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the-hopeless-haze · 4 years ago

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Rebel Rebel (Part 1?)

Pairing: Janis Sarkisian/reader

A/N: okay this has been sitting in my drafts for months and I have no idea if I’m gonna continue this but fuck it???? Sorry for all the people who followed me for Barba lmao (I am continuing that don’t worry) but idk I just figured I may as well post this??? I have more of this written and I know how I wanted it to end but the middle is just not working and that’s why I never posted. But I just listened to Dead Girl Walking and I was reminded how gay I am for Barrett sooooo 😂 here you go? You’re welcome?? I haven’t edited this or looked at it since March so this may be a mess but... yeah

It was eighth grade, nearing the end of the year and you were anxious, unsure of why. Would your friends still be your friends next year? High school was going to be a lot different, you could just tell.

You saw your two best friends, Regina and Janis talking to each other down the hallway, where their lockers were, so you headed down there. Regina was probably inviting Janis to the end of year pool party she’d been planning. It was going to be so great to at least be with all your friends one last time, even if high school might take them away.

As you got within earshot, though, you realized Regina was being anything but nice.

“But are you a lesbian, Janis? I can’t have a lesbian at my pool party,” you hear Regina’s high pitched voice chirp. “You understand that, right?”

“Regina... I—“

“What? So are you?”

“Why are you asking me this? Did I do something?”

“I need to know. Don’t you get it? You not wanting to answer is pretty suspicious.”

“I am a space alien and I have four butts!” Janis yelled and ran down the hallway, leaving Regina to laugh. She makes eye contact with you. “Wow, I dodged a bullet with that, huh?”

“Why did you do that?”

“Don’t you get she doesn’t fit in? I mean, she likes girls, first of all. Second of all... she doesn’t get this stuff. Don’t you want to be popular in high school? I can get you there. We’re on top here. Everyone knows us. But this is child’s play.”

“But that was mean, Regina!” you said, your tone accusatory.

She shrugs her shoulders. “Sometimes you have to be mean to get what you want. And we’re not going to get it with her.”

“But she’s our friend!”

“Was...our friend. Don’t you care that she’s a dyke?”

You sighed, defeated. You wanted to tell her, no, you didn’t care... but you knew she’d stop being friends with you too. And her talk of being popular and being on top of the world... it sounded good.

You had many regrets about this day, and if everyone has a couple turning points in their lives, this was your first.

——

Regina was right, though. She got you everything you had thought you’d always wanted, but you never felt good enough and a lot of the time, you’re miserable. You’re constantly worried about your weight, whether you got enough instagram likes on your 1000th picture with the plastics, as you’d been dubbed, and whether or not you were dating one of the hottest guys at school.

Who would’ve thought the hottest guys were so dumb? You didn’t like any of them, really, and the second they asked to get in your pants, you dropped them like flies. So you’d gotten a rep for being somewhat of a prude, which Regina would sometimes scold you for.

Regina just got meaner as time went on, and sometimes you regretted not turning on her the first day she showed her true colors, when she’d sharpied all over Janis’s locker “SPACE DYKE” and even included it in the burn book she made over the summer once yearbooks came out. Regina would flirt with boys that she thought you or Gretchen liked, just to show you she could have them. Jokes on her, you didn’t like any of them, but you had to pretend or there wouldn’t be any gossip or any of the infighting that Regina seemed to love. It was the beginning of sophomore year now, and it was beyond exhausting.

And oh, the parties that started now! You hated them, just an excuse for everyone to get shitfaced and girls to make dumb decisions that made boys so happy even though everyone was too drunk to really remember them the next day. Regina is hosting one tonight, and here you are, in your skimpy, skin tight blue dress that you had to buy with babysitting money— since there’s no way in hell your mother would buy that for you. A sophomore hosting a party was unheard of, but Regina has a huge house and her parents went on vacation for their anniversary. She’d use whatever she could to her advantage.

All she wanted was to climb that ladder, and she didn’t care who got hurt in the way.

But here you were, dancing with the hockey player you were dating now... or was it football? You didn’t even care. You vaguely remembered his name was Mike and you told him you needed to go to the bathroom. You headed to Regina’s room and locked the door, thankful you got there early enough that there was no one trying to hookup.

You got lost in your phone for a while, and you found Janis’s Instagram profile. It was private, but there was her profile picture. She was so pretty now, not the awkward girl who tried to dye her hair blonde and wear pink just to fit in. She wore dark makeup in the picture and she wasn’t looking at the camera, and it fit her so much better. Even her hair, which she had let just grow out from the blonde she’d dyed it, looked great. You nearly send a follow request and then think better of it.

You remembered having hobbies, painting at Janis’s house until your hands were covered in paint, and you remember laughing so hard you couldn’t breathe.

Sometimes Regina was a good friend. Sometimes she was a great friend. She was there for you when your grandmother died over that first summer without Janis, and she held you while you cried... and you cried a lot. But sometimes she was mean to even you and it was exhausting. You know she cares about you, but you know she’d turn on you, too, if you gave her what she deemed enough reason to.

You can’t remember laughing like you used to in a long time. You can’t remember being passionate about anything for a while, either. The only time was in your classes, really, you loved chemistry but you had to keep it under wraps because if it got out you were too nerdy... well, that’s social suicide.

The thing about being a plastic was that you couldn’t be anything or do anything too extreme. You had to just be a shell of human being, a shell of a hot girl, just to appease everyone. The money you spent, or had your parents spend, on your bleach blonde hair and your makeup and your hot clothes and your nails and your purses and your shoes... and the hours you spent at the salon and the mall with Regina and Gretchen and Karen, it was completely exhausting. And then you weren’t allowed to have a personality outside of all of this, it was just, clothes! Makeup! Shoes! Boys! Parties! Popularity!

All things girls were supposed to care about, but really, there was no girl left in you to care anymore. You slip off your heels and lie down on the bed, remembering Regina holding you. That felt nice, her slender arms around you, her chin against your shoulder, and she smelled so good, like a hair salon and vanilla and cinnamon and... you just wanted to cry. Why couldn’t she be like that all the time?

The pillows smell like her shampoo and you inch up to place your head on them, ready to fall asleep, the bass from the speakers downstairs lulling you.

You awake twenty minutes later with your phone blowing up from Regina. “Where’d you go? Party’s not fun without you 😘” her most recent text said. Your eyes burn from the makeup you fell asleep in and you blink a few times before replying, telling her you were in her room and not feeling well.

“Bummer! I’ll be up in a few xo” she texts back.

You answer the door when she knocks, and you smile when she hugs you immediately. “(Y/n)! I’m sorry you’re sick! Did you drink something Kevin made? Because don’t.”

“No... I just... I don’t know. I’m sick of the parties,” you grumble as you pull away from the hug and sit back on the bed. She follows you, her pink dress clinging to her every curve, riding up a little as she sits down.

“Why?” She laughs. “This is what high school is about! You’ve gotta have fun. You’re only hot once.”

“But this... it’s not fun to me. It’s not fun to get wasted and have guys try and get in my pants and watch girls throw up.”

“But we can get everything we want. It’s what I always told you,” she says, rubbing your back, but her voice is hollow.

“I don’t have everything I want! I don’t even know what I want anymore, but I’m not happy. Are you? What are you getting out of this because I don’t understand.”

“Respect. Love. Fear. It’s all I ever wanted, really,” Regina says. “People either love me or hate me but they think about me. They think about you, too. Everyone who’s a sophomore knows us, and most of the upperclassmen do too. Doesn’t it feel good?”

You sigh. “I guess, sometimes, it does. But most of the time it doesn’t! I don’t like it, feeling like I have to do everything perfectly because everyone’s watching. And it’s only going to get worse because next year we’re juniors...”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not entirely happy either. I don’t like Jack.”

“Then why are you dating him?”

“Because. Free popularity and all I gotta do is be seen with him.”

“But... doesn’t he ask for more?”

She laughs. “Sure he does! But you have to be strategic with that.”

“Right..." you say, slightly sarcastically. You didn't really know what she meant.

Regina places a hand on your knee. “I know it’s been hard for you. But it’s going to be okay.”

“Do you wanna... just lie for a minute? I know you have to go back to the party—“

“No, I can stay for you,” she says, smiling softly. There was the Regina you wanted to be friends with all the time.

You both lean back on the bed, and her arms wrap around you tightly, her chin nestling on your shoulder. Here, you were happy.

“It’s all worth it, all the fighting to just get to the top to sit like this with you,” she says quietly. “We could never be made fun of for this because we can’t be touched.”

“What?”

“Don’t you get it? I... I don’t know how to say it. Just... trust me, okay?” You nod, not sure what she meant, but then she’s leaning over and turning your cheek toward her and she’s kissing you.

Regina George is kissing you.

It’s a quick peck, probably because she’s not sure how you’d react but it’s still the best kiss you’d ever had in your life. You don’t make any rational thoughts in the next few moments and you’re not sure if she kisses you again or you pull her back in, but all of a sudden she’s on top of you and kissing you harder, and slowly, the confusion sets in.

It almost feels too good to stop, but eventually your brain starts working again. “Regina... I... are you okay?” you ask as you pull away. “Are you drunk?”

“What? No. I wouldn’t get drunk at my own party, what kind of slut does that? No, (y/n)... I want you. Didn’t that feel good?”

“Yes... but... you kicked Janis out of the friend group for being a lesbian. Why would you do that if you were gay? You always said she had a crush on you. Why would that have been such a bad thing?”

Regina sighs and flops over to the other side of the bed. “I’m not gay. I mean. I don’t know. I definitely didn’t know back then but I knew Janis just didn’t fit in even if we took away all of the gay stuff. But if we talk about the gay stuff... then yeah. I was confused. Super confused. I didn’t know if I liked you or her and I knew I wasn’t supposed to like either of you. And then I saw the two of you together and you just... you had something I didn’t have, just genuine friendship, and maybe she had a crush on you. Either way I was jealous. And I had to get the two of you apart.”

“Regina... that’s awful,” you say.

“But then I tried to be nice to you! I just wanted to be friends. I mean, I didn’t think I wanted to sleep with you or anything. I just wanted to be friends. Karen and Gretchen are just stupid and I just don’t feel comfortable enough around them to be like this. To let go of the persona.”

“You haven’t been entirely nice to me, Regina. Plus you started this off by ruining my friendship with Janis.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have done that, but I was so... angry whenever she was around. I just... we could pass for straight. No one would know.”

“Regina... I can’t,” you say, biting your lip and trying not to cry.

“Do you... do you not like girls? Is that it? I’m so stupid,” she says bitterly.

“No, Regina, it’s not that, I mean... I don’t know if I do. But it’s just... I’m tired of living like this and I don’t want to have this secret to worry about. All we need is for Gretchen to find out...”

“But she wouldn’t. And even if she did, do you think she’d cross me? Cross us?” She grips your wrists. “Please.”

You start crying and you know you’re not going to be able to stop. If the circumstances were different, you’d love to date her. You think. “Regina. I don’t want to be popular anymore, and for that to happen, we can’t be friends and we... can’t do this.”

“But—“

“If you want to drop it... then... if you want to give up being popular, being fake... then... then yes. Come out. Apologize to Janis. But I’m leaving, and I’m not leaving with baggage.”

She nods. “I... I understand. It’s okay. But I need this! They’d tear me apart if I came out and I can’t be... I can’t be outcasted. I’m exhausted, too, you know? But it’s... it’s better than the alternative. I hope you don’t come to realize that.”

“Regina...”

“No, it’s fine. I really get it,” she says, smiling. “But I’m going to have to spread a rumor, something so they don’t question why you left the group.”

“I know. Just say I’m gay. It’s your trick.”

She starts crying then, sobbing, really, and your heart lurches. You lean over to hug her.

“You don’t have to be so mean.”

“Yeah. I do. Because if I’m not it’ll turn around on me. My mom... she’d never understand! I just... okay. I understand we can’t... be seen together if this is really what you want. But can you at least text me once in a while? So I know how you’re doing?”

“Of course,” you say. You hug her one last time, and she kisses your cheek. You leave the house with your head held high but your heart sinks as you realize this is the last time you’ll step foot in there.

——

Regina is meaner without you. She is hostile to Gretchen and Karen, and you can tell if they adored her at all before, that’s completely gone and they follow her out of fear that she’d make their lives a living hell.

Maybe it’s because she did go on and start the rumor you were a lesbian. Fair enough. You weren’t entirely sure about that label yet but it gave you enough freedom to maneuver this without having lame guys hit on you anymore. That may have stopped anyway since you weren’t competing with Regina for hottest in the sophomore class... but at least it stopped.

“So... looks like she did the same thing to you after all, bitch,” a female voice says as you slam your locker shut. You jump and look to your left to see Janis there... and your breath catches. She was all the more beautiful in person.

“Yeah,” you frown. “But hey... are you mad at me?”

Janis scoffs. “Kinda. But I know you weren’t to blame now. I mean, she did the same thing to you! And I hate Regina more than I could ever hate anybody. Also Damien made me talk to you.”

“Damien?” you ask. “Wait... that guy in musical theater?”

“Yes...” Janis says slowly. “How do you know?”

“He’s really good! I’ve gone and seen every play. Like, and sat in the back. But I’ve gone.”

“Wow. That surprises me. But you did used to love that sort of thing in middle school.”

“I think I made you listen to the Mamma Mia soundtrack at least 80 times.”

“Oh yes. Wait... did you know that they’re putting it on this year? It's the spring musical."

“What?”

“Yeah. Maybe you could audition now that the plastics aren’t holding you back. You have like one day to make up your mind though. I do scenery. Maybe I’ll see you around?”

“Where do you sit at lunch?”

——

It was an awkward reintroduction and the words are never spoken. Is Janis gay? More importantly, are you gay, or bi, or something? Does wondering if another girl is gay make you gay?

But aside from the utter confusion of possibly having a crush on your ex best friend, you’re enjoying life as an ex-plastic. You’re auditioning for the role of Donna, but even if you don’t get it you’re going to get a part since so few people actually signed up to audition. You’re drawing again, too, even if you were never as good as Janis.

Regina hasn’t texted you yet, but you’re thankful. If she did too soon you’d get pulled back from the progress you’ve made. But you’re also worried about her, and your heart lurches whenever you make eye contact with her at lunch and she looks away quickly.

But this was how life was going to be from now on, so it was time to get used to it.

#janis sarkisian #janis x reader #janis sarkisian x reader #janis ian #janis ian x reader #mean girls #mean girls broadway #mean girls bway #Yeah I made Regina gay #what about it???#that's my headcanon #no one in this musical is straight ok #idk i feel weird posting this but fuck ittttt

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foreveralwaysanauthor · 4 years ago

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Cafeteria Communities

Monthly Prompts Day 22

August 22nd - Community (Also my niece, Lorali’s, tenth birthday!)

AU Used: High School AU (I just had to for this one as I’ve had this idea for ages)

Characters: Bikers and Surfers (Teen Beach Movie), Miles and Mick (OCs)

Song Inspiration: “Where Do You Belong?” from Mean Girls on Broadway

Notes: I got back from my niece’s pool party and pushed this thing out of me within maybe a half hour to an hour. I’m so sorry if I missed anything in my edit as I’m utterly exhausted, I will fix them if I find them in the morning.

High school was the basic breeding ground for insecurities to fester and for friendships to be tested as social groups pulled you apart at the seams. Mick had lived in California for most of her life, having only spent half of one semester attending school in New Hampshire before deciding to go back to her school in San Clemente, California. By the time Mick had returned, her friends back home had settled into their cliques already, some of them joining the theatre group while others stuck with being the school’s stereotypical Cali surfers and the rest were spread throughout other groups entirely. Somehow, most of them had been able to stick it out in their Freshman year and remained friends.

For Sophomore year, however, Mick had been forced to leave her school and friend group as her mom had gotten a job offer on the Gulf Coast of Florida and they insisted that she should try it for a year with an already agreed upon pay rate - a common suggestion for her mom’s job. Mick wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but her parents had found a nice place by the beach for them to stay, so Mick couldn’t find much room for complaining.

Suncoast High School was nothing like her old school. It was almost laughable in contrast, really. As soon as she made an appearace in the first class of the day, people began murmuring to each other. At first, she thought it was just because she was new and that things would settle by lunch when everyone could meet her, however, that was not the case. Most everyone had their own little communities within the cafeteria, practically blocking out any attempts Mick had made at friendships.

It frustrated her, it really did, but she could understand not wanting to immediately accept the new person in school, but did they have to make it so obvious that they didn’t want her around?

Mick had taken her food out to the hallway where she could sit outside the cafeteria in peace, all by herself, and listen to her music, only to find herself greeted by a tall boy with curly brown hair and a button-down t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“I think I’m the one that should be asking you that, new girl,” the tall boy asked.

“I’m Mick,” she introduced, holding out her hand to the boy.

“Miles,” he replied, giving the hand a quick shake. “Can’t find a table, Mickey Mouse?”

“No,” Mick said, shaking her head. “And it’s just Mick, not Mickey.”

Miles gave her a playful smile. “I know, but I already like calling you Mickey Mouse.”

Mick sighed, rolling her eyes quickly and taking in a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Miles quickly joined her, seating himself elbow to elbow with the shorter girl. “You know, I could find you a group pretty quickly if you’d follow me around the cafeteria for a minute or two.”

“I’m only going to be here for a year at most, what would I need a group for?” Mick asked as she met eyes with Miles.

“Well, that takes out the theatre group and choir,” Miles claimed as he made a face.

Mick gave him a disbelieving look, sputtering out a question, “W-wha?- wait, how? How would that one sentence give you any idea about what clique I’d be in?”

Miles let out a laugh, pushing himself up to his feet once more, holding out a hand to the new girl. “Tell you what, Mickey Mouse,” he began, “you give me two minutes to show you what I see around the cafeteria and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.”

Mick stared at the hand for a moment, deciding she had nothing to lose and, if nothing else, at least it would help her escape the nasty mashed potatoes. “Deal,” she said as she took Miles’ hand. Miles helped her to her feet, taking her lunch tray and setting it aside before dragging her into the cafeteria.

“You'll be judged on sight and made to fit. So find a clique and stick with it.” Miles said with confidence as he tucked Mick’s hand into the crook of his elbow and walked toward the far side of the cafeteria. “Let's take a walk around the cafeteria and I'll show you the world as I see it.”

“Okay,” Mick agreed softly, feeling a tad awkward as she followed Miles toward two tables teeming with kids that were decked out in Letterman jackets and school colors.

Miles pause in front of the two tables, gesturing toward the large groups. “These are the Varsity jocks and JV jocks and they’ll throw you in a locker if you say ‘Hello’.”

Mick nodded as her eyes widened in shock, allowing Miles to take her between the two jock tables toward two tables that reeked of an odor that smelled like a skunk had sprayed into a cigarette and they had tried covering up the smell with too much body cologne. “What is that?” she asked as she covered her nose with the sleeve of her shirt.

“The rich stoners and the gangster whites. They can’t stand each other, but they’re all smoking the same shit,” Miles whispered to Mick as he ushered her over to the next tables. “You’ll get a contact high if you stay near them for too long and, judging by your face, Mickey Mouse, I guess that isn’t a good idea for you.”

Mick quickly shook her head, feeling her head begin to throb as she was brought to the next set of tables and away from the overwhelming yet unique smell that the stoner kids had developed all on their own. A group of fairly average students were sitting on and around a table - the only thing throwing Mick off entirely was that most of them were in couples and were actively sucking each other’s faces off while a few were sitting at the end of the table with some instrument cases and trying to ignore the others. Mick couldn’t keep her eyes on the table for long, simple averting her eyes to the wall as far from that table as possible. “Are those supposed to be the band kids?” she offered to Miles, a sense of utter shock in her voice.

“Some of them actually like band and are actually really good at it,” Miles began, pausing for a moment to lightly smack away the hand of a girl who was trying to pinch his backside. “The rest of them just fake it and are there to be with their significant others. The ones in relationships are the only reason that we don’t have any band shows at football games.”

“Okay... Can we keep going, please?” Mick asked as she looked anywhere, but that table.

Miles steered her away from the band kids, to a table full of girls who seemed almost evenly divided as to who was eating and who wasn’t. “There's girls that eat their feelings and girls that just don't eat. I like eating lots of chocolate around them when I get the chance since it makes them all go crazy.”

“That isn’t nice!” Mick argued as she took in the information, noting that one of the girls was staring longingly at another girl’s tray as the second girl peeled open a package of chocolate Twinkies. “It may be true,” she mumbled, “but that doesn’t make it right to do that.”

As Miles took her toward another table, Mick stopped, hearing a group of teenagers talk about going to the beach after school. Upon her very quick first glance, Mick almost thought they were her friends from back home. One of them looked like her friend Kat, covered in bright colors and had pin-straight blonde hair that was left in a half ponytail. Another one looked like her cousin and best friend, Hudson, who always wore some kind of silly Hawaiian shirt and left his mop of super tight curls fairly untamed.

“Who are they?” Mick asked as Miles turned back and stopped beside her.

Miles gave an extended and very theatrical sigh, almost forcing out his answer. “Those are the beach bums. They only ever seem to talk about the beach and surfing, but I doubt they ever actually go as we never see them there.”

“We?” Mick asked, turning to meet Miles’ gaze as the curly-haired boy began to lead her away. “Who is ‘we’?”

“You know, Mickey Mouse, I always save they best for last,” Miles claimed with a smile that Mick could only place under the category of pure cockiness. Miles took Mick’s hand in his own and practically paraded her to the last table in the cafeteria. “Look, who is at this table? Why it’s the Rodents!”

“And Miles too,” a couple of the bikers chimed in response. If that simple response meant anything, Mick could only assume that Miles probably tried this whenever a new kid came along that the community of leather-clad teenagers seemed to like.

“We're not exactly joiners,” Miles stated matter-of-factly as he leaned against the table comfortably, “but we'll be good friends to you. What do you say, Mick?” Miles held out his hand to Mick one last time, giving her a brilliant smile.

Mick peered at the extended hand, taking a look around the cafeteria and scanning over every table. The jocks were still probably talking strategies for the next few games they all had; the stoner kids were eating brownies out of someone’s plastic baggie; the band kids were... the band kids. The only other table that seemed intriguing would be the surfers, but Mick guessed she could always talk to some of them after school and see what they were actually like.

With that being said and done, Mick turned back to Miles, taking his hand in hers and giving it a shake.

#ForeverAlwaysPrompts #writing #writing prompt

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peterstanslizzie · 5 years ago

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Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.4 (Pool Party)

The Actual First Episode

A classic Lizzie Mcguire episode

- For some strange reason, this episode was considered episode #4 and the fourth episode to air even though the production code for this episode is '101′. Meaning that chronologically, this is episode #1 and probably the series pilot. It’s no wonder that all the kids look a lot younger here than in other episodes.

- That being said, let’s begin my episode recap. Lizzie is running through an obstacle course during P.E. class and she’s having a miserable time; I can definitely relate. Side note: Coach Kelly is played by Dot Marie Jones, who also played Coach Beiste on the hit Fox television series, Glee.

- Cartoon Lizzie, who is Lizzie’s conscience gives us a brief commentary on the different social circles in her gym class and she describes herself as someone who doesn’t fit in any category. I can also relate to her in that aspect just because during high school, I didn’t fit into any sort of clique. And that’s fine because having multiple interests and friends from different walks of life was beneficial to me.

Introducing Lizzie’s BFFs and Classmates

This is so pure, I love it

- Babies! They look so young here for real. Miranda is first introduced as Lizzie’s best friend and they basically confide in each others secrets. But more about Miranda later on.

Gordo is so cute but extremely wise for his age

- Lizzie knew Gordo since she was a day out of her mom’s womb. She describes him as “smart, funny, creative and right about everything”. That’s our Gordo for sure.

Kate looks quite different here and it’s not because of the face she’s pulling

- Kate Sanders, as you all know is Lizzie’s frenemy but former best friend because she hit puberty and became popular because of that. I kinda need more info on how that happened. Did the other girls suddenly look up to her? Or did Kate suddenly develop a lot of confidence and a mean attitude to pair?

Danny Kessler was more visible at the start of the series. I wonder what happened?

- I believe Danny was meant to play a larger part in the show; However, his character just kind of faded into the background later on only to be somewhat replaced by Ethan Craft, who is a far better character in my opinion. He serves the purpose of being the hottest boy in school who girls go gaga for and that’s about it really. Danny invites Lizzie and Miranda to a pool party on Saturday and they lose their minds from the invitation.

The Mcguire Household

Lizzie vs Dad and Matt lol. Jo as referee.

- I found this scene, which introduces us to Lizzie’s parents and brother to be a little chaotic; Lizzie tells her family that she’s been invited by the ‘hunk-in-training’ of the school to a party. We also get mentions of spit-swapping and strip poker as well as her dad thinking she has been kissing Danny and having second thoughts on allowing her to go to this party.

- Well, Lizzie doesn’t have to worry about it because she can’t go either way because her Nana’s 80th birthday party falls on the same day. Lizzie gets mad and storms off. I’m guessing her Nana lives out of town and so, it isn’t possible to go to her birthday party and also come back for Danny’s party on the same day.

Miranda’s Betrayal

- Lizzie vents to Miranda and Gordo about not being able to make it to Danny Kessler’s pool party and because of that, being the best friend Miranda is supposed to be, she tells Lizzie that she too won’t be attending his party either in order to show her support for Lizzie.

Side note: Knowing that this episode was written by Terri Minsky, I made the connection that Gordo’s parents who are shrinks is similar to Andi Mack Cyrus’s parents and step-parents being therapists too.

- Kate approaches Miranda and asks her a favor to ask her mom to draw some fake, temporary tattoos on her and her friends for the upcoming party. Miranda accepts and agrees to hang out with Kate after school, which pretty much means she’s re-attending the party and hence, betraying Lizzie in the process.

Miranda is disliked by most fans because of instances like this

- I honestly cannot be too hard on Miranda because she’s only 13 and everyone at school keeps talking about the pool party. Plus, she has a crush on Danny. So, I can’t fault her for ditching Lizzie but she could have at least asked Kate if Lizzie could come along to her house.

- However, I didn’t like how Lizzie was sitting by herself in the same school bus as Miranda and Kate and Miranda did not bother to ask her to sit with them. Even if Kate isn’t willing to let her, she should definitely stand her ground. Poor Lizzie has to sit with this one kid who proudly picks his nose and flicks it.

“Eww! Ya Nasty!” *in Raven Baxter’s voice

Obligation vs Being Forced to do things

- Jo Mcguire is on the phone talking to someone about trying to get out of volunteering to write for a newsletter. Lizzie overhears this and confronts her mom for being hypocritical as she is forcing Lizzie to attend her Nana’s birthday party whilst she herself is trying to come up with an excuse to get out of doing something else.

- I get what Lizzie means; how is it okay for her mom to make excuses while she can’t? Well, Jo is an adult, so excuses are something that she is able to make and bear the responsibilities that come out of it. Lizzie is still a kid and I believe that her old grandma’s birthday is more important than some middle school party.

Heart to Heart

- After Lizzie confines herself in her room, Jo deploys her husband, Sam to try to get Lizzie to open up by asking him to use a simple yet complicated technique known as the ‘hairbrush routine’, which is making an excuse to look for something in the room and proceed to talk about a neutral topic and only engage with the questioning at hand when she makes eye contact and speaks in full sentences. Lol, that’s a mouthful.

- Luckily, we did get this beautiful moment in the end:

Give me some tissues :(

Gordo is the Man

This is some good acting imo

- Can we first talk about that long stare between Lizzie and Miranda in the hallway when Miranda, Kate and her crew were walking past Lizzie by her locker? Their expressions were so believable; I can almost read the dialog between their faces alone.

- Lizzie complains to Gordo and accuses Miranda for being a hypocrite but Gordo tells Lizzie that she shouldn’t be mad at her because the party was something Miranda really wanted to go to.

- Ughh, it’s hard. The position Miranda was put in is so difficult. It’s either she doesn’t go to the party to show her loyalty or she does go and have the best time of her life but risk having her friend hate her because of it. Either way, I think Lizzie shouldn’t be mad at Miranda regardless. There are plenty more episodes for that in the future.

- Gordo delivers the final blow when he says that he wasn’t even invited to the party and that pretty much cancels out all of Lizzie’s arguments.

Another cute Lizzie x Gordo moment

Lizzie makes up with her Mom and Miranda

- Jo enters Lizzie’s room and tells her that her Nana is going to Las Vegas to play poker and so, Lizzie is free to go to the pool party. What a grandma haha! I’m happy they hugged it out. I don’t like Lizzie being mad at her mom.

- Lizzie decided to skip the party (good for her!) and she and Gordo played in the backyard and made art by dipping a huge piece of cloth in some color dye to create a really cool effect.

- Miranda unexpectedly shows up at Lizzie’s backyard after leaving the pool party and turns out, she had a bad time because Kate’s ankle swelled up from the tattoo and she had to sit with her in the locker room. She also admits being a bad friend to Lizzie for blowing her off.

- Lizzie doesn’t hold any grudge and she and Miranda are back to being besties!

Overall Thoughts

- There was a lot to talk about in this episode from Lizzie’s relationship woes with her best friend to her feeling like her opinions and thoughts are not seen as valid by her family. I do think that for how Lizzie was so upset at Miranda, she kinda forgave her too easily. But I don’t think I would want to see them continue to not be on speaking terms for more than 1 episode.

- I am glad that there was no unnecessary sub-plot involving Matt and Sam in this episode. His story-lines are really a hit or miss to me. I prefer the ones where his relationship with his friends and family are tested as well as when he faced situations that gave him character development. I don’t like the goofy, comic-relief ones like last episode’s cooking fiasco.

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moonstruckbucky · 6 years ago

Text

Green

SUMMARY: Billy Hargrove’s jealousy is ugly, and one night he takes it just a little too far.

PAIRING: Billy Hargrove x female!Reader

WORD COUNT: 2.1k

WARNINGS: Language, mentions of abuse

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I know it’s an overdone imagine but Billy’s character screams insecurity, and with that insecurity comes completely outrageous and misplaced jealousy. A recipe for disaster. Also the timeline is altered a bit to flow with the story. Sorry not sorry!

Dating Billy Hargrove was many things. Interesting was the word you settled on most often because nothing about your relationship was normal or boring.

Not in the least.

How did he get her?

What the hell does she see in him?

The questions bouncing around the hallways seemed to lull as your relationship grew, but occasionally you’d see the looks. Sometimes, in the privacy of your room, you wondered the same thing. Billy was the king of Hawkins High, after dethroning Steve Harrington (but most of you believed he welcomed the change in status), and while you weren’t a social outcast, you also weren’t high on the hierarchy. You were just there, and for some reason beyond you, Billy was interested.

You weren’t sure what exactly he saw in you, but once your relationship hit the five-month mark, he had started and gotten into far fewer fights, his attitude wasn’t quite as cocky as when you’d first met him, and he was showing up to your window with far fewer bruises courtesy of his father. You found out about his home life after he showed up at school with a busted lip and a bruised cheek. Regardless of the marks on his knuckles (a trick he thought would fool you into thinking he was fighting again), you saw right through it; he’d been better at keeping his anger in check and opting to walk away rather than throw down.

You’d cornered him after school, letting him lower his guard into believing he was off the hook, and, after prying and a lot of growling on his part (Are we sure Billy’s not part werewolf?) he spilled his guts to you. It was a tense few moments as the new information hit you; his behavior made sense: the acting out, the rage, the need for validation from his peers that he should’ve been getting at home. The surprise was evident on his face as you plowed into him, wrapping your arms around him and holding him hostage there as you tried to convey without words that you would be there for him.

Since then, your relationship was only looking up.

Until Tina’s Halloween bash.

Come and get sheet-faced, the flyer read as it was shoved into your chest in the hallway. You sighed; parties weren’t really your thing, but they were Billy’s, and you admittedly felt more comfortable by his side at one. He slowed up on the drinks when you were there, which you were thankful for. Tina’s party was no exception.

You dressed up as a modest Sandra Dee, and Billy went as...himself, complete with a half-unbuttoned dress shirt. Girls from school eyed him; you’d long learned to ignore it. You figured it came with the territory.

He brushed by you and headed into the kitchen, his fingers running down your arm as he shot you a smirk over his shoulder. He was back in a few moments with half a cup of whatever concoction had been mixed for the night. The two of you stuck to a private corner of the otherwise-filled living room full of dancing and drunken teenagers.

In the middle of your conversation, Billy was suddenly tugged away to the chant of Keg King! Keg King!, which made you smile cheekily and waggle your fingers at him as Tommy H. manhandled him out into the backyard. You weren’t a partier, but you wouldn’t infringe on Billy’s obvious enjoyment of it. Besides you, partying was an outlet for him, a way to let go of everything that plagued him at home.

A familiar head of brunette hair making a beeline across the living room pulled your attention away, and your eyebrows furrowed as Steve Harrington elbowed his way to the front door. His face was pinched in anger, and he was particularly aggressive in shoving some drunk football player out of his way.

“Steve!” you called, pushing off the wall. He didn’t hear you as he stepped out into the night, and only when you grabbed his arm did he whirl on you.

Surprise registered on his face for a moment before it settled into a scowl. “Oh, it’s you.”

Steve and you had been friends once, but since your relationship with Billy, it had since become very strained. Billy and Steve were fire and oil respectively; combine the two and you’d better duck in cover. You missed seeing Steve, still considered him a friend even if he might not.

“What’s wrong? You looked pretty pissed in there,” you noted, gesturing back towards the house.

“What’s it to you?” You reared back at the harshness in Steve’s tone, and regret immediately shadowed his features. He sighed. “I’m sorry, Y/N. I didn’t...I didn’t really mean that. Nancy, she...she...”

“What happened?” you asked softly, taking Steve’s arm and leading him to sit down on the curb. He ran a hand through his unruly mane, ruffling it even more.

“She called our relationship bullshit,” he muttered, dropping his head. You frowned and sighed.

Steve and Nancy were the power couple of the school; well, besides Tommy and Carol, and perhaps you and Billy. But they were the two who should’ve made it out of high school. Nancy was enamored with Steve, especially when they first started dating, so it was a shock to the system to hear she didn’t love him.

“I’m sorry, Steve,” you responded, dropping your chin onto his shoulder. “I know how much you love her.”

“I miss you, you know,” Steve suddenly said, deflecting away from the disaster that was now his relationship. You smiled softly. Perhaps you weren’t so one-sided in wanting your friendship back.

“I miss you, too. We should hang out--”

You were suddenly yanked roughly to your feet by your arm, shocked as all get out to see Billy glaring daggers at Steve.

“Your girl finally dumped your ass so you’re after mine? Fuck off, Harrington,” he snarled, his voice taking on a note of possessiveness you’d never heard before.

“Jesus fuck, Billy,” Steve sighed, running a hand over his face. “That’s not what this is. And let her go, you’re hurting her.”

Billy’s grip was suddenly gone, leaving a soreness in its wake as an apology flashed briefly in his eyes when he looked down at you. But it was gone in seconds and replaced with the wall you were all too familiar with.

Ignoring Steve as he protested, Billy hooked an arm around your neck and pulled you away from the former Keg King and down to his waiting Camaro. Through the whole ordeal, you were still shell-shocked from the fact that Billy had put his hands on you in a way he hadn’t before. You stayed silent as Billy drove, the music off and a heavy silence settling between you.

“Really, Harrington of all people?” he growled, rubbing his chin in aggravation.

“We’re friends, Billy.”

“Since when?! The douche hasn’t talked to you in months!”

“Because of you!” you suddenly shouted, taking both him and yourself by surprise. You sagged in your seat, heaving out a tired sigh. “You don’t get along; of course Steve is going to stay away. He knows it’s not fair to ask me to play referee between the two of you.”

“Looks like he’s just biding his time,” he hissed through gritted teeth, still floored by your exclamation. He never wanted to keep you from having friends, but, as he’d said, Harrington? He could play pool with that beanpole. Shave that stupid hair clean off and use him as a cue stick.

“It isn’t like that.” Your tone was indifferent.

“Can I come up?” Billy asked as he pulled into your driveway, but you were already slamming the door and walking up your walkway without a look back. Billy punched the steering wheel before backing out and roaring down the street.

Billy gave you a whole new thought process that night. You sat cross-legged on your bed in your pajamas, staring blankly at the wall as you tried not to read too much into the marks that had already begun to form on your arms. Billy would never hurt you; he had never hurt you. But with the events of the night replaying in your head, you knew he had gone too far.

The next morning at school, Billy waited by your locker, but you didn’t show. When he drove to your house this morning hoping you’d let him drive you, your mom told him you’d left early to work on a project. He wasn’t dumb; you were avoiding him, and it made a sick, sour feeling settle in his stomach. He didn’t see you at lunch either, and he went the whole day without so much as glimpsing more than a flurry of your hair as you walked down the hallway until the very last bell rang.

You couldn’t avoid him in the parking lot, and there he was, leaning against his Camaro, searching for you. When his eyes locked on yours, you inwardly sighed.

It hadn’t been easy to avoid him; you knew he was looking for you everywhere, and each time you caught a glimpse of his head spinning this way and that searching for you sat uneasily with you. It hurt you, probably as much as it hurt him, but you needed the space to formulate what you would say to him once you let yourself be seen.

He met you halfway in the parking lot and wordlessly, you followed him to his car. It was a silent agreement between you that you head to the open fields at the end of Hawkins. It was quiet and there was no one around; often Billy brought you there after a particularly rough night with his dad. He didn’t talk much during this time. Instead, he sought solace in the curves of your body, and you let him.

This time, silence encapsulated the car as Billy threw it in park. Cigarette smoke filled your nose as he lit up, cranking the window down to hang his arm out the window.

“I’m sorry.” The way his voice strained told you he meant it, and you nearly forgave him then and there, but you didn’t want to be one of those girls who lets her man off the hook to repeat his error over and over again. It killed you to do what you did next, but it needed to be done. He needed to know.

You tugged your jacket off, made awkward by the small space in the car, and lifted your sleeve. The look that settled on Billy’s face was almost enough to make you regret it and drop your sleeve. You’d become an expert on reading him, and the sudden self-deprecating expression broke your heart. But you kept your face a mask, letting him absorb the ring of bruises around your upper arm in the shape of his fingerprints.

“This can’t happen again, Billy,” you finally said, feeling that the message had thoroughly soaked through. “I’ve tolerated a lot from you, and you’ve come so far from that angry boy I met six months ago. But you still have a long way to go and last night, last night really made me wonder about the future of this relationship. You...you scared me last night, Billy, for the first time. And I want that to sink in with you. I can handle more than you think, Billy, but what happened last night cannot happen again. I swear I won’t be around long enough for you to even blink if you lay your hands on me like that again. I can forgive it this once because I know you’re trying. I can see it, everyone else can see it. But if you grab me like that again, I’m gone.”

Billy was trembling in the seat beside you with barely restrained self-hatred. He glanced over as you lowered your sleeve and your eyes turned soft.

“I didn’t show you so you’d hate yourself,” you murmured, reaching over to grasp his hand. His fingers curled tightly over yours and he brought your hand to his mouth, peppering kisses across your knuckles in an unspoken apology. “I showed you so you could turn that hatred into change, Billy. I know you can, and I will be right there with you. I love you.”

The kiss he pressed to your mouth was bruising, but he poured every emotion he couldn’t say into it--gratitude, regret, love. It was all there. He pulled you across the console into his lap, winding his fingers through your hair as he pulled you even closer.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he breathed against your mouth. “I won’t fuck up like that again. I’m sorry.”

He continued to whisper apologies into your skin that night as he claimed your body as his, determined to make you believe that he could change, that he had changed, for the better.

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove x reader #bill hargrove x reader fic #billy hargrove/reader #stranger things #stranger things fic #stranger things 2

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reneeacaseyfl · 5 years ago

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If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress

On Wednesday morning, Megan Rapinoe, dressed in her “World Champion 2019” shirt, massive red-framed sunglasses, and her now-signature pink hair, was on a float in the ticker-tape parade in New York City, surrounded by teammates, fans, and, because nothing can be perfect, New York mayor Bill DeBlasio. She had been partying for three days straight with her teammates, ever since the moment they won their second consecutive — and fourth overall — World Cup championship in Lyon, France. But the party was far from over.

Her left foot was propped high in the air, putting her left knee about parallel with her shoulder. The World Cup trophy was in her left hand, and resting atop her knee. In her right hand, was a bottle of champagne. She turned to her friend, Ashlyn Harris — a back-up goalkeeper for the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) whose documentation of the group’s post-victory celebration bender will go down in the annals of women’s sports history — and told the whole world through Instagram stories, “I deserve this. I deserve this. Everything.”

To some, this might be considered an off-the-cuff, light-hearted statement. But it was far from that. This was an earth-shattering declaration, a pointed rebuttal to everyone who has ever told women that their worth was tied directly to humility and modesty; a mantra for women everywhere who feel pressured to tone down their happiness to make others more comfortable, to turn down compliments or brush-off accolades. It was the opposite of, “thank you,” and a complete rejection of, “I’m sorry,” a phrase that most women utter, on average, 100 times a day, often to nobody in particular, as they merely move around the world.

It was a motto that summed up the entire World Cup run of the USWNT. Three months before the tournament began, they sued U.S. Soccer for equal pay, taking the fight for equality onto the biggest stage in the sport. Once in France, they smashed record after record and celebrated with abandon at every turn — drawing massive amounts of criticism for being too demonstrative about their happiness. They didn’t apologize; they just kept winning, and sipping tea. And then, when the last whistle blew in Lyon, France, to solidify their 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in the final, they kicked off a globe-trotting, ass-shaking, champagne-soaked, expletive-laden party, which the players — particularly Harris — shared with the public on social media.

Seeing these women cussing and pouring champagne on one another, holding signs asking for beers, unapologetically flaunting their drunken happiness in public — in a display that rivaled the shirtless shenanigans of J.R. Smith when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship, or the over-the-top water-fountain antics of Alex Ovechkin when the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup Finals last year — wasn’t just entertaining; it was down-right inspiring.

Other elite female athletes acclaimed the champs.

“I’m kind of obsessed with them right now. I just can’t. Like, they’re so dope,” Ariel Atkins, a second-year player for the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, told ThinkProgress. “They’re not trying to flex for the media and trying to be like, all preppy and professional all the time. I mean, they are who they are, And that is professionalism, being exactly who you are and showing people that athletes are humans too.”

Atkins admitted that like the rest of the world, she’s spent a lot of time over the last week watching Harris’s Instagram stories. So has Sophie Cunningham, a rookie for the Phoenix Mercury.

“They are so badass. Having them go out there and being feisty the way they have been, it has been inspiring to me. For them to go out there, to see them having fun, now I want to win a championship so this team can experience that,” Cunningham said.

“They’re not hiding who they are. They are themselves. I think that is so awesome for all women and men to see.”

This all began on Sunday, after the confetti was cannoned and the trophies delivered, when the players got back to the tarp-covered locker room, put on their goggles, turned up the music, and started popping bottles. We got to see what it looked like, in real time, as the weight of the world was lifted off of their shoulders, and the women began to realize what exactly they had accomplished. The early mornings and healthy eating, the skipped parties and long workouts, the time away from family and friends and all the doubts that this team faced when it came to France, it had all been worth it. Heck, the President of the United States had even come after Rapinoe during the tournament, after a clip of her saying, “I’m not going to the fucking White House” went viral, and the team only got stronger after that.

So of course they partied. Alex Morgan twerked. Crystal Dunn chugged beer. Tobin Heath sang, “We are the champions” at the top of her lungs. Harris documented it all, and then turned the camera on herself and said, in instantly-iconic fashion, “You’re fucking welcome for this content, bitch.”

Ashlyn Harris’ instastories are the best thing on the internet rn pic.twitter.com/JLDjftOSpj

— em (@East_From_Eden) July 7, 2019

After the locker-room celebration, the players went to an after-party, where they danced on the bar, took shots, and did a lot more shouting. On Monday, they took a chartered flight back to New York City, and when they landed, they were still singing and dancing and drinking. Tuesday, after waking up early to go to Good Morning America, they had a private roof-top player’s-only pool party, and then took the party to a Yacht in the East River.

Some how, on Wednesday morning, they were still standing and able to participate in the parade, which became about far more than their World Cup victory, and turned into a rally for equality. All along the parade route, fans held signs that read, “Equal Pay.” And the players — who, it must be stressed, were surrounded by the U.S. Soccer officials they are suing during this celebration — actually used their lawsuit as confetti during the parade.

When the players stood in City Hall — still drinking — and waiting to come out on stage for the speech portion of the program, Harris took to Instagram to show copies of the lawsuit in the trees outside, and strewn across the floor of City Hall.

“Our lawsuit is in the fucking trees,” Harris said. Moments later, as Allie Long literally ate the lawsuit, Harris added, “Pay us, bitch.”

Daddy will pay us. He loves his girls.

https://t.co/WuWyb9fnWu

— Ashlyn Harris (@Ashlyn_Harris) July 10, 2019

That afternoon, they got on a cross-country flight, received hair and makeup on the plane, and then took the ESPYs — a sports-centric awards show hosted by ESPN — by storm.

From Sunday morning to Wednesday night, every single thing these women did was about celebrating themselves. It was a flashy, raucous, attention-grabbing, euphoric, and often crude showcase of success. It was revolutionary. It was true equality.

Most of the time, female athletes either lack the time, resources, or platform to hold a celebration like this one — a celebration like we see male athletes have every single time a championship is clinched. Diana Taurasi, a guard for the Phoenix Mercury and the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, said that because of the year-round demands on female basketball players, they never get the time to celebrate like the USWNT did this week.

“We usually win something, and we never get to celebrate it. We’ve won four [Olympic] gold medals, and the next day, you’re flying back to your WNBA team,” Taurasi said. “It’s like you don’t even get to enjoy winning.”

That’s a big reason why the USWNT’s drunken victory tour meant so much to women everywhere — because most of the time, athletes or not, women aren’t encouraged or even given the time to celebrate their accomplishments.

It’s also why so many pearl-clutchers expressed outrage at the audaciousness of the championship parade. Because the world never gets to see women let loose like this. Under every single social media post about these antics, there are floods of people calling the players classless, arrogant, and embarrassing, and scolding them for not being good enough role models for little girls everywhere. But the best part of the celebration was that is wasn’t about anyone else; this team has worked so hard, not only to be the best at their craft, but to fight for equal pay for the next generation, and to stand up for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, and minorities. This party was about taking a moment to celebrate themselves. Because, as Rapinoe said, they deserved it.

“I mean, they’re just being themselves. I think that’s all you can do. Just be authentically you. They’re great people, and they’re great athletes,” said Mystics’ All-Star Kristi Toliver, who is friends with Pinoe and Harris.

“And you know, they’re about the right thing. So if that upsets people, [those people are] probably in the wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

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robertlchapa30 · 5 years ago

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If you hate the U.S. womens soccer teams World Cup party youre a cop ThinkProgress

Other elite female athletes acclaimed the champs.

Atkins admitted that like the rest of the world, she’s spent a lot of time over the last week watching Harris’s Instagram stories. So has Sophie Cunningham, a rookie for the Phoenix Mercury.

“They’re not hiding who they are. They are themselves. I think that is so awesome for all women and men to see.”

Ashlyn Harris’ instastories are the best thing on the internet rn pic.twitter.com/JLDjftOSpj

— em (@East_From_Eden) July 7, 2019

“Our lawsuit is in the fucking trees,” Harris said. Moments later, as Allie Long literally ate the lawsuit, Harris added, “Pay us, bitch.”

Daddy will pay us. He loves his girls.

https://t.co/WuWyb9fnWu

— Ashlyn Harris (@Ashlyn_Harris) July 10, 2019

That afternoon, they got on a cross-country flight, received hair and makeup on the plane, and then took the ESPYs — a sports-centric awards show hosted by ESPN — by storm.

“And you know, they’re about the right thing. So if that upsets people, [those people are] probably in the wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from https://weeklyreviewer.com/if-you-hate-the-u-s-womens-soccer-teams-world-cup-party-youre-a-cop-thinkprogress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=if-you-hate-the-u-s-womens-soccer-teams-world-cup-party-youre-a-cop-thinkprogress

from WeeklyReviewer - Blog http://weeklyreviewer1.weebly.com/blog/if-you-hate-the-us-womens-soccer-teams-world-cup-party-youre-a-cop-thinkprogress

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velmaemyers88 · 5 years ago

Text

If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress

Other elite female athletes acclaimed the champs.

Atkins admitted that like the rest of the world, she’s spent a lot of time over the last week watching Harris’s Instagram stories. So has Sophie Cunningham, a rookie for the Phoenix Mercury.

“They’re not hiding who they are. They are themselves. I think that is so awesome for all women and men to see.”

Ashlyn Harris’ instastories are the best thing on the internet rn pic.twitter.com/JLDjftOSpj

— em (@East_From_Eden) July 7, 2019

“Our lawsuit is in the fucking trees,” Harris said. Moments later, as Allie Long literally ate the lawsuit, Harris added, “Pay us, bitch.”

Daddy will pay us. He loves his girls.

https://t.co/WuWyb9fnWu

— Ashlyn Harris (@Ashlyn_Harris) July 10, 2019

That afternoon, they got on a cross-country flight, received hair and makeup on the plane, and then took the ESPYs — a sports-centric awards show hosted by ESPN — by storm.

“And you know, they’re about the right thing. So if that upsets people, [those people are] probably in the wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

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weelittleweasley · 7 years ago

Text

I Have An Effect On You | Sweet Pea x Reader

Prompt: Sweet Pea knows that you have certain feelings for him, the majority of them being purely lustful. Of course, he uses this as an advantage point to tease you.

Request status: Closed

Warnings: underage drinking

He leaned against the lockers, his head resting back, exposing the top of his Serpent tattoo on his neck. His eyes were relaxed, watching people float by in the hallway, his arms folded across his chest. His bottom lip was being tugged on by his teeth and you secretly wished it was yours. As you watched him, his eyes scanned his environment, then landing on your stare as his lips pull upwards into a smirk. Your heart beat faster as you froze in place. He knew you were staring, his dark eyes said it all. You gulped before he dipped his right eye into a wink from across the way. The sudden action made you turn away from him and you knew he was chuckling from where he stood. Betty’s voice soon started to come back to your attention; you had forgot she was speaking to you. “Don’t you think that’s insane?” she asks as you snap yourself back into reality. “You weren’t paying attention, were you?” Guilty, you smile and shut your locket. “Of course. Anyway, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come with me tomorrow to the Whyte Wyrm? Jughead invited me over because he wants to me to get to know his friends better. I’d just feel more comfortable if I have a friend with me. I asked Ronnie too, but she says that’s not her scene.”

An opportunity to go to Sweet Pea’s hang out spot was an opportunity you were happy to accept. However, the threat of you gawking over him and getting caught once more was definitely a possible option. But you still found yourself speaking, “Yeah, I’m down.” Betty smiled and thanked you for doing this for her. You secretly felt bad because you knew you were doing this for selfish reasons. “Should I wear anything specific?” you ask, trying to read how important the event was.

Betty shook her head as you walked down the hallway. “It’s whatever. Just don’t wear anything that screams North Side, you know?” she teases.

Playing along, you speak, “So, River Vixen uniform is a no go?” She laughs lightly as you smile. As you walk down the hall, you pass him and his friends who are talking. Your eyes immediately are dragged to him as you take the moment to look at him passing by. Even though he usually garmented himself in leather, the turtleneck and polo combination was working well for him. He still kept his raven hair gelled back with that single strand of hair falling in the center of his forehead, regardless of what he was wearing. Once more, he caught your gaze, but you didn’t let him have the opportunity to bite his lip or wink towards you. You simply looked away continuing your conversation with Betty. “Do North Side people get invited to these things? This is the first time I’m hearing of it.”

Betty shakes her head, “I mean, myself, Archie, and Ronnie were all invited for FP’s party, but that’s it. From my knowledge, they don’t like to have outsiders at the Wyrm. Strictly Serpents only.” That comment makes you uneasy. The fact that you would be sticking out like a sore thumb there was going to be hard. It’s not like you had Ronnie or Archie to cling on for moral support. Betty was going to be there, yes, but she was going to spend the majority of the time with Jug or his Serpent friends. You were basically on your own and that made you twice as much more nervous. “I know, it’s intimidating, but the Serpents are good people once you get to know them,” Betty smiles, rubbing your forearm as you turn right down the hall to the cafeteria.

“I just don’t wanna look like an idiot there,” you explain to her. “You know how I get with this stuff. I need a few friends to work off of.”

She steps in front of you, stopping you in your tracks. “I’ll be there and so will Jughead. It’ll be fun, Y/N. I promise. If you feel so uncomfortable that you want to leave, I will leave with you. Deal?” she sticks out her hand. Sighing, you reluctantly shake it. What did I get myself into? you think.

You stand in front of your mirror as Betty lays on your bed, scrolling through her phone. Smoothing out the small creases in your skirt, you turn to her, “Does this look okay? Or should I try the black jeans with this top?”

Betty sits up, inspecting the outfit. “I like the skirt, I just don’t know about the top with it. It’s cute, but they are better separately,” she instructs as you whip off the skirt, slipping into jeans. “Why are you making a big deal out of this? I told you that we were just hanging out there.”

There was no way you were telling her the real reason why you were panicking over what you were wearing. So, you simply state, “You told me not to dress like I scream North Side.” Betty raises an eyebrow to say, And? “Look at my closet, Cooper! Everything is light pink or blue or has some sort of frill or bow! These items of clothing are the only things that don’t!” Betty laughs at you as you groan, “I’m serious! I don’t wanna make myself look like an idiot.”

“How about this,” Betty phrases. “You wear what you feel comfortable in.” You grab your black jeans and a white t-shirt, slipping them onto your body before adding a jean jacket. “See? Cute and comfortable. Now, can we please get a move on? Jughead has been texting me for the past five minutes if I’m anywhere close to the bar.”

As you exit Betty’s car and approach the bar, you can feel a pit in your stomach forming. Your anxiety was building up and you felt like you were about to burst. Does he know I’m coming? you thought to yourself. Is he gonna get mad that I’m here as a North Sider? But it was too late to answer any of those questions because you were already in the bar, Betty by your side. The bar smelt of cigarette smoke and liquor. It was mildly crowded, people engaging in conversation and social drinking. “Betty!” a voice calls to which is Jughead’s. A smile appears on both of their faces as he walks over, planting a sweet kiss on her lips as you smile. “Hey, Y/N,” he greets as he hugs you tight. “Welcome to the Wyrm.”

Jughead shows you around the bar quickly, introducing you to the people who work there. Everyone seemed somewhat friendly and didn’t raise any questions as to who you were or where you were from. They just figured that since you were invited by another Serpent, FP Jones’ kid nonetheless, you were fine. Then, Jughead circles to the back of the bar and that’s when you see Sweet Pea and your heart stops. He’s bent over the table, playing pool alongside some other friends you recognized as Riverdale High students. As he takes his shot, he looks up from his eyelashes and meets your gaze. At first, he’s confused as to why a little Northie like you is on this side of the tracks, in the Wyrm of all places. But he then notices Jones’ girl by your side and things become clear. As he stands tall, a smirk is on his face, making your head reeling and your stomach churn. Just one look from him and your brain has turned to putty. “Betty, you already know them, but Y/N, I don’t think you’ve formally met Fangs, Toni, and Sweet Pea,” Jughead speaks, taking your hand, guiding you to his friend. “This is Betty’s friend, Y/N.”

You give a small smile to the group of three as Toni shakes your hand, introducing herself first. “Toni...Topaz,” she smiles. “I think we’ve met before. Once. Biology second period,” she tries to remember as you nod your head.

The memory of the pink haired girl coming back to you when she plopped herself in the back of the science room. She had asked you for the previous day’s notes as you gladly gave them to her and she graciously thanked you. “Yeah, Mr. Cullen’s class,” you tell her and she smiles, happy you remembered and didn’t play it off like you didn’t know. “I’m totally checked out half the time during that class. Cullen is a wet noodle.” Toni laughs at your joke, giving her own commentary on the middle aged teacher.

Fangs then says, “Fogarty. But you can call me Fangs.” He shakes your hand with a polite smile. You could definitely see yourself becoming friends with him. He also takes the moment to squeeze by you to give Betty a hug and a friendly greeting.

And then, Sweet Pea walks up to you and your heart stops beating. Up close, he was much taller than you--about a foot. Now that he was so close, you really took him in. His eyes were compelling--a dark mocha that carried so much confidence and lust in them. His mouth was plump and pink, turned into a toothy grin. “Finally,” he starts. “Now I can put a name to the Northie face.” His voice was deep and sexy as you gulp. “Nice to meet you, princess.”

You give a nervous laugh before tucking your hands deeper into your pockets. “You too,” you reply. If you wanted him to get to know you, you were gonna have to loosen up. And what better way than through alcohol. “Jug, where did you say the bar was again?” you ask as Sweet Pea gives a light chuckle. Jughead directs you to the back right corner as you grab Betty to come with you for emotional support. At the bar, you order a vodka soda as Betty questions why you were drinking already. “I need to loosen up. I always am better socially with a drink.”

Betty sighed as you finished the drink in about ten seconds, slamming it on the bar to ask for yet another. And you were right, with a drink in your system and a drink in your hand, you felt a lot more comfortable with the different environment. You were joking with Toni as she laughed, repeating the joke to Fangs as he joins in. “Geez, Jug, you should have brought her over sooner,” he punches his arm as Jug smiles, giving you a secretive thumbs up. You were having a great time, but there was still one thing making you uneasy. As he played pool, Sweet Pea would look over at you and you would become frozen under his stare. His eyes stared into yours as he licks his lips. You exhaled a nervous breath before redirecting your attention back to Fangs and Toni.

At one point during the night, Toni picked up on the tension between you and Sweets. She watched as you were talking to Jughead and Betty, Sweet Pea taking the privilege to check out your backside. As he took in your figure, he bit his lip before looking away, then noticing Toni giving him the eyes. What do you think you’re doing? it was like she was saying. Pea just laughed and continued his business. Toni then interjected in your conversation with Betty to pull you aside. “Hi,” she chimes as you smiles. “Do you and Pea...have you and Pea slept together?”

Her question almost makes you spit your drink out. “What?” you ask, a little too loud. “No, oh my God.” I wish. “No, we haven’t.” Toni shakes her head, smacking her lips. “Why, has someone said something?” you ask a little too egarly and she definitely picks up on that.

“No,” she states as you relax, a little disappointed. “Just curious, that’s all.”

You shake your head before excusing yourself to go get another drink at the bar. As you order another vodka soda, you tap your fingers on the wood. “Another drink?” a voice asks. “Didn’t strike me as a drinker.” When you turn around, Sweet Pea is standing there, leaning against the wall.

Your heart started beating faster. You couldn’t choke up now. You had a chance to make your move and god damn it, you weren’t gonna mess it up. Relaxing yourself, you take your drink from the bar, replying, “You’re quick to assume.”

He smiles, “I can never tell with you North Side kids.” You sip from your drink, eyeing him as you do so. Stay calm. Stay cool. “So, have you been enjoying the view for the past view weeks?” he asks, cutting right to the case.

Sweets watches your face as you widen your eyes and completely lose your chill. He enjoyed knowing that he had this sort of effect on you. With a few words and a smize, he had you lost for words. Sweets was used to having girls fawn over him, but not to this extent. You were literally speechless when he did anything in your general direction. To be honest, he was a little surprise to see you didn’t collapse on the floor when he approached you to talk. “I-I beg your pardon?” you stutter as he smiles.

“Come on, princess,” he chuckles, turning so that his left side is leaning against the wall, his body turned towards you now giving you his full attention. You clutch your cup tighter, the flimsy plastic material giving way to the pressure you had on it. You watched as he leaned forward to talk to your, your bodies close, but not too close. It was just enough for you to feel his body heat radiating off of him, you smell the scent of his cologne. The scent was familiar--it was faintly smelling of pine, but the scent of tobacco threw you off. “I’ve seen you in the halls. You putting your books away at your locker, taking the chance to stare. I’m not blind,” he tucks a strand of hair away from your face before brushing his pointer finger across your cheek. The touch makes you freeze under him, sucking in a breath at the contact of his cold hands on your warm cheek. “I know that you know I’ve caught you staring. Like yesterday. You were with Cooper talking and you took an opportunity to stare. I caught you and you had that blush on your cheeks,” he laughed as you turned your head away from him, too embarrassed to look. “Just like that,” he points out the blush that crept onto your cheeks at that moment.

Mustering up enough courage, you speak, “I don’t know what you want me to say.” Sweet Pea laughs at the pure innocence you have instilled in you. He took the moment to stare you up and down. He liked how you tried to shy away from your North Side roots, dressing in ripped black jeans and a jean jacket. But of course, you had to wear those god forsaken pearl earrings like every other North Side chic did. Cooper included. “What could you possibly want me to tell you?” you ask before drinking the rest of your vodka soda.

Sweets takes a step closer to you as you inhale sharply, his hand now resting on your waist, pulling you into him. “What do you wanna tell me?” he asks. “I think that’s the real question.” His eyes watch our face as your eyes are wide and doe like, mouth slightly parted. Before you can say anything, although you didn’t know what to say, Fangs calls out for him to return to the pool game, curious as to where he went. “Yeah, hold on,” he calls back. “Come to me with answer when you’re ready.”

And with that, he walks away, the feeling of his hand on your waist still lingering as you stay back. Your heart is thumping in your ears and you gulp. Just him talking to you in that manner, his low, husky voice reverberating through your body. The slightest touch was electric and you wanted more even though you wouldn’t dare admit that to him drunk or sober. You collect yourself before walking back over to where Betty and Toni chat.

For the rest of the night, you and Sweet Pea keep your distance from each other or try to. But the two of you are like magnets to each other. Yet you try to maintain your distance, not wanting the connection between you two to grow and spiral out of control. You know that if you let it, he’ll have the pleasure of knowing he’s won and you’re another girl on the list he’s accumulated over the past year and a half. During the night, Sweet Pea makes sure to watch you from whatever corner he was huddled in with his friends. He watched you as you talked to his friends, eyes squinted from laughter, nose lightly scrunched up, lips parted. You were different than the other girls that have taken interest with him. You were meek and innocent, terrified of confrontation. A foil of Sweet Pea. He loved how scared you were of his glance, you refused to look at him when he looked at you. So, he took that as an option to look at you. Like really look at you. You were built well--not too tall, but not too short. Hair brushed and parted to the side, smooth and sleek as it rested on one shoulder from you pushing it there. Your jean jacket was a little too big on you, but not too big that it covered your bottom; he liked how you cuffed the sleeves, making sure your hands were free. You were the opposite of what his “type” was and he liked that. A lot.

You knew that Pea was stealing looks at you during conversations, but you didn’t dare glance at him at the same time. Too afraid that he would stare at you with his bedroom eyes, dipping that eye into a wink as his white teeth pulled on his bottom lip. The sight made you weak in the knees and he knew damn well what he was doing. But when he wasn’t looking at you, which was rare, you took the chance to swiftly turn your head, catching a glance at him. A gray shirt underneath a flannel vest, black jeans with a thick black belt. His style was undeniably Serpent. Something mysterious and dangerous--something you had never experience from North Side boys. You were used to letterman jackets and khakis. Not leather jackets and combat boots. As you looked at him up and down, he caught you looking just once and this time you didn’t look away embarrassed. You simply stared back at him and he smirked, licking his lips. He excused himself from the group he was with, without breaking eye contact with you, walking outside of the bar. He dipped his right eye into a wink as if to say, Come on. Let’s go.

The pit in your stomach told you not to go, but your mind was screaming, God, just go. “I’m gonna grab some fresh air,” you tell Betty.

“Are you okay?” she asks, concern laced in her voice as she touched your elbow. “Did you drink too much? Do I need to drive you home?” she starts to grow more anxious.

You laugh, shaking your head. “No, I’ve been drinking water for the past hour and a half. It’s just getting a little hot and I wanna cool off,” you lie as Betty shakes her head. You look over to Toni, who knows where you are off to. It’s like this has all happened before and she know what you’re doing. Toni, like Pea, dips her right eye into a wink. Good luck, she mouthed as you gave her an eye roll.

When you exited the Wyrm, the chilly evening air engulfed you as you held your jacket tighter to your body. Outside, Pea stood against the brick wall. “You have an answer for me yet, princess?” he coos with a teasing smile.

You walk over towards him, tucking your hands in your jacket pocket. “Why would I have an answer?” you reply.

Sweets laughs, standing up straight, leaning his head backwards a little bit to expose the Serpent tattoo on his neck. A typical stance for him, you took note. “Because I asked for one,” he demands, biting his lip, staring at you up and down.

Daringly, you tell him, “You know what you’re doing.”

He laughs again, “Of course, I do, princess. If I didn’t know what I was doing, I wouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” You fold your arms across your chest, half because you were getting fed up with these cocky answers and half because it was chilly. “I have an effect on you,” he simply states. “I like knowing that I can have that effect on a little innocent Northie like you,” he grabs your chin with his finger, titling it up to meet his gaze.

“Again with the assumptions,” you speak, mustering up more confidence than you did before. It may have been the three drinks in your system, but you liked to think it was because you were being ballsy. “You don’t judge a book by its cover. You of all people should now that.”

At first, Sweet Pea is taken back by your words. “Really?” he raises his brows. “So, you’re telling me that every time I look at you from across the room, you don’t want me as much as I want you?” he questions and your mouth falls dry. He was so direct and abrupt it took you by storm. He hums, “That’s what I thought.”

Now his face is close to yours, separated by six inches at most and you’re just staring at his lips at this point. You want to close that gap desperately, but you tell yourself you have more dignity than this. If he wanted you so badly, then he was gonna make a move.

And he damn well did.

With one swift motion, his lips were on yours, harsh and warm. It takes you a second to register what is happening, but you waste no time in kissing him back, pressing your body against his. You can feel him smirk into your kiss before his grip is on your waist, squeezing your sides. He pushes you against the brick wall of the Wyrm, taking the reigns in the kiss as you gladly let him. Your arms wrap around his neck as his tongue enters your mouth, massaging your tongue with his. Your head is reeling before he starts kissing down your neck, biting and sucking at the exposed skin. You bite your lip harder to suppress a small moan and he can tell you’re holding back. He wants to hear you moan; that sound that makes him know that he’s got you wrapped around his finger. In order to have that redemption, he grinds his hips into yours abruptly as you feel the rising bulge in his pants. In response, you sigh his name as he chuckles against your skin. He’s won. At this point, you don’t care who has won. You are too in love with the way his lips feel on yours before he takes your bottom lip in his teeth, gently tugging on it. You smile lightly as he smiles back, kissing you harshly, you tangling your fingers in his hair.

But the kiss can’t last forever, although you want it to. He removes his lips from your as you are both left panting for air. The heavy rise and fall of his chest flows with yours as he speaks, “All you dreamed of?” he teases as you roll your eyes. He was a cocky bastard, but you couldn’t help, but love that about him. The two of you stay in silence, watching each other as the sounds of the South Side happen around you.

You break the silence, “What now?”

He chuckles, “Damn, princess. It amazes me how naive, you are.” You hate that he thinks you’re so innocent just because you are from the North Side and haven’t seen as much as he has. “It’s damn adorable.” You push his chest as he smirks. “You tell me, Northie. What now?”

Thinking for a second, you bite your lip, reaching out to tug on his flannel. “Well,” you start. “For starters, we could ditch them,” you reference everyone in the Wyrm, “hop on your bike and go somewhere where we can do more of this.” He leans down to kiss you again, his hand resting on your lower back. “Then we can talk.”

Sweets smirks, “Full of surprises, aren’t we?”

“You have no idea,” you tell him before kissing him again quickly.

He grabs your hand, “Aight, let’s bounce.” He grabs his keys from his pocket before dragging you to his motorcycle. The two of you hop on, you wrapping your arms around his torso and you know he’s smirking that cocky smile of his. With that, the two of you leave the Wyrm behind.

#sweet pea #sweet pea imagine #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea x reader au #sweet pea au #sweet pea serpent #sweet pea serpent imagine #sweet pea smut #riverdale #riverdale imagines #riverdale au #riverdale cast #southside serpents #southside serpents imagine #jordan connor

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evescole · 7 years ago

Text

End Game // Peter Parker

word count: 2,309

pairing: peter parker x female!reader

warnings: swearing, middle fingers, penis parker

summary: you’ll do anything at this point to get peter parker to notice you and mj is definitely willing to help.

a/n: okay so second one in the reputation series whoop whoop. i was requested to write a second part of new girl (which i honestly didn’t think anyone would read lol) so i’ll be working on that too. this has been stuck in my to do list for a while and i finally finished it so, enjoy!

part of the reputation series

masterlist

ask me stuff

Another day, another disappointing experience.

It was your fault, really. You kept getting your hopes up just for them to fall over and over again.

You had an issue. Yes, an issue, and a big one at that. You were absolutely head over heels for your best friend, Peter Parker. That doesn’t sound awful, right? I mean, you’re best friends for a reason so obviously you like each other a little bit.

Yeah, no, it’s awful. While your feelings belong to him, his are with someone else. Liz Allan, the girl who held Peter Parker’s heart, unintentionally, that is. She was the most popular senior in the school so of course he fell for her. (Literally he did in the hallway one time, Ned has it on video, it’s great.) You didn’t have anything against Liz. In fact, she was one of your close friends. You just wish you could get Peter to look at you for once and not her.

“Still no luck?” Michelle frowned at you as she approached your locker. You had just tried to invite Peter to movie night but as usual, he declined.

You sighed, “What do you think?”

Michelle leaned against the lockers. “Well, I just so happen to know that you have the bestest friend ever who has an idea.”

That got your attention. “Tell me, tell me, tell me!” You shook MJ’s shoulders in excitement.

She grabbed your hands off of her gently. “As long as you never do that again.”

You pulled your hands back, holding your backpack tightly. “Yeah, okay, sorry. Tell me!”

Michelle tilted her head, smirking slightly. “Liz is going to have a party this Friday. Go. Make him regret pushing you to the side. Wow Peter into forgetting all about Liz.”

“Okay, okay. That might work. The problem is, I don’t know how to wow people, MJ!” You freaked, grabbing the ends of your hair.

Michelle rolled her eyes at you. “Yes, that’s why I am going to help you. I pinky promise he won’t be able to take his eyes off of you.”

You sighed, taking a deep breath. “We can do this. This will work, right?”

Michelle patted your head before walking. “This is gonna work, babe. I promise.”

Flash forward to Friday night and you were absolutely panicked. Michelle had helped you pick out a stunning outfit. You had decided to ditch the leggings and sweatshirts for a black dress and a jean jacket. You had also stolen a pair of black ankle boots from Liz to complete your look.

She wasn’t kidding when she said wow Peter completely. That’s how you ended up in the bathroom with Michelle’s hands sorting dye through your hair. You had been completely against it but she didn’t really give you an option.

“MJ, I don’t know if this is a good idea,” You mumbled as you looked at the color of the dye.

She rolled her eyes at you. “Y/N, how many times do I have to tell you, this is going to be worth it?”

Michelle had chosen two boxes: one an icy blonde and the other an almost black color. She had used the darker one for the roots of your hair and faded it into the icy blonde for the rest of it. You were terrified to see the results.

“Alright. We just have to wait a while and then rinse it all out. I’m not letting you see it until it’s done, you know that right?” She smirked at you.

You continued to scroll through your social media on your phone. “MJ, honey, I wasn’t doubting that for a second.”

“Good!” She pulled the gloves off her hands. “In the meantime, I’m going to sort through all your makeup and get mine and we’re gonna give you a makeover.”

You looked up at her. “As if dying my hair wasn’t makeover enough.”

She rolled her eyes and threw the gloves in the garbage before leaving you in the bathroom. You glanced at the mirror, seeing the dye all on top of your hair. Your phone buzzed in your hand, regaining your attention.

Liz Allan

iMessage

You sighed as you opened her text.

Hey, Y/N! Are you coming to the party tonight?

You smiled at the message, your fingers typing back quickly.

Yeah, I think so. If I can work up enough courage to not wimp out.

You watched as the little bubbles appeared at the bottom, signalling that she was replying.

You’ll be fine. Come find me when you get here :)

You responded with some form of thank you before locking your phone. You sighed, setting it on the bathroom counter before closing your eyes to take a quick nap. With how everything was looking, you were going to need all the energy you could get for this party tonight.

Two hours later, your hair had been freed of dye and washed before Michelle braided it to the side. Makeup followed as your friend put product after product on your face. You weren’t going to lie, it made you a bit uncomfortable but after seeing the results, you were more than thrilled.

The only issue you had was that you were letting this happen. Of course, you didn’t think you should have to dress up and wear makeup for a boy’s attention. You had to constantly remind yourself that even if Peter didn’t look at you, you were happy with who you were. Granted, MJ had you take a few risks but you felt great and you looked even better.

Outfits were put to use and before you knew it, you were hunting down Liz in her own house. The party was already in full blast with Flash playing overrated club songs in the living room. You had retreated to the kitchen in hopes of finding the hostess, just wanting to find some familiarity while MJ was eating.

“Y/N!” Liz smiled brightly as she crossed the kitchen floor. “Wow, you look great. Did you dye your hair?”

You played with the ends of the braid awkwardly. “Yeah, MJ did it for me. It’s a little risky, but I really like it.”

Liz nodded enthusiastically. “It looks awesome, girl! You look awesome! Parker’s definitely going to like it.”

“You think?” Your cheeks went red as you grabbed a water from the fridge, staying away from the red solo cups that had been littering the counter.

“Definitely!” She smiled again before her name was called from another room. “I’ve gotta go, but I’ll catch you later, okay? Be confident!”

She gave you a thumbs up as she disappeared around a corner. You took a deep breath before exhaling, gulping down some water to calm your nerves. You couldn’t even decide why you were nervous but there was no time to think on it seeing as the reason walked in the room himself.

“Peter! Hey.” You caught yourself before you came off too enthusiastic, leaning against the counter casually.

The boy’s eyes looked over to meet your form, his lips parting as he took in your appearance. “Oh, wow. Uh, hey, hi, Y/N. Wow, you look amazing.” He took a few steps forward, dragging a gaping Ned with him.

You felt your cheeks go red again as you attempted to keep calm. “Thanks. MJ worked some magic before this. Did you guys just get here?”

Peter looked back at Ned to make sure he was still breathing before replying, “Yeah, yeah. Aunt May just dropped us off and why am I telling you this, you probably don’t care and I should stop talking before it gets awkward.” A shy smile formed on his lips as he shifted his stance.

“It’s okay. Um, would you wanna join me outside? So we can get away from the crowd?” You twisted the water bottle nervously in your hands.

Words weren’t working for the Parker teen so he just pressed his lips together and nodded. You smiled at him, feeling a bit risky. You held your hand out to him, prompting him to grab it. He looked back at Ned in disbelief before grabbing your outreached hand and letting you lead him from the party.

In the years that Peter Parker had known you, he had never seen you this way. It was a whole new you, flirty and outgoing. If anything, it made him fall even further for you and he didn’t think that was possible.

The music was still loud enough that you could hear it outside. You sat down by the edge of Liz’s pool, pulling your boots off your feet so you could dip them in the warm water. A few other teens had come to the outdoors to escape the rave that had formed inside.

Peter situated himself beside you, still in shock that you had invited him to join you. You were kind of out of his league and that’s why he had done everything possible to avoid you without being rude. I mean, you were friends with Liz Allan for crying out loud. That should be proof enough that he would never have a chance. He was just trying to protect himself and his feelings from getting hurt when you rejected him.

You on the other hand, were surprised Peter agreed to hang with you. Your heart was beating a million times per minute and you just hoped he couldn’t hear it pounding through your chest. You couldn’t believe you had managed to get him out here with you, seeing as he had practically avoided you all week. Even though you were friends with people like Liz, you loved hanging with Peter, Ned, and MJ more. They kept you grounded, down to earth, and you appreciated that more than they would ever know.

“So, how’d your week go?” You asked, fumbling for anything to talk about. You sucked when it came to having conversations, especially with boys.

Peter shrugged. “The usual. Homework, Stark Internship, self-pity.”

You looked over at him. “Self-pity? Why?”

Peter’s eyes widened as he scrambled to fix his words. “I uh, I mean I’m just-”

“Peter, is everything okay? You haven’t talked to me all week and you keep avoiding me,” You blurted, just going for it.

Peter’s attempt to find a response stopped as his cheeks went red. “Um…”

You weren’t finished yet. “And don’t lie, please. We’ve been friends for who knows how long and you just started ditching me the past few weeks.”

You were being honest. He had been avoiding you as subtle as he could but it wasn’t working. All you wanted was to be with him. Yeah, it didn’t start as that but that’s where you were now. You had fallen for the Parker boy and you had fallen hard. You wanted to keep him safe from all the other girls out there that you knew would tear him to pieces and just use him for his kindness. You didn’t want to watch that happen.

“Y/N.” The way he said your name made a chill run down your spine. “I didn’t mean to. It’s just I…” He took a deep breath, eyes looking across the calm pool water. “I think I’m falling for you and it terrifies me.”

Your heart started pounding again as you reached over and grabbed his hand. “Glad I’m not the only one.”

Peter blinked a few times in surprise. “What?”

“I like you, Peter. And I’ve been trying to get closer to you these past few weeks but you kept avoiding me so I enlisted MJ to help me. I was hoping you’d see me for once, instead of Liz.” You shrugged, your fingers still intertwined with his as if it was second nature.

“You had my eyes on you all along, love. It’s just you’re, well, you, and I’m just Peter.” Hiss red cheeks showed he was more embarrassed than he wished but he wasn’t about to let go. “You really like me?”

Rolling your eyes, you leaned over to press your lips against his. “I’ve always wanted to be your endgame.”

“Woo!” Cheering from behind you made the two of you move apart from each other quickly. None other than Ned had been cheering as Liz and MJ stood next to him. It was your turn to blush at your friend’s actions. Liz gave you a thumbs up before disappearing into the house to make sure nobody was breaking anything while MJ just flipped you off with a smile.

You grinned back at your friends before your eyes landed on Peter. To your surprise, his eyes were already on you, taking in every bit of detail you included. The corners of his lips moved into a sly grin as he moved forward, attaching his lips to yours again. You didn’t pull away this time, your hands finding their way behind his neck as he squeezed your hips.

It was all romantic and peaceful until...

“When I say Penis, you say Parker. Penis!”

You pulled away from the shy boy in front of you to shout his last name to open air, earning a groan from said boy. He shook his head at you, keeping his hands on your hips. “On second thought, I hate you.”

You ruffled his hair as you stood up, offering him a hand. “Come on, Parker. Let’s go give Flash the biz before we ditch this party and head home together.”

And just like that, Peter Parker let the girl he fell in love with drag him back into a party, chanting his name here and there. He couldn’t even be mad. No, not at all. Not only did he have the hottest girlfriend ever, but you were also his best friend and he didn’t think it was possible to be happier with you by his side.

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shay-del-rey · 7 years ago

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Yayo: Part III | Sweet Pea x Reader

Fandom: Riverdale

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Reader

Words: 1784

A/N: Guys, I am so happy with all the feedback I have gotten for this fic. I hope you enjoy this part as much as I loved writing it!! Enjoy xx

Taglist: @eves-library @bitchincap @ninjasbananasmonkeys @thequeenmelissa @yellow-wildflowers @harika89 @vexingfelon @swxxt-pxa @xsnak-3x @jasmienemien @penisprkr

Fic dedicated to the lovely @penny4thoughts! Your encouraging words give me the motivation to write.

You have to take me right now, from this dark trailer park

Put me onto your black motorcycle, fifties baby doll dress for my 'I do"

- Lana Del Rey

“ROUGH night?” you asked Sweet Pea as he slid into the empty seat beside you during Math class.

You became concerned when you saw his hands marred by cuts. He also had a split lip.

“Something like that,” he answered, turning to look at you. His right eye was swollen.

You lifted a hand before you could stop yourself, brushing gently over his injuries as his breath hitched.

“What happened?” you asked as you took his hands in yours, your fingers brushing gently over his bruised knuckles in an attempt to provide comfort.

He sighed. “Some Ghoulies tried to get the jump on us last night. Fangs and I were outnumbered but we beat the shit out of them.”

“Did you at least see a doctor?”

“It’s nothing. Besides, I don’t need it.”

“You’re an idiot, Pea. There’s nothing wrong with seeking medical help after getting injured.”

“I’ll wait until you’re a doctor so you can treat me, Doc L/N.”

You could not help but smile. Since that night in the diner, you and Pea had hung out quite a lot. It was during a random outing to the quarry that you had confided in him about your dream to go to medical school.

He was surprisingly supportive. When you asked him about his plans for the future, he had shut himself off, muttering about being a Serpent lifer.

It had hurt you that this amazing boy felt so poorly about his future but you knew it would take him time and encouragement to open up to you.

It was also during this moment you found the simplest way to show your affection. Your first kiss with Pea was everything you hoped it would be. Sweet, sensual and striking.

Your heart could not stop racing when he had fisted his hands in your hair and roughly claimed your mouth, biting your lip as he marked you as his.

You snapped out of your thoughts when his phone rang.

Pea scowled before answering.

You turned your attention to the book in front of you, trying to solve the calculus problem when he sighed loudly.

“Everything okay?”

“Just some bullshit. So listen, you going to that thing tomorrow night?”

You smirked. “Sweetie, there are a lot of things on tomorrow. What are you talking about?”

His cheeks turned red before he coughed. “That...thing that teenagers go to.”

Playing dumb, you responded. “You mean, a party?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, Y/N. I know you’re not dumb. I’m talking about the dance.”

Feigning understanding, you replied. “Ah, the annual Southside High formal. I can’t believe they still have that. What about it?”

“Do you wanna go with me?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“So...that a yes?”

“Yes, you lump. Pick me at 7?”

The bell sounded just then and before you could stop him, he took your bag and carried it outside.

“7 sounds fine. Should I bring something?”

“Just yourself.”

He looked amused for some reason, before advancing towards you as you stepped backwards until your back hit the lockers.

Sweet Pea towered over you, a smirk on his lips as he braced himself with one hand above your head while the other played with a strand of your hair.

“Your old man chatted with me the other day.”

“Oh yeah? What about?”

“He mentioned all the ways he’ll kill me if I screwed us up.”

“Well, that’s not fair. I could screw us up too.”

“Somehow, I doubt that, Princess.”

He leant down when you laid a finger on his advancing lips.

“We’re in the hallway, Pea.”

“I don’t give a damn, baby,” was the only thing he said before his lips met yours in a heated kiss. His hands circled your waist and brought you closer to his leather-clad body. He deepened the kiss when you squirmed and broke away from him.

“Ugh, I hate you,” you said, dropping a chaste kiss on his kiss-swollen lips as he smirked.

“I like you too.”

YOU had just finished painting your lips ruby red when the sound of engines rumbled outside. You glanced at the clock and saw that it was 7 already. Picking up your clutch, you stood to survey yourself one last time before stepping outside.

A peach lace bodycon dress adorned your body, with your hair down in curls and your feet encased in strappy heels that gave you an overall simple yet chic look.

You had gone light on the make-up, choosing to play up your best asset – lips – for the night. You were fairly certain Pea would appreciate it too.

Stepping outside, you were greeted with the sight of Pea listening to your mother ramble on. In her hands was a bouquet of stargazer lilies, which she looked happy to receive.

Pea looked up when you came into view, his jaw dropping as he dragged his eyes over your body, his gaze heating.

You took the time to study him too. His ever present Serpents jacket was on his back once again, but he was dressed in a white shirt and fitted black jeans with combat boots.

Frankly, he looked good enough to eat.

“Damn, Princess,” he breathed out.

Your mother snorted and hugged you. “Beautiful. You want a coat?”

“I’m good. We’re heading out now.”

You bade farewell to your mother after complimenting the bouquet, reminding her to put the flowers in water before heading out, surprised to see Pea leaning against his bike.

“I know, I know. I should’ve brought the pick-up but I kinda borrowed that from Fangs and his date is a prissy missy who didn’t want to spoil her fancy hairdo but I’m so sorry –”

You cut him off before he could ramble further. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, I get to be close to you this way. And do this.”

You straddled the bike as your dress rode up, exposing your thigh to his hungry gaze. Just as he was distracted, you nibbled the skin near his tattoo, much to his pleasure.

“You, hellcat, are going to be the death of me,” he said.

“By the way, nice gesture. Flowers for my mum?”

He smirked. “I can be nice.”

You snorted and held on tight after finally wearing your helmet as he tore out of the trailer park, the two of you becoming a blur in the night time.

UNDERSTANDABLY, the Southside High formal was a nightmare.

Two drugged up teens had brought knives to the event (which had somehow bypassed security) and ended up stabbing each other, bringing to an end the school’s only social event.

The night was still young and Carla and Justine had opted to attend a party at some warehouse downtown. They had extended the invite to you and Pea but you had refused.

Instead, you decided to head to the Whyte Wyrm and though he refused to show it, you knew Pea was happy with your choice.

As you entered, he shrugged off his jacket to place it on your shoulders.

“Just so they know you’re mine, baby doll.”

You rolled your eyes and followed as he led you in the bar, hand in hand. Loud music, conversation and cigarette smoke filled the air as you entered.

You scanned the room to see if there was someone you recognised. There were plenty of faces you were familiar with, as a lot of them had visited your dad when you all lived together.

Speaking of your dad...

“Y/N! I don’t think you’re supposed to be here,” he said, approaching to give you a hug.

“I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“So, you didn’t go to the dance?”

“We did but it was cancelled early.”

He chuckled and then made a zipping motion. Pretty soon, his gaze fell on your and Pea’s entwined hands. Your father’s gaze hardened.

“You better treat my daughter like the princess that she is, or I’ll break your fucking legs, boy.”

To his credit, Pea remained cool.

“Yes, Sir.”

Seemingly satisfied, he turned to you. “No drinking. I’ll be around if you need me.”

He left and Pea breathed a sigh of relief. “Wanna play pool?”

“I don’t know how. But I can cheer you on?”

“I can teach you?”

You reached up to kiss him chastely. “Some other time, babe. I really want to see you play.”

And he played. For the first time, you got to see Pea in his element, just being a regular boy, joking with his friends, egging on his fellow competitors and kicking butt at pool at the same time.

You were so enamoured with him that you didn’t see Toni sliding in the seat next to you.

“If you two don’t stop giving each other fuck-me eyes, Old Man L/N’s gonna have a real problem,” she said, smirking.

“Hello to you too, Topaz.”

“So, I hear you and Pea are boinking.”

“Does anyone even use that word anymore? And the term you’re looking for is dating.”

“Hey, I’m all for it. Lord knows that boy needs some serious loving. Jokes aside, though. I’m glad you gave him a chance. If you break his heart though, you and I will have words.”

“Pea means too much to me. I would never do that to him.”

“Good. So maybe you can tell Miss Big Titties over there to stop flirting with your man. You’ve got Serpent blood in you. Let it run wild.”

You spun your head so fast you swore you heard a crack. There she was, some blonde wearing cheap make-up and rubbing herself against Pea who looked very uncomfortable with the situation.

You grit your teeth as you walked towards the duo before standing in front of them, using his dog tags to pull Pea to your height and stake your claim.

You forgot how long you kissed but when you broke away, the whole bar had erupted in cheers and wolf whistles.

You turned to the girl in front of you.

“Sorry, sugar. This one’s taken.”

She smirked, bowed her head minutely and walked away in search of new prey. Meanwhile, Pea was still looking at you in bewilderment.

“What?” you asked him.

“That was honestly so hot.”

“You said I was yours. Don’t forget that you’re mine too.”

His chocolate hues darkened with lust. “Oh baby doll, the things I want to do to you right now...” he muttered.

You bit your lip. “Only...right now?”

He groaned. “Now...and forever, if you’ll have me.”

And you fell. Hard.

“You wanna get out of here?”

#riverdale #the cw riverdale #riverdale imagines #southside serpents #sweet pea #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea imagines #sweet pea fan club #sweet peas pod squad #toni topaz #fangs fogarty #southside high #whyte wyrm #jordan connor #jordan connor imagines

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newstechreviews · 4 years ago

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When Anthony Lynn, head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, was in third grade, his world changed. He grew up in Celina, Texas—the son of a single mother, and one of the few Black kids in what was then a small town north of Dallas. A girl—Lynn thought she was cute—was handing out invitations to her birthday party one day, when Lynn noticed she skipped him and a Black girl in the class. When Lynn asked why, the response left him devastated. It’s because you’re Black and my parents won’t allow you to come to my place.

“After that moment, I never saw things the same,” Lynn, now 51, tells TIME in a video call from his office in Costa Mesa, Calif., where the Chargers are headquartered and holding training camp. “That’s when I knew the world was different. There’s a difference being Black and white. Then I started seeing color.” Lynn says this, and other experiences with racism throughout his life, helped motivated him to reach the top ranks of the NFL, where he is now one of just three Black head coaches. “I didn’t didn’t like the fact that people didn’t think I was equal, or thought they were better than me,” says Lynn. “I can’t say race wasn’t a big part of why I’m where I’m at. Because it pushed me.”

Now, the realities that Lynn confronted head-on in his life are at the forefront of his job as head coach. He sees systemic racism in the NFL, a league in which Black men are 60% of the players, but less than 10% of head coaches. He sees it in the streets, with the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake. “I was like, wow, again?” Lynn says of watching the video of police shooting Blake in Kenosha, Wis. “It’s always unarmed Black men. And seven times? That just made me sad, man. I got emotional.” On Aug. 26 the Milwaukee Bucks declined to take the court for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic; other teams across sports also staged strikes, effectively shutting down the games. The Chargers were supposed to hold a scrimmage at their new home, the $5 billion SoFi Stadium, the next day. Lynn called a team meeting, and let players express their frustrations. “After that, no way could we take the field and practice,” says Lynn. “Because something was more important than football at that time.” The scrimmage was cancelled.

Read more: Why Jacob Blake’s Shooting Sparked an Unprecedented Sports Boycott

Lynn’s Chargers will kick off an NFL season like no other this weekend. In the midst of a pandemic and national reckoning on race, L.A. travels to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals and the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, quarterback Joe Burrow, on Sunday. While Lynn says he would have supported a player walkout in Week 1, he did not encourage it. “If I thought not playing Week 1 would make a major change, I’d give these boys the whole week off,” says Lynn. “I wouldn’t show up. But we’re football players, we’re not politicians.”

Still, don’t expect silence. In the past, Lynn says he’s tried to keep talk of controversial social issues—like Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the National Anthem—out of the locker room, lest it become a dreaded “distraction.” “We can talk about that s–t in February, in late February hopefully,” says Lynn, explaining his prior philosophy. Not so this year. “If I was to suppress this, I think it would hurt their passion and I don’t think they would play the game that they love well,” he says.

After Los Angeles made the playoffs in 2018, his second season as Chargers coach, Lynn’s team finished 5-11 last year. He’s under pressure to correct the course as the Chargers move into a new home. Lynn’s team will share SoFi Stadium with the Los Angeles Rams while desperately fighting for fans in an L.A. market that has greeted them mostly with indifference since moving from San Diego in 2017. Still, Lynn says his focus is not just victory on the field. “We have committed to winning the championship,” he says, “and fighting for social justice.”

A bunch of plays are diagrammed on a white board behind his Lynn’s desk; he’s wearing a Chargers cap and jacket during our interview, and some gray stubble is peppered on his chin. Lynn’s no typically programmed football coach. He talks in a real, conversational manner, which is all-too-rare in his ranks.

As a kid he played quarterback on youth teams in football-crazed Celina. In seventh grade, however, a coach informed Lynn he’d be moving to running back. “He goes, ‘Black kids can’t play quarterback,'” Lynn says. Lynn asked why. “Well, they’re not smart enough,” the coach responded.

These accumulated experiences with racism “made me more aggressive,” says Lynn; he got into fights in school, but he also channelled his anger onto the football field, eventually earning a scholarship to Texas Tech University and playing in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos; he won a pair of Super Bowl rings with Denver in 1997 and 1998.

Tensions boiled over during Lynn’s senior year at Texas Tech. Lynn says police were gathered at an apartment building where two teammates were staying; when he went to see what was happening, the cops “just jacked me up against a wall.” They asked if he was a drug dealer. “And I just lost it, man,” Lynn says. “The next thing I know I’m fighting with his cop and I’m on top of him and I get hit in the back of the head with a billy club and they got me tied down on the ground and they’re taking me to jail and the one officer kicked me inside my head.” Thanks to Lynn’s football connections, the cops eventually let him go. “Today, I would have been shot,” says Lynn. “I mean, think about that. I said, ‘I would have been shot.’ I was dead wrong going off on that cop. But it was just years of accumulation of this and that. I can’t go to the birthday party. I can’t play quarterback.”

Lynn stresses that he has great respect for police officers. In 2005, after he was struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street in Ventura, Calif., police officers helped save his life. The near-fatal incident left Lynn with temporary paralysis and injuries that required four surgeries. He has remained friends with one of the officers who rescued him. Still, he tires of the constant stings of racism. Just last year, he was pulled over for what he calls a “bogus reason.” Before a white officer asked him for license and registration, Lynn says, he asked if he had been in jail or on probation. “I’m afraid for some people that might not be as strong minded, if they hear something like that too many times, they start to believe it,” says Lynn. “That they’re not better. That they’re not equal. That’s my biggest fear. But for me, it just pisses me off. It always has.”

READ MORE: America’s Athletes Are Finally in a Position to Demand Real Change. And They Know It.

Lynn’s also irked that only three of the NFL’s 32 head coaches—Lynn, Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, and Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin—are Black. “I’m not comfortable with that number,” Lynn says. As recently as 2017, there were seven Black head coaches in the league. (Washington Football Team coach Ron Rivera, who’s Latino, is the NFL’s only other minority head coach). The Rooney Rule, which was implemented in 2003 to guarantee that at least one minority candidate is interviewed for open head coaching positions, seems broken. Is this the product of systemic racism? Lynn agrees that’s a fair assessment. “I played in this league for eight years, and a player knows a head coach when he sees one,” says Lynn. “There were African-American coaches that could have been head coaches but just never got the opportunity.”

How do you fix this? Lynn believes reforming the head coach feeder system will help. Between 2009 and 2019, according to a recent study from Arizona State University, offensive coordinator was the most frequent former position for head coaches: 40% of NFL head coaches were hired from offensive coordinator spots (NFL defensive coordinator, and NFL head coach, were the next most frequent positions). During same period, however, 91% of offensive coordinator hires were white.

“I’ve seen so many play callers get head jobs that have no personality, no leadership whatsoever,” says Lynn, who during his 17 years as an assistant coach in the NFL never entered a season holding a coordinator position (a few weeks into the 2016 season he was named offensive coordinator in Buffalo; that year he took over as interim head coach for one game after Rex Ryan was fired). His coaching career previously saw him as mostly a running backs coach and assistant head coach. Broadening the feeder system would result in a more diverse—and talented—candidate pool. “And then you wonder why every year in the National Football League we are firing anywhere from six to eight head coaches?” says Lynn. “If we open this thing up to position coaches, assistant head coaches, then you’re going to have more African-American applicants.”

He also believes Black coaches have to win faster than their white counterparts to keep their jobs secure. “I’m not happy with the leash that African-American coaches get,” says Lynn. “I had my first losing season last year. And I come home one day and my wife is like, ‘Honey, are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Why wouldn’t I be? I’m fine’. And she’s like, ‘Well, do you not know half the country wants you fired?’

When he entered coaching, Lynn understood the hurdles. The memories of being told he couldn’t attend a birthday party because he’s Black, or being asked if he was a drug dealer, were never too far from his mind. Lynn’s grandfather once told him he’d always have to be better because of his skin color. He’s never forgotten those words. “It’s a shame, but I know that going into it,” says Lynn. “I know I’ve got to turn this damn thing around, soon. But at the same time, I’m going to stand up for what’s right. I’m going to speak out when I have to. I’m not going to let that scare me from doing that as a human being.”

To wit: he’s unafraid to say that Kaepernick got a raw deal. Lynn is happy with this current quarterbacks, but did express some interest in Kaepernick earlier in the summer. “I do think there’s a possibility that Kaep could come on somebody’s roster this year because you can hold roster spots for veteran players now because of injuries and because maybe of COVID,” says Lynn. “There’s still a possibility there. But Colin’s busy doing things to help make a change and he’s signing big deals, he might not have the time to come back and play NFL football. But I know over the years he should have been given an opportunity. There’s no doubt about that. We’ve had those discussions. I can say that. We’ve had those discussions.”

Jayne Kamin-Oncea–Getty ImagesHead Coach Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers on the sidelines in the first half of the game against the Oakland Raiders at Dignity Health Sports Park on Dec. 22, 2019 in Carson, Calif.

Lynn is facing unprecedented challenges in carrying out his team’s turnaround plan. Start with his own bout with COVID-19; he was diagnosed while on a trip to Dallas, to visit his mother, in late June. “You always say, well, it’s really only killing 1%,” says Lynn. “But when you get it, start thinking about that 1%.” He’s not sure how he got infected. “I mean no one was more paranoid about this than me,” Lynn says. “You’re talking about a guy that has hand sanitizer in his front belt loop everywhere he goes. Wears gloves, masks.” Lynn’s lungs collapsed during the car accident 15 years go, which he feared would make him even more vulnerable. “And so it was some anxiety there for a little while,” says Lynn. “For me it was a really, really bad flu for about three or four days.”

Read more: Coronavirus is Placing College Sports on Hold, Putting Students, University Budgets, and Entire Towns At Risk

In training camp, Lynn believes COVID-19 has affected team chemistry. “A big part of football is camaraderie,” he says. “When you have to social distance, it’s hard to build a team.” The first full in-person, locker room team meeting Lynn had was on Aug. 27, at SoFi Stadium, to discuss the Blake shooting. “I could just feel the people craving that community, that fellowship,” he says. “We haven’t had it. It’s going to be difficult to build tight teams and trust with new players when you don’t have that. The longer we do without it, the more of us see it. I mean, this is Zoom all year. Are you kidding me? It’s going to be different. But we knew that it was going to be a challenge and we’ve got to figure out a way to still make it work.”

The Chargers enter this season with veteran Tyrod Taylor starting at quarterback. A potential franchise QB, Justin Herbert—the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft, out of Oregon—will be the backup. (Quarterback Philip Rivers, who started every game for the Chargers the last 14 seasons, signed with Indianapolis in the offseason). Preseason games were cancelled this year; in some ways, this made Lynn’s training camp smoother. Because if Herbert shined in preseason games, screams to start him right away would have been pronounced.

In sticking with Taylor as the starter, Lynn cites John Elway and Peyton Manning, two legends who started their rookie years; each threw more interceptions than TDs (Manning threw a rookie-record 28 interceptions in 1998, tops in the NFL that year). “But those guys are two real strong-minded individuals, Hall of Famers,” he says. “Not everybody’s wired that way, man. It’s not everybody that can overcome that. So I don’t expect [Herbert] to come in and play right away. I think sitting him for a year would do nothing but benefit him.”

Does Herbert seem to have the Elway-Manning mentality, or is it too early to tell? “He is a leader in his own way,” says Lynn. “He’s more of an introvert. He quieter, but he communicates when he has to with his teammates. And people try to say that was a knock with him coming out. Said he has all the tools but wasn’t much of a leader. Introverts get labeled that way. I just know these players react well to him.”

The Chargers spent the last three seasons playing in a Carson, Calif. soccer stadium that held just 27,000 fans, by far the smallest capacity in the NFL. Now, they will move into a shiny $5 billion palace playing in front of zero fans, due to the pandemic, making the team’s effort to win the hearts and minds of Los Angeles even more difficult. “L.A. is a hard city,” says Lynn. “You have to be successful here, bro. You’ve got to win. And if you don’t, people just do other things. And there are other sports franchises here that people are attached to. So it’s no doubt a hard market. But people respect that hard work, young men of high character that are helping their communities and doing things that we’re doing. It’s just a matter of time before we have a strong fan base here. But we knew when we moved here it wasn’t going to happen overnight. Just like social justice. It isn’t going to happen overnight.”

More than ever, social justice will be a major theme of the NFL season. An Alicia Keys rendition of “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” a song known as the Black National Anthem, was played before Thursday night’s season-opening Kansas City Chiefs-Houston Texans game. At least some players are likely to kneel during the National Anthem or utilize some other form of protest when the NFL kicks off this weekend. Lynn recalls the reaction of his players after Blake’s shooting. “I’ve been dealing with this s—t since since I was nine years old,” says Lynn. “I was more sad that day for how they felt. We’ve got to move beyond it. We’re certainly not going to forget about it. But I wish I could do something to make them feel better in moments like that.”

Still, the Chargers coach remains confident that his recent powerful wave of sports activism will bring change, both inside and outside the NFL. “I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never seen so many people from all different backgrounds and colors come together and want change,” says Lynn. “So man, I’m hopeful. I’m very hopeful.”

#Blogger

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weeklyreviewer · 5 years ago

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If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress

Other elite female athletes acclaimed the champs.

Atkins admitted that like the rest of the world, she’s spent a lot of time over the last week watching Harris’s Instagram stories. So has Sophie Cunningham, a rookie for the Phoenix Mercury.

“They’re not hiding who they are. They are themselves. I think that is so awesome for all women and men to see.”

Ashlyn Harris’ instastories are the best thing on the internet rn pic.twitter.com/JLDjftOSpj

— em (@East_From_Eden) July 7, 2019

“Our lawsuit is in the fucking trees,” Harris said. Moments later, as Allie Long literally ate the lawsuit, Harris added, “Pay us, bitch.”

Daddy will pay us. He loves his girls.

https://t.co/WuWyb9fnWu

— Ashlyn Harris (@Ashlyn_Harris) July 10, 2019

That afternoon, they got on a cross-country flight, received hair and makeup on the plane, and then took the ESPYs — a sports-centric awards show hosted by ESPN — by storm.

“And you know, they’re about the right thing. So if that upsets people, [those people are] probably in the wrong.”

Credit: Source link

The post If you hate the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup party, you’re a cop – ThinkProgress appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

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tiptoeingquietly · 8 years ago

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art room 3c: chapter 8

Percy's pov: after school: //

If Percy was being completely honest, he did enjoy swimming. Whether it was because the water let him feel free and unrestrained, or just the fact that he grew up in the water, Percy was ecstatic at re-joining the club. It was 3:30. His last class had just been dismissed and Percy finally had use for the athletic bag shoved in his locker. 30, 31, 75, 12 He unlocked his locker and rushed down the halls, passing his friend Jason, arm slung around Nico DiAngelo who looked royally pissed. "Yo Percy! Where you been all summer! hey, you still on for the party Friday?" Percy had almost forgotten about the 'back to school' houseparty at the Grace's. "Oh! uhh..." Percy had slowed his jog to walking down the hallway backwards, facing Jason as he scratched the back of his head. Jason rolled his eyes and turned around, waving his hand above his head. "See you there, fish boy! Even Neeks is coming -- you have no choice!" Jasons voice was lost as he exited the school doors, Nico protesting. Percy chuckled to himself, entering the outer-hall and shaking his head.

"Percy?" He looked up at the sound of his name. "Annabeth?" She was smiling at him, pushing the glasses up the bridge of her nose. Annabeth brushed herself off and stood, she had been sitting against the pillar in front of the Pool Hall. "what are you doing here?" Percy asked, shouldering his bag. "oh my dads car got broken into. Figures, huh?" Percy was worried, about how long would she be here? "he asked me to take a bus home, but i decided to finish my book first." Annabeth held up her book, holding the page with her fingers and shook it lightly. "Are you sure you don't need a ride home? i could get one of my friends to--" Annabeth looked to Percy, the bag, then the building and smiled. "You have to go to practice. i'll be fine, trust me i've taken a bus before." Annabeth laughed and marked her page with a strip of paper, placing it in her backpack. "I just uh. okay. um i'll see you tomorrow i guess.." Percy scratched the back of his neck and readjusted the bag on his shoulder. "yeah i'll uh, i'll see you tomorrow." Annabeth smiled and bit her lip. "oh hey Annabeth?" Percy called. Annabeth turned around faster then she would've liked and cleared her throat. "i don't know if you um.. there's a party this Friday.." Annabeth smiled and Percy shuffled his feet. "oh, i know. A girl piper told me about it." Piper, she must mean McLean. Percy become friends with her, Jason, and Leo Valdez last year. They must've had a class together. "oh, cool. i should-" Percy started, switching the bag from his left to right shoulder. "yeah, yeah, umm.. bye" Annabeth cut him off, pushing her glasses a bit up on the bridge of her nose. "bye" Percy turned around, hiding his spreading blush. seriously... he thought, what is it with this girl?

Annabeth pov: earlier that day:

The rest of Annabeth's day had been okay from what she could tell. Her classes went by without a hitch, though she was slightly upset Percy wasn't present in any; then Annabeth was slightly upset about her aggravation. pull it together, Annabeth.

It was the last period before lunch and Annabeth found herself highly uncomfortable. Not only was this class full of kids dressed in letterman jackets and cheerleading uniforms, but Annabeth was moved into the centre row, first seat. Honestly, if you really want to torture me -- you don't need to do any more. Annabeth complained to any deity that could've been listening.

"I expect you to all treat Ms. Chase with the utmost respect, yes, class?" The teacher, a small man large with attitude spoke, looking over his glasses. Annabeth heard scattered chuckles, the back of her head burning with the stares of fellow students. Gods please kill me now...

Mostly, the class went by without a hitch. Annabeth took the notes she needed and made sure to keep her hand down reasonably - as to not draw more attention to herself then she already secured. Annabeth realised earlier that day, that even though it was the first day of the school year, it was rare the district ever got new students. (Especially those that had traveled the world.)

BRRRING

The school bell grunted and Annabeth packed up her bag, zipping up the pocket when she noted the girl leaning against her desk. Annabeth looked up, her eyes meeting a pair that lacked a defined colour. The young woman was gorgeous. Annabeth guessed she had Native roots, by her bronze skin and dark hair - though the locks were short and choppy, tied in sloppy braids with one feather.

"Hey! i'm piper." Annabeth looked down at the hand in her face and took it cautiously. "you're Annabeth, right?" Annabeth nodded her head, processing what she said and spoke. "yeah, that's me.." Piper flashed a grin and shook Annabeths hand with two, pulling her out of the class into the hallway. "You should sit with me at lunch.." Annabeth froze. Oh gods. This was it. Annabeth had seen enough highschool movies to know that this choice was crucial for her social development at AHS. Though, Annabeth didn't have much time to process the situation before she found herself being sat down on a cool metal bench, the chill slightly numbing the strip of skin between Annabeths dress and high socks.

"Piper? who's this?" A boy asked, he was elvish, with curly brown hair and a impish nose. He smiled and looked at Annabeth.

"this is Annabeth Chase. She's new." Piper said with suave. Reaching over to the boy next to her, stealing a strawberry from his plate. He was blond, with a small scar over his lip. His hair was cropped and his broad chest was adorned with a letterman jacket, painted with the golden word 'Grace'.

"hi.." Annabeth offered, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"hey, i'm jason." the blond spoke, nodding his head. "This is Frank, Hazel, Leo, Nico and Will." Annabeth looked around the table, memorising each name associated with a wave to a new face. Frank was obviously Chinese, with a strong jaw though soft features. Sitting next to him was Hazel, a black girl with curly golden hair and matching eyes. She was small and smiled brightly. Next to Hazel was Leo, the impish boy who first spoke. Beside him was Nico and Will, complete opposites. Nico had raven hair and pale-olive skin. Chocolate eyes hid under thick eyelashes and his leather jacket cricked when he moved. Will was a blond, bright boy with tan skin and freckles dotting his skin like a starry sky. it reminded Annabeth of the sky in her travels and she sighed to herself.

"it's nice to meet all of you." Annabeth spoke, smiling at Hazel who's hadn't faltered once.

"oh my god, Annabeth you have totally got to come to Jason's party this friday" Annabeths attention was turned back to Piper, and Jason smiled, nodding. "Yeah it'll be chill." Jason went back to eating and Piper rolled her eyes, turning back to Jason. "Do you know if Percy is coming?" Annabeth snapped to Piper at this and it took the groups attention. "Percy?" Annabeth asked, now slightly embarrassed. "you know him?" Hazel asked. "yeah, um.. He's in my art class and he showed me one of my classes." "oh! that's..." Hazel drifted off but piper finished: "-not like Percy." The rest of the group looked at Annabeth before she spoke, "He was probably just being nice." After a few moments Frank nodded and the teens continued with their lunch, a strange feeling settling in Annabeths stomach.

belonging?

i'm sorry for crappy writing. new update soon.

#percabeth #percabeth fanfiction #percy jackson #pjo #annabeth chase

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megabecarefulus · 4 years ago

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COVID-19: How Safe Are You When Activities Reopen?

Sports Stadiums With Crowds: 10

“As this virus's favorite way of transmitting is by having people approximate yelling (and, therefore, expelling tons of viruses), attending a sporting event, especially indoors, is incredibly hazardous,” Swartzberg says.

Bars: 9

“No masks, alcohol, many strangers, crowds, karaoke – all signs of danger,” McLaughlin says. “Any event where you et al. are drinking is risky due to lowered inhibitions. Start drinking and you're unlikely to place your mask back thereon night. Get alongside your friends around a campfire. You won’t devour a date, but a minimum of you'll get out.”

Buffets: 9

“All the danger from indoor restaurants, plus people traveling and serving themselves," McLaughlin says. “It’s unlikely you'll get the coronavirus from the food, but you'll be touching utensils employed by tons of people. Why risk it?”

Airplanes and Airports: 8

“I absolutely wouldn't fly unless the airline required masks in the least times and spread people out – more spread than I’ve seen advertised, like one person every other row,” McLaughlin says. “As with a number of the opposite activities on this list, you'll be stuck there a short time and other people will begin their masks to eat and drink. And on a plane, what are you able to do if the author you start to cough? Some people haven't any choice but to fly for his or her jobs. Let’s leave the planes safe for them.”

Amusement Parks: 8

Screams and laughter mean air droplets, which means the potential spreading of the virus. albeit most park activities are outside, getting children and teenagers to wear masks is going to be difficult and hard to enforce.

Gyms: 8

Working out during a mask is uncomfortable, but breathing hard is that the virus’s dream environment. Get your exercise reception, the experts recommend.

Crowded Houses of Worship With People Singing: 8

These places might be a lower risk if people are wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and not doing tons of singing or talking, Ravin says. “If they were taking these precautions, I’d drop the danger level to a 6,” she explains.

Playing Basketball: 8

On the court, 6-foot social distancing is impossible. Playing one-on-one against someone you recognize is taking COVID-19 seriously lowers the danger, but stand back from pickup games with strangers.

Public Pools: 8

“Crowded pools with Polo games are a no-go,” McLaughlin says. “Splash pads with families keeping to their own space are an honest choice to help the youngsters cool off.”

Casinos: 7

Indoors, crowds, alcohol, no social distancing, many people touching an equivalent machine: stand back.

Hair Salons and Barber Shops: 7

Here, the danger is often lower if the salon is taking precautions seriously, including cleaning more, spacing out appointments, and wearing masks or face shields and protective gowns. Call and ask what your salon is doing to guard customers.

Movie Theaters: 7

Again, this might be lower with serious distancing and patrons who wear masks, but anywhere with a crowd presents some risk. “Personally, I wouldn’t risk it yet. you'll be there for over an hour, and you can't control what others do," McLaughlin says.

Dinner Parties: 5

“This might be 1 or 10, so call it 5,” Swartzberg says. “The score would depend on what percentage people, how careful that they had been if there's social distancing, and if everyone brings their own utensils, plates, and glasses. So, another couple who had been sheltering in situ coming over for dinner would be a 1 or 2. an outsized party, on the opposite hand ... ”

Indoor Seating at a Restaurant: 5

“If restaurants are taking proper precautions, spacing out tables, having specific reservation and seating times, enforcing mask wearing for all patrons when not at their tables and servers all the time, ensuring staff does appropriate hand hygiene and therefore the restaurant isn't too crowded, then I feel the danger is probably a 5,” Ravin says. However, McLaughlin notes that a recent study out of China showed that the coronavirus was spread by an air-con unit at a restaurant. “The unit blew air into space, so people sitting near a table with an individual who had the coronavirus were exposed,” she says. Many of the recent spikes in infection round the country are traced to restaurants and bars, so this rating may have to be increased as more data are collected.

Crowded Malls With Social Distancing and a Mask: 4

“Malls are probably a touch lower risk because the time of contact with anybody person is extremely brief and therefore the area is large, but crowds and other people not masking would both increase the danger,” Ravin says. McLaughlin adds that stores may found out ways for shoppers to stay their distance while flowing in and out, “but you'll still be reliant on others to assist keep you safe. Please, everyone, wear your mask over your nose!”

Bowling With Mask and Social Distancing: 3

Fairly low risk if you're bowling within your “social bubble” of family and friends you recognize are taking COVID-19 seriously, bowlers are spaced bent every other lane and there's no eating or drinking. If you see others downing beers, sharing french-fried potatoes and whooping it up, invite a lane distant from them.

Hotels: 3

Large hotel chains are generally taking the pandemic seriously and have put strict cleaning and social distancing policies in situ. Still, it’s best to mention out of a hotel unless you've got to travel for business or for a few other unavoidable reasons.

Libraries and Museums: 3

Assuming patrons all wear masks, maintain social distancing, and limit their time inside, the danger is fairly low.

Outdoor Barbecue: 3

Backyard barbecues with fewer people are less risky than indoor parties, and therefore the risk is even lower if everyone brings their own cutlery and plates, wears masks once they are within 6 feet of anyone who isn't a member of their immediate household and are seated far enough apart.

Outdoor Restaurants 6 Feet From Others: 3

As long as tables are far apart and staff takes appropriate precautions, the danger is fairly low, our experts agree.

Work Offices: 3

As with other indoor spaces, it all depends on everyone wearing masks, staying 6 feet apart, washing hands often, and being careful in break rooms, meeting rooms and other gathering areas.

Beaches With Social Distancing: 2

Pick a beach that isn’t too crowded and where they enforce social distancing rules. Also avoid snack bars, picnic areas, and the other communal gathering places. Bring your own food and drinks.

Camping: 2

Avoid others and camp only with family or others in your social bubble.

Getting Groceries: 2

Generally safe – with masks, social distancing, and hand-washing, of course.

Getting Takeout: 2

There is no evidence that the virus lives in food. However, just to be safe once you order takeout, remove the food from their containers and put it on your own plates, then throw out the packaging and wash your hands thoroughly before eating. there's a little risk that the virus can survive packaging and other hard surfaces.

Golf: 2

Generally safe in groups of 4 or fewer. Stay 6 feet apart, don't share carts or golf clubs, don't touch rakes or pins or ball washers – and no 19th hole, of course.

Medical/Dentist Offices: 2

“Dentist and doctor’s offices are taking numerous precautions immediately that the danger is nearly negligible,” Ravin says. “There is a stress on staff screening, mask-wearing by all, great attention handy hygiene and environmental cleaning. I might put both at a 2 or 3 at the foremost .”

Tennis: 2

Keep an empty court between you and another game, and avoid clubhouses, locker rooms, and other gathering spots.

Walk, Run or Ride With Others: 2

Make sure you maintain equivalent rules as other small-group outdoor activities.

Getting Fuel: 1

Wipe the fuel pump handle with an antiseptic wipe or use a glove to make sure the virus isn’t transferred by the handle – though that's highly unlikely anyway.w

#coronavirus #health #safety

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kristablogs · 4 years ago

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Pandemic water activities, ranked from risky to riskiest

Try to host a holiday hand with only your pandemic crew. (Photo by Yulianto Poitier from Pexels/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including tips on cleaning groceries, ways to tell if your symptoms are just allergies, and a tutorial on making your own mask.

It’s almost the Fourth of July, which means it’s time to break out the grill and mini American flags and have fun in the sun. If it were a normal year, you probably wouldn’t think twice about hosting your annual pool party, gathering up with all your buddies at the beach, or piling as many people as possible on a boat for a ride on the lake.

This year is different, though, for the obvious reason that most any social activity can lead to getting infected with COVID-19 or passing it on to your loved ones. And that’s enough to make it pour on your Fourth of July parade.

For the swimmers among us, there’s no proof right now that the coronavirus can be transmitted through the water, so taking a dip over the weekend or even later this summer isn’t totally off the table. But throwing on a sassy swimsuit doesn’t mean throwing out your social distancing rules. “The concern I have is that people get the impression that the water is probably safe, so all other risks have gone away as well,” says Chip Blatchely, a professor of environmental engineering at Purdue. “That’s just not true.”

To help you get your toes pruney and keep you relatively safe, PopSci broke down which watery wonderland might be the best option for you and your family as both summer and COVID-19 rage on.

Riskiest: the public pool

Your neighborhood pool, full of kids splashing and screaming, is probably the most virus-prone swimming spot you’ll come across. Even though chlorine is an effective pathogen killer, the big problem here is space. Just think about it ... there’s a lot of things you have to do before you dip in and out of the water, including walking through a poorly ventilated locker room and using a community shower.

“There are certainly risks of exposure there,” Blatchely says. And once you jump into the pool, there are things to consider as well.

If you’re just doing your workout laps, you probably aren’t interacting with people all that much. But if you’re playing chicken and splashing around, there’s a decent chance you’ll end up touching each other or at least yelling and breathing on each other. As for toys, diving boards, and ladders, the more people that touch them, the more likely they are to encounter something infectious. Just like hand-rails on public stairways, it’s probably a wise idea to avoid touching things in the pool unless you really need them.

One solution to this dilemma is heading to a more private pool, like one that might be in a friend’s backyard. But that’s not a perfect plan, either. If you haven’t already included this friend in your COVID-19 social bubble, you’d be putting yourself and them at risk if you go about pool play as usual. And of course, accessibility to these spaces is a big issue.

If you do go to the pool, be it public or private, make sure you’re wearing a mask when you’re not swimming (especially in the locker room), keep hand sanitizer on you, and stay a safe six feet away from swimmers outside of your household.

Riskier: the beach

In some parts of the US, a pool isn’t even an option due to pandemic precautions. In that case, natural bodies of water might be calling your name.

When it comes to the beach, Carl Fichtenbaum, an infectious disease expert at the University of Cincinnati, thinks it’s an “outstanding” idea for something to do over the Fourth of July. It’s outside, and there should be lots of opportunities to social distance. But you can’t forget to stay away from people just because there’s a large body of water around you, he says. Stick with your COVID-19 social group, and keep at least six feet of distance from other beachgoers, even when you’re wading in the lake or ocean. If you roll up to the beach and there’s hardly enough space to park or lay down a towel, you probably should look elsewhere for a sunbathing spot.

Fichtenbaum also recommends wearing a mask when walking through the parking lot or going up to a concession stand, much like you would in other public spots. Keep hand sanitizer on you in case you want to have a beachside snack, and try not to share towels or equipment with other people.

As for equipment rentals, like a paddleboard or snorkeling gear, save your curiosity for next summer. When outfitters are loaning gear out to members of the public, you don’t really know how well it’s being cleaned, which makes it a potential hotbed for COVID-19 transmission. Bring your own personal stuff if you’re dead set on going surfing or exploring and disinfect it thoroughly before your next beach trip.

What worries Fichtenbaum, especially about going to the beach, is the nightlife scene. He stresses that vacationers should keep being smart on and off the beach and avoid barhopping and going to concerts, no matter how fun they sound.

Risky: the boat

A boat seems like the perfect social-distancing vessel if it’s just you and your household. You’re out on the water far away from everybody, catching your rays and cannon balling without much chance that someone will pop your personal bubble.

Still, Fichtenbaum warns that not all seagoing adventures are pandemic approved. While some folks might be lucky enough to have their own spacious fishing boat or a lake pontoon, not everyone is on the same ship. After all, motorized vessels are costly, and if you don’t live close to the water 24/7, it’s probably not at the top of your shopping list.

Also, be wary of group boat settings. As fun as it is to take a ride on the water, if you’re crammed on a ferry or yacht with a bunch of people, social distancing can be nightmarish. If you’re lucky enough to have a giant boat—or an invitation to get on one—don’t hit the high seas with everyone in your phone contacts. Just think about how messy cruises have been during this pandemic, and learn from the tragic mistakes.

The rule of thumb for taking a swim is the ability to social distance wherever you are, be it the ocean or the pool. Staying extra safe will give us even more reason to celebrate in the holidays to come.

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