the wall or something.” Jacob lied.

“He hit me,” you admitted slowly as Andy lifted your face, “he-he started talking about me and then he hit me when I told him to fuck off.”

“It’s not true, dad…I-“

“Jacob, get the fuck out!” Andy demanded.  When Jacob didn’t move, Andy turned his attention towards his son, “Get the fuck out, Jacob.  NOW!”

Jacob rushed to get away from the two of you, holding his jaw.  You didn’t look up again at Andy until after the door had slammed shut and Andy was lifting your face, inspecting it.  You tried to shake him off, the tears beginning to fall down your cheeks, “Mr. Barber-“

“Are you okay to walk?” You nodded, and he helped you up, “let me get you cleaned up, upstairs, and you can tell me what happened, okay?”

“I don’t wan-“

“Margo…”

You stopped speaking, not want to argue with the man that was helping.  You sighed, and he led the way through the house, upstairs, until he’d reached the bathroom.  He began fumbling through the cabinets, getting frustrated as the seconds passed, and he didn’t automatically come up with any bandages. 

“That fucking little shit!” he growled, “I think he’s got the first aid kit in his room…wait right here, Margo.  I’ll be back.”

You watched as he walked out of the bathroom.  Turning towards the mirror, you frowned when you saw your lip had split.  The blood had dried up, but you didn’t appreciate the small bruise that was left by your mouth from the back of his hand making contact with your face.  You sniffled, touching the tender skin, but retracting your hand a second later. 

With another sigh you turned away, and went through the hall and into Jacob’s room, where Andy was looking for the first aid kit.  He went into the adjoining bathroom and a devious thought crossed your mind. 

“Mr. Barber…”

“I swear, it has to be in here!” Andy called from the bathroom, “give me a second, Margo…and I’ll get you patched up.”

You locked the door and slid out of your summer dress.  Feeling the rage inside of you, knowing that Bucky was probably still enjoying the party with his date, you removed your bra and panties, leaving you only in your heels. 

Andy walked back into his son’s bedroom but dropped the first aid kit when he saw you standing naked in the middle of the room.  The band aids, gauze, and items inside the kit spilled onto the floor.  Andy’s breath caught in his throat, “Margo…wh-what are you doing?”

It had been circulating the neighborhood for most of the summer. 

The email chains. 

The single guys catching wind of it and texting the link to each other. 

Bucky would have been lying to himself to say that he didn’t watch it; even though the guilt of it nearly consumed him.

Andy’s hands skimmed up her body, his large hands capturing your hips.  A shiver ran up your spine as he squeezed them gently, pulling you towards his body so that you could feel the growing erection through his board shorts.  Your nipples pebbled against his toned chest. 

Your eyes fluttered up to his and he shuddered when your hands nimbly picked at the buttons of his Tommy Bahama shirt. 

“Margo…”

“I want to feel you, Andy,” you whimpered gently as you undid the last button and ran your hand up his chest.  You pressed your own bare chest against his, and you felt his nails digging into your hips, his cock twitching eagerly against the shorts, “I want to feel a man inside of me…a real man like you.”

His eyes fluttered closed as your hands trailed back down his chest, nails grazing over the firm, slightly hairy stomach, down to the hem of his shorts.  Gently, you pulled them down, releasing his impressive, girthy length from its confines. 

You gasped. 

He smiled, “think you can handle a real man, sweetheart?”

“Oh, I know I can,” you purred, leaning against his chest a little bit more as you reached up to his cock to start stroking him.  Andy groaned, his head lulling slightly as you leaned up and began kissing his neck, “fuck me good, Andy…”

“Margo, I-“

But Bucky stopped himself from speaking. 

His brow furrowed as he looked at the young couple who had answered the door.

“Can we help you?”

“You’re not Margo!” Bucky answered, his tone sounding slightly hurt and very confused, “wh-where’s Margo?”

“We’re renting the house this semester from her while she lives on campus…was she expecting you to show up?” the man asked, “do you know Margo?”

“She-I-family friend,” he said quickly, instantly changing his story, “I thought she was going to stay at the house until after school started.”

“She figured it would be best if she…got away for a little while…after that video surfaced…” The wife said nervously, looking around outside as if someone was listening in to the conversation, “you know…”

Bucky sighed, his throat going dry, “Yeah…yeah…that makes sense…do-do you guys know where she’s living?”

“She’s staying somewhere in the city, that’s all we know,” the man shrugged, “we send our rent checks to a PO Box there.”

“Honey!” the woman proclaimed, pulling her husband back towards her, “we shouldn’t be giving out her information…”

“I didn’t tell him an-“

“Look, if you’re really a family friend, you should have her number,” she said quickly, looking to push the door closed, “you should try reaching out to her, instead.”

Chapter 5

 Tag List:  @teambarnes72, @lohnes16