#but the teachers said we’re gonna have drawing and painting afterwards

[mushed-kid]

im so fucking sick of school architecture SUCKS

[paodequeijofeliz-blog]

I would do it all again

Ride or Die Fanfiction (characters and main story belongs to Pixelberry Studios).

Pairing: Mona and MC (Annie)

Information: this takes place after the first book.

Summary: After what happened at the parking lot, each member of the crew tries to build a new life, following the “every man for himself” motto. But Annie doesn’t agree with that and tries to pull them back together, especially Mona, who she has been waiting for too many years.

Warnings: none.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I would do it all again - Part 5

      “There’s paint in your… Everything.” Annie started to giggle, herself also covered in dark blue paint. “Gee, Avery, I think you’re right. We’re gonna be blue for the rest of our lives. Like little Avatars.”

         “I told you!” the other girl laughed too, trying to clean the paint out of her face with a towel, but only made it spread even more. She was shorter than Annie, with puppy brown eyes and an adorable big smile. Didn’t look nothing like her uncle Dominick. “But worth it. Look at this room. It’s perfect.”

         They stopped to admire the results of their morning’s work for a few moments. After days watching tutorials online and searching for the right materials, the room was finally finished. Mona had confessed to Annie her wishes to turn it into some sort of studio, where she could draw or practice her guitar skills again. Of course, the last time the Lebanese did either of those was even before meeting Annie in the first place, so it could be hard to catch up again. But her eyes lightened so beautifully at the idea, the girl couldn’t wait to have the room ready for Mona to start.

         That’s why backup was required, and who better than Avery? It was about time for Mona to meet her anyway, especially now that she had just returned from Italy after a family visit.

         “Do you think we have time to clean up before they arrive?” Annie peeked over the window, but there was no car to be seem in any side of the road.

         “Yeah, I think so. Let me call my uncle and check if he can hold back longer.”

         Dominick picked up the phone immediately, mumbling and pretending it was a work call. Between codes, he was able to reassure them it would take a while to get home, maybe an hour. That was the right amount of time for both girls to clean the room and themselves. When the car finally parked outside, Annie was brushing her wet hair while Avery finished putting the paint cans away in the mess room.

Mona’s voice was audible in the distance.

         “… never trust ‘em. Those supposedly safe economical cars are always a headache, they don’t survive a single storm on the road. If you gotta change cars, go for something with higher resistance, especially you who need to ride through this bumpy road every day.” The door was opened to reveal both Mona and Dominick carrying grocery bags inside. “Hey, babe. How are… What did you do?”

         The Lebanese narrowed her eyes, scanning the room for something dangerous. She knew that look on Annie’s face meant trouble.

“Nothing. Why?” the girl tried to put on an angelic smile.

         “You’re jumping in the same place. Why are you so excited? Should I be worried?”

         Avery popped her head from the hallway before Annie could answer the question. “Hi, everyone.”

         “Oh hey, cookie! Come here. Let me introduce you. Calil, this is Avery, my niece.” Dominick held the brunette girl from her shoulders, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “Cookie, this is Malika Calil. Or Mona.”

         “Or boss” Annie added, teasing.

         “Nice to meet you” Avery answered after a brief laugh. “It’s good to finally put a face to your name.”

         “Same here.” Although Mona wasn’t normally friendly, she got very fond of Avery. “So, what did you two do today to make Annie look like she’s about to shoot fireworks from her ass?”

         The teacher rolled her eyes, still too damn energic to stay still. “Ok, ok. C’mon. Avery helped me to do a surprise for you.”

         “Uh-oh.”

         “Don’t uh-oh. It’s a nice surprise, promise. Or I hope so, at least. If you hate it, we can change everything. No worries. It’s reversable. Most of it.”

         “Stop explaining, Ann.” Avery put a hand on her forearm, trying to prevent her friend from jabbing. “Just show her. Trust your guts. Be confident.”

         Mona arched her eyebrows in surprise. “I liker your attitude.”

         “Alright, c’mon. Close your eyes.” Annie held both the woman’s wrists and started to guide her in the right direction. “Wait. Not yet. Not yet. And… Okay, now. Open it.”

         Those dark eyes started to open slowly, a little bit afraid of what Annie had done, but then widened at the sight of the room. “Oh. My.”

         Mona was startled. Her soon-to-be studio had two of it’s walls painted in a dark shade of blue, with tiny sprinkles of silver that made it look like the night sky. The sprinkles would get bigger as it reached the ceiling, forming stars and constellations on it. The other two walls remained white, one of them with a huge drawing table by the window, favouring the natural light. The other, though, as soon as Mona approached, appeared not to be a simple white, but a paintable kind, like a white board where the Lebanese could write and erase anything as it pleases.

         It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

         “You said you’re a creature of the night. That the night sky inspires you. So… I… I hope it’s good. Like I said, we can change it, paint from scratch again, no problem. The important is for you to be comfortable here.” Annie hesitated, trying to work on her confidence like Avery suggested, but Mona was awfully quiet, and they couldn’t see her face, since she had the back turned.

         “Uhm… I’ll make some coffee. Help me, cookie?” Dominick pulled his niece gently by the elbow, closing the door behind them to leave the couple alone.

         Silence continued afterwards.

       Annie was slowly getting more and more terrified, especially when noticed Mona’s closed fists. She approached her carefully, hands lifting, but too afraid to touch. Mouth opened, but no word could be formed. Has she gone too far? Was the woman mad because the room was painted without her? Annie thought she had been so careful to listen to the signs, make a good choice…

      “Mon… I’m sor…” 

      “I love you.”

      When Mona turned around, there were tears in her eyes. The last time Annie remembered seeing her cry was six years ago, after the shooting, when they said goodbye to each other between blood and promises. Today, it was different. The woman wasn’t sad. Her black eyes were glowing with a sweet form of love, this time no longer afraid of cops breaking them apart. Fists still clenched, posture tense, but a warm expression. It was like her body didn’t match her heart at all… Like it was fighting against it’s own feelings.

        Annie approached her, breath caught on the throat, a sheepish smile emerging. Without sudden movements, she held Mona’s fists and brushed them with her thumbs, causing it to relax and slowly given up on the fight, obeying the heart’s commands. The girl only stopped when they were inches apart, diving in those beautiful Lebanese eyes like jumping in the night sky with no parachutes on. Their fingers intertwined at the same time Mona’s posture eased a bit, leaning in for a tender kiss that made Annie melt down in her arms.

     “I love you too.” Whispered Ann, eyes closed and foreheads together. “Did I hurt you somehow? Did I…?”

     “You could never hurt me. Not even if you wanted to.” Mona opened her eyes again, causing the girl to do the same. “I’m sorry I frightened you, I’m not mad or upset, far from that. I’m… It’s just… No one has ever done things like this for me before, Ann. I know this room is nothing compared to the other huge sacrifices and battles you have been fighting for so long, but it hit me hard. It’s so personal. So perfect. It’s not only safe, or careful, or well-planned, it’s also me. The real me. Like you can read me through and through. I don’t think anyone ever got so deep.”

       “I know you hate to talk about this kind of stuff. But I hope it’s already clear that I’m not standing here just ‘cause you’re hot and funny, although those are qualities worth mentioning, might I add.” Mona couldn’t stop smiling mischievously over that observation. “I’m not playing around or seeing where it goes, Mon. I worry about you. I want you to feel comfortable and free to be yourself again. Even if ‘yourself’ means not sharing the silly-feelings talk you dislike. I love you the way you are. I’m all in, babe. Head over heels. Sorry if it scares you, but that’s the truth. Deal with it. And my love comes with things like these surprises attached.”

       Annie gulped, afraid her statement had been too straightforward, but Mona didn’t back up, tense or hesitate at all. On the contrary, her arms involved the girl’s waist, bringing her closer into a not-so-tender kiss. It tasted like fire and sweetness at the same time, the type of kiss that could make someone falter between rip their clothes off or shout “I love you”. She didn’t know how much time that continued, since her full attention was captured by Mona’s lips and hands, until finally they ran out of breath and needed to break it for a second.

     “Man, I’ll repaint the entire house if it leads you to kiss me like that” Annie chuckled, hands entangled on the back of the woman’s neck.

      “Are you complaining I don’t kiss you passionately on a regular basis?” Mona arched her eyebrows, turning around to press the girl against the door, one leg between hers. “Well, let’s see what we can do to solve it…”

      Annie felt the air escape her lungs; knees so weak she would have fallen on the ground if it wasn’t for those tattooed arms sustaining her body. “Don’t tease me, we have guests waiting for us in the kitchen.”

      Mona growled, placing a last bite on the girl’s neck before finally releasing her. The way she trembled forward, still shaken up, made the Lebanese open a cocky smile. “My, my. Have I taken your strength so fast? I barely touched you yet.”

       “You know…” Ann held herself on the door handle, eyes locked with the woman in front of her. “It’s the ‘yet’ part that’s almost causing me a freakin’ heart attack right now.”

       Avery’s voice came from across the apartment. It smelled like fresh coffee even from the hallway. As Annie went to the kitchen to take a mug, she saw Mona’s phone lighting up on the balcony. Some random number was calling. “Mon, you’re phone’s ringing.”

      “She’s in the bathroom.” Dom was resting against the back of the chair, a half-empty package of biscuits on his lap. “You should answer, it could be her parole agent checking in.”

     The girl nodded, cleaning her throat before picking up the phone. “Hello. Can I help you?”

      A woman’s voice came from the other side of the line. “…Oh, yes. Hello. I am looking for Malika.”

     “She’ll be here in a minute. Who’s this?”

     “I am a… Childhood… Friend. We used to be very close. My name is Ada.”

     “Hm, I don’t remember your name, but Mon doesn’t talk a lot about her childhood.”

      “I see. And you are?”

     “Oh, sorry. Annie. I’m her girlfriend.”

     “…I can say I have been looking forward to meeting you. I’ve heard a lot about your story.”

     “Aww, that’s sweet, thanks. Hey, she’s here. Just a sec. Babe, it’s a friend of yours.” Annie offered the phone to Mona, watching her frown in confusion.

     “A friend of mine? Who?”

      “Ada.” She gave her girlfriend a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to sit by the balcony, never catching how Mona’s eyes widened.

      “Hi” the Lebanese said, her heart pounding against the chest.

      “Hi to you, baby girl. Guess who else got out on parole too?”

      For just a moment, Mona felt like her whole world was about to fall apart again.

[foursideharmony]

Division of Labor

Summary: Creativity was not the first Side to split...

Word Count: 3,673

Relationship(s): Uh...hard to say. None of the characters are fully formed in this.

Warnings: Blood and violence mentions, arguing, proto-Deceit

When Thomas Sanders was very small, he got in trouble for hitting his brother, who was even smaller. They had been playing in the living room on a quiet evening, and Thomas saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see little Shea shamble over and start messing with the Spider-Man doll—his Spider-Man doll, that he won fair and square from the crane game in the pizza place while everyone cheered—and so he went over and smacked him. Shea dropped the doll, wailing, and Thomas grabbed it.

Dad saw the whole thing, of course. Oops. And Thomas was made to sit in the time-out chair for four whole minutes in a row and then apologize to Shea, and only then did Dad ask him why.

“That's not a good enough reason to hit someone,” Dad said afterward. “You should never hit. Your mom and I never hit you, even when we're angry, because it's not right. We use the time-out chair instead. Do you understand? It's not right to hit, especially someone smaller than you.”

Thomas did understand. The words right and wrong were frequently said in the Sanders household, so he knew they were important. He picked up the Spider-Man doll and handed it to Shea, who was by that point engrossed in some other toddler activity and simply threw it halfway across the room, but it was the thought that counted.

The next day, Thomas had kindergarten, which was the best now that he was used to being away from Mom and the house all morning. There were so many other kids his age to play with, and picture books to look at, and toys they didn't even have at home. And twice a week they had Arts and Crafts, which was, like, the best of the best! Thomas could never keep the grin off his face when the teacher opened the big cabinet and brought out the stacks of paper and six big jugs of finger paint with the pump spigots.

“Today we're going to do something special,” the teacher said. “We're going to learn how to mix colors with paint! I know you can all name these colors...” And she pointed to each of the six jugs in turn, and the children dutifully named the colors with one voice:

“Red! Blue! Green! Yellow! White! Black!”

“But what if we want more colors than that? What if we want orange? Or purple? Or brown? How would we get them?”

Something went ping! in Thomas's head, and he raised his hand so fast that he felt his shoulder pop a little.

“Yes, Thomas?”

“Red and yellow make orange!” Thomas said breathlessly.

“That's right!” said the teacher. “Good job, Thomas! Everyone take a little bit of red and a little bit of yellow and mix it on your paper!”

Now something in Thomas's head went whummmmmm, because the teacher had just used the same word Dad had used the previous evening.

Right...

Hitting Shea wasn't right. “Red and yellow make orange” was right. But the two...weren't the same, were they? It wasn't bad to mix other paints, trying to get orange. It just wouldn't work. And while hitting Shea had certainly worked to get Spider-Man away from him, it made Dad angry...it made Shea angry, for that matter, and even the memory of it made Thomas feel bad. It was mean.

Thomas had a lot to learn about right and wrong. What they actually meant, for starters.

*****

Whummmmmmm...

In the depths of Thomas Sanders's mind, someone coalesced from the swirls of thought and emotion. He didn't have a defined form just yet, but if an image is required, use this: a boy just Thomas's age, and looking much like Thomas, even wearing the same royal blue overalls over a charcoal gray tee-shirt that Thomas wore that day, but with the important addition of glasses.

Dad wore glasses. So did the teacher. And so, in time, would this fellow, because as of this moment, the moment of his emergence, all he had was his mission: to guide Thomas in the role of both Dad and the teacher. All he knew was his purpose, which was to know everything else, everything he could find out, so that Thomas could be right as much as possible, so that he could say the right things and do the right things.

It was going to require a great deal of thought, so let's call him Thoughtful. Just for now.

As far as he could tell, he was alone. That too would change, and soon.

*****

The general consensus was that Thoughtful was the leader—after all, he was made of grown-ups. He wanted to be a good leader, since that was Right, but he had a problem.

There wasn't much to be the leader of.

It was mostly just him and Pretend, and things were awkward. Thoughtful liked Pretend—he was good company, most of the time—but he didn't get Pretend. Their worlds were so different!

Thoughtful's world was the real world, with real people and their feelings, and real things, and it was reasonably predictable. If Thomas did this, then that would happen. If he did this again, that should happen again...and if some other thing happened instead, it was probably a sign that the this wasn't quite the same the second time around.

Pretend's world was...everything but the real world, it seemed. Pretend made things up. He made up songs sometimes, and those were nice. He made up nicknames for people, and Thoughtful liked those quite a lot, because they usually played with the sounds of words and that made them funny. Pretend also made up stories, and that was where Thoughtful got confused, because telling a story was sort of like explaining something that happened, but the things in the story weren't real. Sometimes they were impossible, and those were Pretend's favorite kind of stories. Thoughtful knew that hitting people was Wrong, but Pretend could make up a story where hitting someone not only wasn't Wrong, it was actually Right, because the one you were hitting was a monster and you were hitting it with a magic sword, and that was the only way to save the villagers.

Thoughtful could agree that, all right, if the only way to save the villagers was to hit a monster with a magic sword, then that would be Right. But that was also the sort of thing that could never ever actually happen.

But Pretend's way of telling stories was better than some mind-people's. For example, there was Worry, who also made up monsters but forgot to include the magic sword. And there was Sneaky, who made up all kinds of things and said that they weren't made up, which offended Thoughtful so much that he could hardly stand it. Sneaky tried to make Thomas lie to other people, which would make him a bad person, and even worse, he tried to make Thomas lie to himself, which would make him a stupid person. No, Thoughtful didn't like Sneaky one bit, and as the leader, he made Sneaky mostly stay in the shadows around the edges of Thomas's mind. Worry hung out there a lot of the time too.

So it was mostly just him and Pretend, but maybe that was for the best. Thoughtful had a lot to do for Thomas as it was, without also having to do leader things all the time. He was busy, busy, busy all morning at kindergarten, helping Thomas learn his ABC's and how to count numbers (up to 50, and then 100! The teacher was very impressed) and how to share the LEGOs. He was busy after kindergarten too, helping Thomas behave for Mom while she ran errands—and that was hard sometimes, because the store was boring and he couldn't carry more than one or two toys and Shea always got the seat in the shopping basket because he was so little. Thoughtful was even busy on Sunday, helping Thomas learn the Ten Commandments and why they were important, and other things like that.

Sometimes he thought he might be too busy. But there was only one of him, so he figured he was stuck with it.

*****

Time passed, as time is wont to do.

*****

“Whatcha drawing there, kiddo?” asked Dad.

“It's my superhero, Splitman!” Thomas explained, holding up the crayoned paper.

“Oh yeah? What does he do?”

“He can split in two and fight two crimes at once! But each half only gets half his powers, so like if there's a plane crash and a bank robbery at the same time, he can be one guy who can fly and be super-strong, and another guy who can zap people with lightning and doesn't get hurt by bullets, and fix both things.”

“Wow! How creative! I bet he'll have all kinds of adventures!” Dad ruffled Thomas's hair and continued to the garage.

How...what?

“Get the dictionary, Thomas,” said Thoughtful. That was always the first place to look for new words, to see what they meant. “No, not K...it sounds like create, so it's probably in the C-words.”

“Did you hear that?” Pretend bubbled. “Dad likes Splitman! I bet everyone will like Splitman! We're gonna sell comic books and make a million dollars and be famous!”

Thoughtful found that unlikely, but didn't contradict him. Instead he said: “But maybe Splitman shouldn't zap bad guys with lightning. They could die, and a good guy should catch the bad guys alive so the police can take them to jail.”

Pretend pulled a face, but it was his “considering” face, not an unhappy one. “Maybe. What if he freezes the bad guys instead? Not in ice, but just, like, they can't move?”

Thomas found the word he was looking for and skimmed its definition. Then he read it more carefully, tracing the bigger words with his fingertip in order to sound them out syllable by syllable. Yeah, that made sense based on what Dad had said. Almost involuntarily, his gaze fell upon the next two words in the book—creatively and creativity, and he read their definitions as well, even though he had a pretty good idea of what they would mean.

“That's me!” Pretend said. “I'm changing my name! I'm Creativity now!”

Thoughtful frowned. “You can't just change your name.”

“Says who? I picked my name in the first place and I can change it if I want. Besides, we're not five anymore and I can do way more than just pretend. Drawing pictures isn't pretending, it's creative!” He flopped down on the sofa and wiggled around until he was hanging his head upside-down over the cushion. “You could change your name too. I bet you're more than just Thoughtful by now.”

More? Thoughtful recoiled from the very notion. If anything, he wished he could be a little less—Thomas was learning new things every day and it was so much to keep track of! If only someone else would show up in the mindscape to help take the slack! But Thomas was seven now, and there were about as many of them as there were going to be unless something drastic happened: Thoughtful himself, and Pre...Creativity, and Worry, and Sneaky, and one or two other shadow-lurkers.

He wondered what might happen if he did change his name. Creativity had changed his because he was changing and the old one didn't fit anymore. But was it possible for that to work the other way around? Could Thoughtful become less by naming himself something less? If so, what would happen to the other parts? Would someone else show up to be those, or would Thomas lose that part of himself?

Better not risk it. But maybe he could test the idea—change his name just a little, and see if his purpose changed at all, and also see what else happened. Then he would know if it was safe to go further.

Just a small, simple change...

And maybe he could improve the grammar while he was at it.

*****

More time passed.

*****

“Now what?” Thoughtfulness snapped. “I don't have time for this! I need to help Thomas study for his science test!”

“That is exactly my point,” said Dishonesty with a smug smile while Anxiety fumed. “Thomas doesn't need to study for the test. He knows everything that's going to be on it. He can draw more pictures instead.”

“What if Mom and Dad come in and catch him not studying?” Anxiety pointed out. “He'll get in trouble!”

“It will be fine, Anxiety. “He can keep the science book next to him and pick it up if he hears anyone coming. Then we'll all be happy.”

“I won't! What if—what if Ms. Feldman put something on the test that Thoughtfulness doesn't remember? Thomas needs to study for real so he isn't caught off guard!”

“But studying is no fuuuuuunnnnn!” Creativity lamented. “And I have this great idea for a picture! Where the knight is killing the dragon and there's all this blood coming out and it's wilting the flowers and there are unicorns crying and—”

“ENOUGH!” Thoughtfulness barked. “Mom and Dad told Thomas to study for the test, and that's what we're going to do! Creativity, your picture will have to wait! And I don't like some of the things you've been imagining lately! All this blood and guts...Thomas is a good kid, and he needs to stay that way!”

“He won't be a kid forever,” Creativity sulked. “Only babies are afraid of a little blood.”

“I'm surprised you're taking Anxiety's side, of all things,” Dishonesty said. “Not what I would expect after what happened between you two yesterday.”

“Anxiety was wrong yesterday,” Thoughtfulness said, causing Anxiety to flinch a little. “Nothing bad was going to happen to Thomas just for asking the lady in the store where the pens and pencils were.”

“...it might've...” Anxiety mumbled.

“I'm just saying that you're not being very consistent,” Dishonesty said.

“Enough, Dishonesty. Go away. In fact, all of you, go to your rooms. Thomas needs to concentrate.”

And so do I, he didn't add. Maybe it was Dishonesty's lingering presence that prompted that little lie of omission, but...whatever. Disputes like these were becoming more common, and Thoughtfulness was finding both his patience and his problem-solving abilities taxed to their limits...on top of which he was still responsible for everything he had always done for Thomas.

I can't keep doing this. It's too much for one Side to handle...but what can I do?

*****

Later that night, while Thomas slept, as Thoughtfulness sorted through the memories he had accumulated during the day, deciding what to keep long-term and what to chuck into the Subconscious, he found himself with company.

“Hi, Thoughtfulness...” Creativity said, singsong.

Thoughtfulness made a non-committal noise; he was focusing on his task.

“I've been thinking about what you said earlier, about my darker ideas?”

“Oh? And...?”

“And...” Creativity took a deep breath. “...you can keep your big mouth shut about it! Thomas's imagination is my job, not yours!”

Thoughtfulness was so shocked that he dropped the memory he was holding into the “keep” bin without looking at it. (It was just the shape of a stain on page 76 of Thomas's science textbook, so no real harm done, but sloppiness always bothered him.) “How dare you!” he retorted.

“You're always saying you have too much to do!” Creativity pointed out. “Well, here's something you can stop doing! Quit trying to control me! Because I'm busy too, and if you have to check everything I do to make sure it meets your 'standards,' neither of us will ever get any rest! Do you want to see all the ideas I had today?”

“Of course I—”

“Here they are! Have fun!” Creativity manifested a stack of paper the size of a phone book, dropped it at Thoughtfulness's feet, and sank out.

Thoughtfulness steeled himself and resolved not to look at the ideas until he was done sorting the memories, but he found himself on the brink of tears. “Too much...” he muttered under his breath, “too much...”

He didn't have to go through all the ideas. But if he didn't, he would just be letting the increasingly erratic Creativity win. He needed to keep things under control, to make sure Thomas remained good and sensible.

He glanced at the top of the pile. It bore a single line of written text: “Make up a song for Aunt Patty's birthday.” That seemed harmless enough. Thoughtfulness dropped the last few trivial memories into the “Subconscious” bin and turned his attention to Creativity's work.

The second idea was radically different from the first: “Make fart noises when Jimmy Zarnecki gives his book report.” Thoughtfulness tore that one up—he didn't like Jimmy Zarnecki any more than Creativity did, but being disruptive in class was a big no-no.

The third one took up half a dozen pages. Thoughtfulness stared at the top drawing for a moment before he recognized the figure portrayed. “Splitman...” he said. “We haven't thought about Splitman in over a year. I wonder...”

Creativity had redesigned the hero's costume with a column of interesting symbols down the middle of his torso. And as Thoughtfulness went through the other pages, he realized what they meant. Each one stood for one of Splitman's powers, and the papers were covered with drawings showing how he could divide himself into different complementary pairs to accomplish various tasks, with the symbols divvied up between the halves of each pair.

Thoughtfulness couldn't speak for the merit of the idea itself, but he thoroughly approved of the organization. And it got him...well, thinking...

Could he split in two? He had always brushed off the idea of it even being possible, but he realized that he had always framed it in terms of duplicating himself. When he contemplated something more like Splitman, it seemed oddly plausible. The rules inside Thomas's mind weren't the same as the rules outside it. They could shapeshift, materialize and dematerialize objects, even teleport. They had superpowers. What was one more?

He manifested a new, blank sheet of paper and a freshly sharpened pencil and began making two lists.

*****

Okay, time to try this thing...

Focus on just half of my job...focus on just the/h/ot/a/the/l/r/f/half

I don't have to be in charge of all of Thomas's insights, just the rat/emot/ion/al ones.

Which half will get the glasses?

NO! I was getting somewhere! Okay, try again and focus...

Just take one big step to the righ/lef/t.

Concentrate on being object/subject/ive.

Y/w/I/e/ou can do this.

Help Thomas know what's R/R/ig/igh/ht!—

SPLIT

*****

Creativity rose up in the commons and did a double-take. “You changed your look. The lighter blue looks good.”

“You don't know the half of it!” the other Side said, waggling his eyebrows.

“I guess you also changed your attitude.”

“Not exactly. Uh...Logic? Can you come here a sec?”

“Who's Log—ah!”

A second bespectacled figure had risen up beside the first. “Will this take long? I was helping Thomas devise a mnemonic for his science test...oh. I see.”

Creativity had taken several steps back. His eyes darted rapidly between the two of them. “Wait...wait...which one of you is Thoughtfulness and which one is new, and who are you?”

“It's a little complicated,” the one in the light blue overalls said a little sheepishly.

“It may very well be accurate to say that we are both new...but also that we are both Thoughtfulness,” said the other, who was dressed in a crisp black polo shirt and dark blue-violet slacks. He adjusted his glasses as he spoke. “The workload had become untenable and so I...we...he...Thoughtfulness divided into two, in order to specialize for greater efficiency.”

“Divided in two? You—we—can do that?”

“It sure looks that way, doesn't it, kiddo?”

“Going forward, I will handle Thomas's logical thinking and intellectual learning, whereas Morality here will be responsible for his emotional intelligence and moral judgments.”

“Hey!” said Morality. “Morality was my father...you can just call me Dad!”

Creativity grimaced. “That doesn't make any sense.”

“Yyyes...I seem to have received all the sense in the equation,” said Logic. “It was largely by design.”

“Why didn't you tell me you were planning to do this?” said Creativity.

“Because we did not exist until it was done,” said Logic. “Lacking existence, we had no ability to tell you.”

“Oh yeah, you'll have to get used to that,” said Morality. “Logic tends to take things literally. Anyway, Creativity, it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision when Thoughtfulness saw your new pictures of Splitman. He made a list of everything he does, sorted it into two lists, and then...willed himself into two parts. And now here we are!”

“So Thoughtfulness is...gone?”

“Not precisely.”

“Everything about him is still here, kiddo, it's just not...all together. But this is really for the best. We'll be able to help Thomas a lot better now that there's two of us. And we'll fight with you less since we'll be less stressed out.”

“So...which one of you is the leader?”

Logic and Morality traded a glance. There was an eerie synchrony to their movements, as if they weren't quite completely separate. “We can work that out a little later,” said Morality. “And Anxiety and Dishonesty should be there too. This concerns everyone.”

“Are we done for now?” asked Logic. “Thomas needs me.” Without even waiting for an answer, he sank back out.

“He seems nice,” Creativity muttered, his voice brimming with sarcasm.

Morality sighed. “We'll work on that. And...Creativity?”

“Hmm?”

“Since it's just you and me right now, we need to have us a little talk about some of your ideas...”

Author's Notes: I wrote this to explore a little idea I had about Logan and Patton having been one at some point. It can't have escaped anyone's notice that their logos match—just as Roman's and Remus's do.

Thomas is five in the first part of the story, seven in the middle part, and about nine in the last part.

My headcanon regarding OG Creativity is that he started out mostly like Roman is today. But as Thomas got older and picked up influences from various less wholesome sources, he started indulging in more violent fantasies, gross-out humor, etc., until Thomas (via Patton and probably Virgil) was horrified enough to lock all that stuff away, resulting in the creation of Remus. That's not, by the way, what's about to happen at the end of the story. It's not that bad yet. Morality is going to try to talk Creativity around first.

[nightowlfandom]

Yandere! School! Jeon Jungkook- Be My Muse (Part 2)

 HELLO! HI!  I’m sorry this took so long!

READ PART ONE HERE!

Buckle Up Folks! This is a long one! There isn’t a whole lot Yandere stuff here, but I did promise smut soooo that’s coming, I promise! Just bear with me, fam.

Also PSA...Karma Akabane....that is all.

Leggo!

...

“So you’d rather be with Jeon Jungkook than me?” 

You shut your locker, yanking out the little key just as Jino stormed up. Of course, his posse was behind him. 

“Hello to you too.” you huffed. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Why am I hearing that you and Jeon Jungkook a thing now?!” he sounded pissed. “I didn’t expect your standards to be so low!”

“Well, why are you listening to rumors anyways. If you had asked either one of us yourself, we would tell you no.” you said casually. “Can I go now?” 

“Hm, well what’s this I hear about you going on a date with him!” he crossed his arms.

“I’m not saying that’s the truth, but I’m also not going to tell you that you’re wrong.” you replied. 

“Y/N, he’s a damn creep! He’s always staring at you like he’s waiting to pounce or something.”

“Rich coming from you.” you walked past him. “Jungkook’s a gentlemen, unlike you.” you looked him up and down before walking off. You didn’t like how people loved to walk all over Jungkook. He was a sweet guy who just needed a friend, and idiots like Jino weren’t helping.

You walked around the corner to see someone walking out of a classroom. It was Jungkook who was in the middle of shoving a book into his backpack. 

“Hey!” you ran to catch up. 

Jungkook whipped around to find you jogging up to him. “Y/N. I was just looking for you.” he smiled shyly. “I thought you weren’t going to show up.”

“You know you’re lack of faith in me is kind of insulting.” you crossed your arms. 

“Sorry.” he mumbled. “Force of habit.”

“I can see that.” you brushed it off with an outward laugh. “So where did you have in mind!”

“Well...the art museum was having an exhibit, it’s a discount for two.”

“Awesome! Let’s go!” You grabbed his hand and began dragging him towards the school entrance. “We’re wasting daylight!”

“Woah! Okay!” Jungkook attempted to keep up with you as you two ran out the school. You couldn’t see it, but his cheeks had turned a bright shade of red as soon as you grabbed his hand. He could feel his face heat up violently.

 “Do you want to get some food afterwards? I’ll pay for it.” You asked as you two got onto the sidewalk. “I know the best place!”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that” Jungkook shook his head. “I mean-″

“Then I guess it’s a good thing you weren’t the one, asking. I offered! Therefor, you have no say!” you poked his shoulder. 

“Oh.” he stammered. “Okay.” he shyly smiled. “As long as you let me repay you sometime.”

“Is that your way of asking me on another date?” you looked up, tilting your head to the side.

“If you want...”

“Possibly.” you giggled. “Maybe...”

...

The museum was nice, you got the perfect opportunity to get close to Jungkook and actually hear him talk about the things he liked. It was like seeing a totally different person outside of school. You felt bad you hadn’t talk to Jungkook before. 

You were currently walking to that restaurant you were raving about.

“And then-” you stopped talking to laugh. “Lisa literally took her ex’s gym clothes and he had to chase her across campus!” you broke down laughing as Jungkook tried to keep his own composure. 

“And you got it all on film?!” he managed to get through his fit of giggles.

“I had to! It was too great to pass up to film.” you tried to breathe through your laughter. “Ah you should’ve seen it.” you shook your head.

“Y/N, could I ask you a question?” Jungkook asked, causing your face to soften. 

“Um yeah? Everything okay?” you looked up at the sky as you listened to him.

“I guess.” he trailed off. “I overheard you talking with Jino.” he said. “That’s why I thought you weren’t gonna show up, because I was afraid you let him get to you.”

“Jungkook.” you shook your head. “I’m pretty sure I made it clear my opinion on Jino.” you rolled your eyes. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Really?” you could see his face brighten up second by second. “Would it be too forward to say I’m glad about that?”

“No.” you smiled lightly. “Would it be too forward for me to say that I’m starting to like you more and more each passing minute?” 

“Um...no.” he returned your smile. “I like that, a lot. Does this mean I get another date?”

“...Yeah, but this time I’m gonna show you my favorite spots.” you nudged him.

“I look forward to it.” Jungkook slowly laced his hands in yours. “I like spending time with you.”

“Oh? Do you liiikkee me?” you teased. You had giggled at your own joke only to have Jungkook stop you on the sidewalk, slip his fingertips under your chin, tilt your head up and gently peck your lips with his own. 

“Yes.” he answered honestly, just as he pulled away. He saw your surprised face and instantly stiffened. “I’m sorry, am I not allowed to do th-”

“No! I mean! Yes! I mean, it’s perfectly fine.” You could feel your face grow hot. “I liked that...a lot.” you admitted sheepishly. This time it was Jungkook’s turn to blush.

“O-oh, really?”

“Um...come on! The restaurant is just up there!” You held onto Jungkook’s hand even tighter and began walking again, trying to ignore the sound of your heart preparing to jump out of your chest.

... (Fast Forward)

Over the course of the next few weeks, you had gotten closer to Jungkook. You had broken his shell and managed to get to know him. He was super sweet and super endearing. You even went as far to say you had a crush on him over the past 3 weeks. 

“Hey Jungkook?” You peeked into the art room, hoping to find your friend. You were taken aback by singing. Jungkook had his back turned to you at he sat in front of an easel. He was the only person in the art room, so you knew that singing was coming from him.

You let your jaw drop slack as you heard his angelic voice echo throughout the room. You were learning new things about him every time you saw him. He looked so deep in thought that you decided to leave him be. He seemed to be working super hard and you would feel bad just interrupting him. You quietly stepped away from the door and went on your way home.

Inside the classroom, Jungkook sat at his easel. His paint brush moved effortlessly against the canvas in sheer concentration. He almost froze when he sensed your presence from behind him. He had to pretend you weren’t there, pretend he couldn’t smell your perfume from so far. As much as he wanted to, he had to go over his plan in exact detail. A beautiful distraction would only take his mind off of his mission at hand.

“Hm.” Jungkook allowed a smirk to cross his face as he dipped his paintbrush into a small bottle of his signature red ink and signed his name on his finished piece. He stepped back, ogling at his obsession on canvas. 

“Another one done.” he sighed, running his fingers along the edge of the canvas. “Now for my biggest piece yet.”

...

“Y/N! You’re here!”

You stood at Jungkook’s door, your bag over your shoulder. “Yeah, I’m here! I got your text.”

“Thanks for coming, Come in.” Jungkook made room for you to walk in. “I hope it isn’t too cluttered.”

“Do you live alone?” you asked curiously, peeking around the room. It was exactly how you imagine a house like his would be. There were paintings all over the wall and the living room seemed to be turned into a painting station.

“Yeah. My parents travel a lot. So they’re barely home.” Jungkook sighed. “it’s nice to have my privacy.” 

“Cool.” you didn’t know how to respond, so you decided to change the subject. “So what did you call me over for?”

“I’d like you to be the subject of my next painting.” he replied. “The teacher knows someone at that art museum we went to and if I can create something with enough feeling, I can get it displayed!”

“That’s great!” you smiled, genuinely happy for him. “But me? Why not actually use a real model?”

“The art director said to use a subject that inspires me. Something that makes me feel...well anything.” he looked down at his shoes. “The first person I thought of was you.”

“Me?” you repeated. “I’m that person?”

“Yeah.” he smiled. “If I could have something I’m most proud of. A muse, if you will.”

“Say no more! I’d be happy to help.” You smiled. “What do you need me to do?”

“Okay don’t freak out, but I want to capture you in a sort of relaxed environment. Something in your most natural state, and that means...”

“Jungkook? Where you going with this? I don’t have to get naked, do I?” you chuckled.

“Um, no! But...I need you to put on a bathrobe.” He trailed off. “I promise I won’t draw anything too vulgar or intimate but I have this vision and I already bought the bathrobe and-”

“Jungkook! Calm down!” You laughed. “It’s okay. I said I’d help you.” you put a hand on his bicep. “I trust you! I’m gonna be fully covered, right.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Then don’t worry. Where is it?” You assured him. Jungkook walked over to the couch where a shopping bag had been sitting. He pulled out a white silk bathrobe. There was an intricate etching on the fabric that went down to the wide sleeves. “Aright, anywhere I can change?”

“The bathroom is through there. You don’t have to take off your um...” he tried to make it clear that you didn’t have to take off your bra and panties.

“Alright! Give me five minutes.” you smiled then off you went.

As you walked around the corner, all Jungkook could do was stare in your direction. You, his muse, was in his house getting prepared to lie across your couch for hours so he could just watch you. Study every inch of every crevice of every curve along your body. He could hardly contain himself. He’d been dreaming of this day for how long?

 He had already kept you from seeing his other five sketchbooks filled with nothing but images of you. From the day he first saw you, to the day you first bumped into him when you were heading into the Photography club, to the day you finally talked to him for the first time.

“Jungkook?” you peeked your head around the corner. “I’m ready, I guess.” 

Jungkook pretended to have just noticed you. You wrapped and tightened the robe around you. It was pretty big on you so it slipped off your shoulders a little. 

“Woah.” Jungkook breathed.

“So, how do I look?” you chuckled, doing a slightly silly pose. 

“Y-you look amazing.” Jungkook breathed. “Um, wow.” he looked like he didn’t know what to say. “Okay, you can just sit on the couch and do whatever feels right.”

“Cool.” you replied, walking over to the couch. “So I just...sit down?” You sat on the couch like he instructed, hugging your knees and leaning against the couch cushion. 

“That’s perfect!” Jungkook almost scared you with how he outbursted. “Can you keep that pose for a few hours?”

“I can try.” you watched Jungkook rushed to his easel. “So do you want me to turn my face towards you too?”

Jungkook looked up from his supplied to see your innocent face eyeing him curiously. You looked so adorable like that. “You can look where ever, but if it makes you comfortable, you can face me.”

“Okay then.” you replied, trying to get comfortable. After Jungkook had gone quiet, staring at you with focused eyes while he sketched your form onto his canvas. You noticed your robe slip down your shoulders and as you went to pull it back, Jungkook stopped you.

“Wait...that’s even better.” he smiled sideways. You would make eye contact every few minutes. You felt vulnerable in a whole new way. You were literally being studied like you were some sort of specimen under a microscope.

This was gonna take a while.

...(Hours later- Smut Warning)

“Perfect.” Jungkook whispered to himself. 

“Are we done?” you asked. “Can I stand up now?”

“Yeah, go ahead.” 

You slowly rose to your feet, stretching your arms over your head. Who knew staying completely still was so much work. “How’d it turn out?” 

“Almost done. The hard part is over though.” he smiled tiredly, standing up as well. Jungkook walked over to you. “Thanks again for helping me out today.”

“No problem. Anything for you, Jungkook.” you rocked on your heels, slowly growing nervous. “I’m glad I could help you out.” There was a silence between you two. You noticed Jungkook’s hand were covered in red paint.”Kinda looks like you we caught at a murder scene.” you joked.

“Oh really?” he laughed. “Grr you’re next!” he put his hands up in a fake-scary way. “I’m gonna get you!”

Suddenly, Jungkook wrapped both his arms around your waist, hoisting you up and beginning to spin you around.

“AH! STOP IT!” You laughed. You hd to wrap your legs around Jungkook’s body. “Put me down!” you yelled. “This thing isn’t exactly stable!” you mentioned the fact you were still wearing a robe. Jungkook must have  missed his footing, because one second, Jungkook was running around with you tight in his grip and the next you were practically thrown on the couch.

You were now looking up at Jungkook, who was hovering over you. You silently stared back up Jungkook, suddenly feeling 100% more vulnerable. He was silent, staring back down at you. 

Jungkook moved a loose hair that had fallen in front of your face.

“Is it normal to feel this way?” he suddenly whispered. “I never expected to fall so hard” he thought to himself. “Look at her, she’s beautiful. Her laugh is so innocent, so cute. Does she know just how much she runs through my mind. How people like Jino are so horrible and shitty for you to even be remotely near. I have a mind to do something to you right now....but I have to wait.” he thought.

“Jungkook?” you got his attention. His gaze met yours again.

“Yeah?” he smiled shyly. You slowly leaned up, your noses touching before you wound up kissing Jungkook on the cheek. Pure cowardice on your part, but you didn’t want to affect what you had with Jungkook

...at least not yet. 

(Okay people, THIS WAS LONG OVERDUE AND IM SORRY! I LOST MY FIRT DRAFT OF THIS NRGIEWHGIUHGNIUERNGIUEWHGIUE AND IM SO MAD AAAHHH November had been such a bad month for me, but I’m perfectly fine now! Soooooo)

[avasharpe]

Sugar and Salt

Chapter: Two of ?

Summary: When Sin is bullied on the bus ride home Sara meets with their teacher Ava. The two butt heads on the best possible course of action, but later realize the other might not be so bad.

Fandom: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Relationship: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe.

Characters: Sara Lance, Ava Sharpe, Kendra Saunders, Sin, Amaya Jiwe, Zari Tomaz, Behrad Tomaz, Kuasa, Aldus Boardman, Mona Wu, Nora Darhk, Mick Rory, Quentin Lance, and Laurel Lance.

Chapter Rating: General Audiences.

Additional Tags: Bakery and Coffee Shop, Teacher AU, Mutual Pining, Parent-Teacher AU, Non-binary character, Trans Character.

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

Special thanks to @canaryatlaw for editing this for me.

……………………………………………………………………

Sara bounced from one foot to the other and rubbed her arms. It was an unusually cold day for early March in Star City, dropping below the average 40 degrees to 33 degrees. There was frost on the trees and the plants along the sidewalk of the apartment building when she saw Sin off on the school bus from the bakery that morning, although it had melted when the sun chose to shine that afternoon. 

Sara checked her watch again, yep, the bus was late. A whole ten minutes late. She’d been pacing in and out of the small foyer to the steps and the sidewalk, before deciding to just stick it out on the curb. She could wait inside the entryway for the bus to pull up, but she felt the need to sit out on the sidewalk and freeze because she missed her kid that damn much. 

It was Monday, so not her usual day off as the bakery and cafe was open on weekdays, but an entitled asshole had come in to pick up their online order of cupcakes and had insisted on a discount they didn’t have. The role of kicking them out usually fell to Amaya and Sara, and Amaya was out delivering a wedding cake leaving Sara to deal with them alone. It didn't go well. It was one of the few times that she was thankful her dad was a cop. Quentin had dropped everything to rush over to the shop after that asshole got violent and took a swing at her.

After Amaya got back, she insisted Sara take the rest of the day off and go spend some time with Sin. Sara tried to switch with Kendra and pick up the kids, babysitting until four when they closed, but they all but pushed her out of the shop and told her to go home. Her plan was to take Sin to the skate park then, rent that new superhero movie, pop some popcorn, and settle in for a quiet night. 

Finally, the yellow, number thirteen, Glades Elementary school bus turned up the street and stopped in front of her, the doors swinging open. Sara smiled as she saw Sin’s black pants and matching converse at the top of the stairs, her little punk rocker. The bus driver Mona, stepped out of her seat behind them with her hand on Sin's shoulder. As she followed them down the stairs, Sara's smile fell when she saw Sin step off the bus.

Their usual happy face was somber, with red eyes that sparkled with tears. Their hands were straight at their sides and clenched into fists. Sara rushed to them, kneeling down to their level and placing her hands on their shoulders.

“Sin what happened?” Sara tried to keep her voice even, but her heart broke at the sight of them crying, and her mind rushed to the worst case scenario.

Sin didn't even look at her. Instead, they stared down at the ground then, they quickly brushed off Sara's hands and ran past her, up the stairs and into the apartment. 

Sara stood up in disbelief and looked at Mona with pleading eyes. “What happened?”

“Some of the other kids were bullying Sin.” Mona said, then quickly added. “I stopped it as soon as I noticed it happening and pulled the other kids to the front of the bus.” 

“Do you know what it was about?” Sara asked, still in disbelief. Nothing like this had ever happened before, not even when Sin had come out as non-binary over the summer.

“I'm not exactly sure, but the girls were calling them unintelligent. They used the R word. I radioed the school to let them know what happened and they'll probably want to meet with you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Sara said. Still in disbelief, she started to turn away.

“Sin’s a great kid, so I don't know what they're talking about,” Mona said, giving her a small smile.

“Thank you,” Sara said nodding, with a tight lipped smile of her own.

Mona let her go and she rushed up the stairs and into the apartment building, not bothering to take the elevator to the third floor. The apartment door was left swinging open in Sin’s haste, and Sara quickly closed and locked it. She headed over to Sin's room and grabbed the tissue box along the way. The door was closed and Sara hesitated, knocked under the letters that spell out Sin’s name, painted Black with silver spikes.

“I’m coming in,” Sara announced when she heard no response and opened the door to see Sin sprawled out on their bed face down sobbing with their backpack and shoes still on.

“Oh baby,” Sara sighed, walking forward and sitting on the bed next to them. She leaned down and wrapped her arms around them, backpack and all.

“They.. they called me stupid... and… and… dumb... and...” Sin said through tears, their voice shaking.

“I’m so sorry baby. They should've never said that to you. You didn't deserve that.” Sara whispered in their ear.

“It's all her fault!” Sin yelled.

“Whose fault honey? Tell me, it's okay.”

“Ms. Sharpe.”

“What?” Sara was shocked at Sin’s revelation. Although she had only met the 4th grade teacher a few times before on orientation night, parent’s night, and stuff, she really seemed to care about her students. Sure she could be strict, but she was kind and Sin had always come home from school happy, going on about how great school was.

“Come here” Sara said, pulling Sin up. She wiped away their tears and slipped their backpack off, leaving it on the floor. “Why don’t we grab some ice cream from the freezer and you can tell me the whole story, okay?”

“It's too cold,” Sin whined.

“Then we’ll make hot chocolate, with the big marshmallows.”

“On the stove, like Papa Quentin makes?”

“Of course!”

Sin nodded and Sara pulled them up, carrying them out into the hall. Sin barely weighed 60lbs, but they weren't a toddler anymore. Sara specifically worked out just so she could still do this, even if the times she did had become few and far between. 

Sara set them on the counter, then got to work pulling out the chocolate chips and the double boiler. They made the hot chocolate with extra big marshmallows and once they got settled on the couch with their favorite mugs, Sara waited for them to start. 

“I didn’t do my math homework from this weekend,” Sin admitted with defeat. “I just don’t like it, it’s too hard!” 

“Okay,” Sara said, choosing to ignore the admission in favor of hearing the whole story.

“Well, Ms. Sharpe has this hour at the end of the day for us to work on homework and stuff, and she talked to me about it. She showed me how to do long division, but I just didn’t get it. Then she said I would have to go to the special ed class, because I’m re….”

“Sin,” Sara said softly stopping them there. “You are not the word that the kids on the school bus called you. Everyone struggles with math at some point. I know I did. You are capable of anything and we can figure this out together. I promise!”

Sin nodded, drawing strength from Sara and sitting up straighter. “Will I have to go to the special ed class?”

Sara knew her kid, and she knew that with a little extra help Sin could catch back up to her class.

“You will remain in your class with your friends and I’ll try and work things out with your teacher.” Sara assured them, “In the meantime, I’m gonna help you with your homework and we’ll get it done together.”

“Us against the world?” Sin asked with a smile.

“Us against the world,” Sara said, matching their smile and holding out her fist. Sin enthusiastically fist bumps her, making the explosion noise afterwards.

……………………………………………………………………

Sara paced back and forth in the hall, holding her phone to her ear, waiting for Kendra to pick up. She caught Sin looking over at her from their spot at the kitchen table and sent them a smile and a thumbs up, before turning back to the dark green walls. She didn't know why their landlord wouldn't let her paint, even with the extra floor lamp Sara had squeezed in by the door, the dark hallway was never lit enough.

“Hey you,” Kendra said, finally picking up and enthusiastically greeting Sara.

“Did you know that she has them doing long division with three digit numbers?” Sara whisper yelled into the phone.

“Umm,” Kendra hesitated before Sara heard her yell at Carter. “Honey, is Hector doing three digit long division?”

Sara didn't hear his reply, but a second later Kendra gave her an answer. “Yes.”

Sara sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Why didn’t I start helping her out when it was just division?”

Kendra chuckled, “If it makes you feel better I can’t do it either and I thought Laurel was helping Sin with their homework?”

“Yeah apparently they were telling Laurel that I was helping them, so they were giving both of us the runaround.”

That night Laurel was planning to head out with friends so it would be just the two of them. Sara was hesitant to move in with her sister after she and Nyssa were forced apart two years ago, but Laurel helped her out a lot. She was always there for them. Sara tried to return the favor by doing more than her fair share of the housework and making sure Laurel didn’t drown herself in work.

“Well at least you're helping them now,” Kendra said, and Sara just shook her head. 

“Not by much, It’s been an hour and we’re only halfway through this worksheet that was supposed to take twenty munites.”

“Why don’t you come over now and Carter can help you two get a hold of it?”

“Thanks, you're a lifesaver,” Sara said, grabbing her coat and Sin’s from their hooks. “We’ll be there in five and can we come over tomorrow as well? I’ll bring dinner.”

“Yeah, sounds good. So what clued you into the fact that Sin was lying about who was helping them with their homework?” 

Sara sighed, leaning up against the wall. “Sin came home in tears today after a couple of kids were bullying them on the bus. Apparently, they overheard Ms. Sharpe telling Sin they might need to go to the special ed room for math help.”

“What? She said that?” Kendra said in disbelief. 

“I know right! How dare she tell Sin that before even consulting with me!” Sara tried to keep her voice down, but she was just so angry. “I have a meeting with her tomorrow morning so I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Okay, see you soon.”

“Yeah, thanks again.”

“No problem.”

Sara hung up and then walked back into the kitchen. “Hey so I called Auntie Kendra and she said that we could come over and Uncle Carter is gonna help us get your homework done.”

Sin nodded and gathered their papers in their backpack, Sara pulled on her coat and held out Sin’s coat for them to put on. Sin ran out the door and down the hall pressing the button on the elevator as Sara locked the door behind them.

“Mom, how come I have other aunts and uncles?” Sin asked once Sara had joined them waiting for the elevator.

“What?” Sara asked, still thinking about that last math problem.

“You know like how Auntie Laurel is your sister, and Aunt Lisa was Dad’s sister, but Auntie Kendra and Uncle Nate, they aren’t related to us?”

“Well,” Sara said, putting her arm around them and leading them onto the elevator. “Auntie Kendra, Uncle Mick, and the others became my family when I was in college and when I had you, they became your family too.”

“Were they Dad’s family too?” Sin asked.

Sara smiled, but she felt a familiar pain in her heart. Talking about Leonard, Sin’s father and her then-boyfriend had gotten easier since he had died six years ago. 

“Yes, your Dad and Uncle Mick used to get into all sorts of trouble.”

“Really?”

“Yes, like there was this one time…” 

……………………………………………………………………

Sara walked the halls of Sin’s school with Sin by her side that morning. She felt confident as she went over what she was going to say to Ms. Sharpe in her head. The night before Carter had walked her through the steps on how to do long division. They were able to get the homework done in time to be in bed at a reasonable hour. Working with Carter had solidified Sara's belief that Sin just needed a little extra help.

Now all Sara had to do was talk to Ms. Sharpe and things would be taken care of. Sin could go back to class without being bothered and Sara could spend the rest of the day knowing her kid was happy and taken care of. Sara hesitated at the door to Sin’s classroom, peering in the window to see that Ms. Sharpe was sitting at her desk. She had to be civil about this if she wanted it to go anywhere. She felt Sin squeeze her hand and looked down, so she gave them a smile and squeezed Sin’s hand in return. Then she took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and plastered her fake customer service smile on her face.

Sara would never admit it but, she kind of had the hots for Ms. Sharpe. She was tall, with soft blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and an oval face that had soft features. Not usually Sara’s type, but then again she never really considered herself to have a specific body type, she was bisexual. However, she did like people who were confident and passionate, if not a little wild. These days she just wanted someone who was kind and treated her and her child with respect.

“Hello, Ms. Sharpe, I'm Mrs. Lance, Sin’s mother.” 

Ms. Sharpe stood up and straightened her white button up shirt and buttoned her suit jacket. “Mrs. Lance, a pleasure as always. I didn't know you were bringing Sin along.”

“They are the reason we're here,” Sara said, placing her hands on Sin’s shoulders and leading them over to Ms. Sharpe’s desk. 

Ms. Sharpe gave her a tight smile, and Sara knew that most teachers prefered to have meetings without the children present, but nonetheless she gestured to the thankfully adult-sized chair in front of her desk. “Please have a seat, Mrs. Lance and then why don't you grab a chair as well Sin.”

While Sin grabbed a chair from the nearest desk, Sara took a moment to look around the classroom. The morning sun peeked in through the blinds, casting its glow over the desks. They were pushed together in groups of four at the front of the classroom, facing the projector and white board. The side of the board listed the schedule, as well as the topics for that day's lessons. There had been talk of getting smart boards, but Sara knew it wasn't in the budget; regardless, Ms. Sharpe worked well with what she had. In the back she had child sized comfy chairs with a floor lamp that looks like the one they had in their apartment hallway surrounded by wooden bookshelves. 

It wasn’t like the classrooms of Sara’s childhood, there were no bright colors or boards filled with the same kids projects, colorful maps and bright alphabets. Instead, there were lots of plants, succulents and other little house plants lined the shelves, there was one palm tree in the corner about halfway to the ceiling. 

There was a large map of the U.S. in greens and browns, and a list of words were organized with magnets on the left whiteboard that Sara had seen some of the kids use many times. The other wall was filled with artwork and each child's abstract picture was unique with different colors, styles, and shapes. The way it was displayed on the wall was more alike to a parent putting their kids pictures on the fridge than an overt display of work. The only bright and colorful things were fish in the large tank at the back of the room. All in all, the classroom looked homey. 

“Well, let's get right into it,” Ms. Sharpe began, once they were both seated. “I’ve been informed that Sin was verbally assaulted by Cassandra Savage and Freydís Eriksson on the bus ride home yesterday. I've spoken with both the girl's parents and with the principal over the phone this morning and rest assured it will not happen again. I've moved Sin’s desk away from the two girls and Mona has agreed to keep the kids separate while they're on the bus and when she’s helping in the classroom. Going forward, I will be keeping an eye on the situation and I will not let it happen again under my watch.” 

“That's good,” Sara said, letting go of some of the stress she had and partially relaxed back into the chair. “When can we expect an apology from the girls?”

“They will write an apology and present it to Sin this afternoon.”

“They’re gonna be at school today?” Sin asked, suddenly timid.

“I thought they’d get suspended?” Sara asked.

“That's not the school’s policy. We believe in having the children face up to what they have done, with more appropriate methods, such as the apology letter and a true understanding of why what they did was wrong. Not a vacation from school. Kids like Cassandra and Freydís will benefit from being here more than at home.”

“Having a tough home life doesn’t excuse their behavior,” Sara said.

“I'm not excusing it. I'm telling you why, and what I'm doing to try and help everyone.”

Sara huffed. “That makes sense, but you really shouldn't be openly talking about your student’s home life like that.”

“I never said anything about...” Ms. Sharpe started, then paused and gave Sara a look like she wanted to continue, but instead, she took a deep breath and straightened her jacket again.

Sin tugged on Sara’s arm and gave her a nervous look, “Mom do I have to go to the special ed classroom?”

Sara wrapped an arm around them and tugged their chair closer to her and whispered to them. “No, it’ll be okay.”

“You have nothing to fear Sin, this class is a safe place for you.” Ms. Sharpe said, having assumed that was what they were whispering about.

“Yeah, about that,” Sara started, taking a less than amused tone. “Yesterday Sin said that you wanted to place them in the special ed classroom after they struggled to finish the math assignment that you gave them.”

“I said that…”

“Why would you say that without talking to me first?” Sara demanded. 

“Let me explain.”

“Oh please do!”

Ms. Sharpe looked away from Sara to Sin, who still sat at Sara’s side, leaning into her and gripping her arm, while bouncing their leg.

“Sin, Miss. Nora is in the library setting up for today, I’d bet she’d love your help!” Ms. Sharpe offered.

Sin looked up at Sara, who just gave them a squeeze and turned back to Ms. Sharpe. “Anything you want to say to me you can say to Sin.”

Ms. Sharpe took a deep breath before speaking. “I believe Sin may have Dyscalculia. It’s a learning disability like Dyslexia, but it involves numbers rather than letters. It’s characterized in children who have difficulty organizing and memorizing numbers and other math concepts, even telling time can be a struggle. I had a few examples of Sin’s work that highlights these aspects if you'd like to see.” 

She held out some of the math work Sin had done and Sara took it from her and quickly glanced over. “I believe Sin would benefit from going over to the special education classroom or getting some extra math time with one of our Paraeducators like Mona, for the last hour of class and receiving some extra guidance in this area a few times a week.”

“Sin doesn't have any learning disabilities.”

“I know this is hard to hear.”

“I know for sure!” Sara said. “After their father died, I took Sin to therapy to help them. The therapists noticed something just like you did and thought it would be wise to have her tested as well. We went through the whole process and nothing came of it. The school should know about it, Sin’s teacher knew and we kept the school in the loop. What we did find was that Sin just started making more mistakes when they felt nervous. Which isn't so unusual for any kid.”

At that point, Sara was surprised that Ms. Sharpe gave her a confused look. “I never saw or heard anything like that when I went over Sin’s file at the start of the year.”

“Well I'll have the paperwork sent over to you,” Sara said, with more malice than was necessary.

“Well, I'd be happy to read it,” Ms. Sharpe said, giving Sara every ounce of sass right back to her.

“Great.”

“Great. I think we're done here,” Ms. Sharpe said standing up and offering her hand to Sara.

Sara remained seated and she could feel Sin glanced over at her but there was one more thing she wanted from Ms. Sharpe.

“I believe you owe me and my child an apology, especially since your words were the reason Cassandra and Freya were bullying them.” Sara said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Ms. Sharpe clenched her teeth, but nonetheless looked down. “I didn’t know that’s why they were bothering you Sin.”

Her words were sincere, then she looked back up, looking them in the eye. “I am sorry for what I said to you in front of the other children. It should have been discussed in private.”

“Thank you,” Sin said, standing up and offering her hand for Ms. Sharpe to shake. Sara’s eyes bugged out as they did so, they had done the mature thing and forgiven Ms. Sharpe.

“Of course,” Ms. Sharpe replied with a smile that Sin returned. 

Sara decided to do the right thing and shake Ms. Sharpe’s hand as well. She stood up and went to leave with Sin.

“You could stay if you wanted to,” Ms. Sharpe said. “I usually open up my classroom for the early kids right about now.”

“We’ve still got a half hour or so and I figured we could play on the playground. That sound fun to you kiddo?” Sara said.

“Yeah,” Sin said excitedly, grabbed her arm and raced ahead of her.

In the hallway Sara put her arm around Sin’s shoulder, giving them a side hug. 

“I'm really proud of you holding your hand out to shake your teacher’s hand and accepting her apology. That's what I mean when I ask you to be the bigger person sometimes.”

“Thanks Mom. I'm proud of you too, you stood up for me.”

“I am always on your side,” Sara said. Then she switched to her ‘monster Mom’ voice wrapping her arms around Sin and swiping them up in a hug. “Because I love you so freaking much.”

“Mom,” Sin complained, trying to sound angry at her. “You're ruining my hair.” 

“Right, sorry,” Sara said, returning to her normal voice and setting them down.

Sara grabbed the compact mirror from Sin’s backpack and held it up so they could fix their hair. Sin ran their fingers through it, styling their short black hair into a spiky swept back style. Their Uncle Nate had helped them cut it and learn to style it when they had first cut it short. Sara was grateful for friends in their lives who were there for both of them like family.

It was almost time for school and there were several kids in the hallways milling about and talking with other teachers and kids. Sara figured she could play on the playground with Sin for a few minutes before sending them back into the classroom. However, once they got outside, they hesitated instead of running towards the playground as they usually did. 

“Mom, do I have to go to school today?”

Sara followed their line of sight to where Cassandra and Freydís were playing on the playground. 

“I think we could take a mental health day and spend it at the skatepark if you wanted to?”

“Can we?” Sin asked in a way that made Sara's heartbreak as she heard the pain and need in her child's voice.

“Of course,” she said, putting her arm around them again and leading them over to the car.

……………………………………………………………………

The second the door closed behind Sin and her mother, Ava slumped back into her chair. In her ten years of teaching, she had never had a parent come after her like that, although there were several who had been particularly terrible. Parents never wanted to hear about their child's potential disability or struggles in class. She wished they were more open about it, as they were only hurting the child they were so desperate to protect. 

But maybe Ava was wrong, maybe Sin didn't have a disability like she thought. She sighed and looked over Sin’s homework again, as she looked over the little mistakes the child had made. It could have simply been because they were stressed, or there could be something more to it. Honestly it could go either way, and Ava would have preferred to have a more professional opinion, but without Mrs. Lance's approval, she knew she would never get that answer. 

Ava looked up at the clock on the wall. School wouldn't start for another hour and the majority of her early students wouldn’t be there for a couple more minutes and they probably wouldn't mind hanging around in the halls or on the playground. She grabbed her keys and locked her room but, before she headed over to the library, she peeked in the classroom of her grade neighbor and brother, Nate Heywood, to check on her son Gary. She smiled when she saw him completely absorbed in one of his adventure books. Nate saw her and waved her in, but Ava declined with a shake of her head, not wanting to disturb Gary during his favorite pastime.

She turned around and headed down to the hall, quickly finding Nora among the shelves as she put away the books that had been returned the previous day. The library was mostly empty, save for a couple of students in the reading nook around the corner.

“Hey,” Nora said when she saw Ava approach her.

“I just got the tongue lashing of a lifetime from one of my student’s mothers,” Ava whispered to her.

“Oh?” Nora said pausing. “What for?” 

Ava looked around, all of the bookshelves were no taller than her rib cage and the other kids over at the reading nook could easily overhear them.

“Let's go to my office,” Nora said, putting the book away and wheeling the cart down the aisle. 

After being seated in one of Nora's comfy chairs, Nora brought Ava a cup of tea and waited for her to start. 

“Okay, so I said something to one of my students about introducing them to Ray so they could get a little extra help understanding math. My plan was to have Ray drop by at the end of class if he had some extra time to give her a little extra tutoring, with their parent’s consent, of course, but now that's never going to happen. And just to be clear that was all I said, nothing more, but everyone knows that Ray is one of the special ed teachers. So some of the other children in my class overheard what I said and on the bus ride home yesterday they started teasing this child.”

“Oh that’s terrible,” Nora said, tilting her head. “But that's not your fault.”

“I know!” Ava said, raising her voice a little, but it felt good to talk this through with Nora and get all her emotions out. “So this child goes home in tears and tells the parent that it's my fault because they thought I wanted to have them placed in the special ed  classroom, which is something I would never do; it's much more helpful to have the kids stay in their own classrooms with their peers.” 

“Um hum,” Nora nodded, having heard both Ray and Ava discuss the benefits of such on multiple occasions.

“So I got a phone call about what happened on the bus and I set up a meeting with the parent through the online appointment system the school has and they came this morning. We all sit down and at first, it goes great. I tell them how I'm handling the bullying and everything's going great until this mother insists that I apologize to their child for what I said. She won't even let me fully explain myself, she just insists that it's all my fault. So I just tried to explain why I wanted them to get some help from Ray, and I pulled up some of the child’s work to try and show the parent that maybe their child should be tested for a learning disability. And the parent just goes off insisting that it's because the child just stressed about math, which I guess is a possibility, but I've been observing this kid for months I think they could really benefit from at least a little one-on-one time with either Ray or Mona.”

“Did you get a chance to explain to the parent about all of this?” Nora asked. 

“Oh no, she just got so defensive saying she already had her child tested, but that was years ago, things change, new things come to light. Anyway, I think what I'm going to do is just try and give this kid a little extra one-on-one time during my study hour at the end of the day. I'll just keep observing them and helping them and if things don't improve, I’ll meet with the parent again at parent-teacher conferences in April.”

Ava finally let out a breath and slumped back into her chair. “Thanks for letting me rant a little.” 

Nora giggled, “It was more like a lot, but I'm happy to listen.”

“At least none of the kids are getting bulled for being queer,” Ava said taking a sip of her tea for the first time. “I feel like I could handle that, I mean I am a trans woman and a lesbian, I’ve faced my fair share of homophobes.”

Nora giggled, “Yeah I remember that time we were at the department store, buying clothes with Gary and that lady kept flowing us around and whispering, ‘lesbians can’t raise a son.’ in that confused and angry tone and you just spun around and laid into her. I thought she’d die of embarrassment.”

“Yeah, that felt pretty good.” Ava looked up at the clock, realizing that she had fifteen minutes before school started. “I should get going.”

Just then Mona peeked in like she usually did after she had parked her bus to the depot and returned to the school for her shift as Paraeducator. “Hey, I'm glad I caught you both, are we still on for book club tonight after school? Also, the secretary told me to tell you that Sin Lance won’t be in class today. ”

“Thanks Mona,” Ava said. She should have known that Mrs. Lance would pull her out of class that morning, but she was glad that she at least had Sin’s trust back and could help her student further. 

She returned to her class after checking on Gary again to find several of her students waiting for her in the hall. They all greeted her with big smiles and happy hellos, and she gave them all hugs or high fives as she let them in the classroom, smiling as they all filtered in and went to their desks. This was why she got into teaching, because she loved watching all these little kids learn and grow, and the joy they admitted whenever they accomplished something, filling her with pride. Apart from being a mom, to her, it was the best job in the world.

……………………………………………………………………

Sara and Sin had rushed home to the apartment to grab their skateboard and head out to the skatepark. By the time they got there, all the high school students had left and they enjoyed the freedom of the empty skatepark. Sara had been riding a skateboard since middle school, and when Sin was three years old she put them on a board and her toddler had taken off. If it was up to them, they would have never gotten off. 

After spending the morning going up and down the pipes and riding along the rails they grabbed some lunch at Big Belly Burger, calling Laurel beforehand and agreeing to meet her at Quentin's precinct.

“Papa!” Sin called out the moment they stepped off the elevator, running in between the cops and detectives towards Quentin's office. Most of her dad's coworkers were used to Sin’s antics and just smiled as they ran past them.

Sara followed behind, choosing to walk through the bullpen and leaned up against the door to her Dad’s office. 

“Shouldn't you be in school, you rascal?” Quentin playfully asked as he had Sin wrapped up in a bear hug.

“Mom said I could take the day off and we went to the skatepark,” Sin answered as they pulled back.

“Oh did she now?” Quentin asked looking up at Sara. “Hey kiddo.”

“Hi Daddy,” Sara said, walking over and leaning down to give him a hug as well as depositing the bags on his desk. 

“Yeah, it's cuz Cassandra and Freydís were mean to me on the bus yesterday,” Sin said quietly, looking down at their hands.

“Oh, I'm sorry to hear that,” he said, he still had his arms around Sin and gave them an extra squeeze.

“We worked it out with their teacher this morning,” Sara said, sitting in one of the chairs across from him. “But they just didn't want to go back yet.”

“Hey, hope I didn't miss much,” Laurel said, appearing in the doorway and dropping her purse and herself into the chair next to Sara.

Sin immediately ran from her place at Quentin’s side to hug Laurel, who gave them a tight squeeze. 

“There’s my favorite Niblet,” Laurel said, using the gender-neutral nickname for Nibbling she had started using when Sin came out. 

“Auntie Laurel, I'm your only Niblet.”

“Yes, and therefore my favorite,” Laurel said bopping their nose as they both giggled.

“You know ever since I had a kid, I always feel like you guys love them more than me,” Sara said with a pout. 

“That's not true,” Quentin insisted.

“Yes it is,” Laurel said, with a sly smile.

“Rude,” Sara replied, waving her finger at Laurel.

“Be nice,” Quentin said, while Sin just giggled. “You know for Christmas I think the only thing I'm going to ask for is for a whole day where my daughters don't fight.”

“That's completely unrealistic,” Sara said.

“Yeah that's not going to happen,” Laurel added, before the two of them burst into laughter.

Quentin and Sin joined in laughing and they all dug into the burgers and fries Sara had brought. 

……………………………………………………………………

“I don't want you to go to work tomorrow!” Sin whined as they stood at their desk in their classroom. 

Sara took a deep breath, closed her eyes and counted to ten before responding to Sin. This was the argument that they had been having ever since Sara had told her yesterday that they would be opening the bakery and cafe on Saturdays. 

“Saturday is our day!” Sin insisted.

Sara opened her eyes and kneeled down so that she was at Sin’s level, putting her hands on their shoulders. “I know. I know you don't want me to go to work. I know you want me to just stay home and hang out with you all day long.”

She poked their stomach trying to get them to giggle while using an exaggerated voice, but Sin didn’t respond as they usually did. Sara tried to keep smiling, but she was at her wits end. They had been fighting all day yesterday, and this morning Sin had dug their heels in and wouldn't let the issue go. Sara thought that driving them to school and dropping them off herself would help so that they could spend some extra time together, but clearly it hadn't worked. 

Sara looked around and spotted a glitter jar on one of the shelves. She quickly ran over and grabbed two, brought it back and handed one to Sin. “I know you’re mad, so take all your anger, push it into the jar, and shake it out.” 

Sara shook up the jar as hard as she could, watching as Sin did the same. They shook the jars for a few moments and then Sin stopped to watch the glitter in the bottle spin around. After several minutes they looked up at Sara.

“Do you have to go to work Saturday?”

“I do kiddo, and I'll drop you off at Aunt Zari’s around the time you would go to school in the morning, but before I leave we can try to go to the skate park.”

Sin still looked disappointed and their face scrunched up, as they shook the jar again so hard Sara thought it would break.

“Do you know why?” Sara asked, just wishing she could take some of the hurt feelings away. 

“No,” Sin said, as they stopped shaking the bottle and continued to gaze into it. Like it held all the answers to their problems. 

“Because your aunts and I are not just making pies and cakes, we’re helping the Wedding Fairy,” Sara said in an absolutely serious voice, it was a thing they said around the bakery quite often especially as of late, as it was an epithet for over the top brides and mothers. However to the kids the wedding fairy was very real.

“Really?” Sin asked, looking over at her.

“Yeah,” Sara said with a smile on her. “You see, wedding fairy needs some extra help making some special treats for some special people, her kitchen is just too small to try and do it all this year.” 

It was partially true, they were swamped with June and May weddings and all the last minute wedding planners flooding them with orders. With the wedding season rush kicking into gear as spring approached and the bakery and cafe being so popular, they had to add an extra day to their schedule if they wanted to be able to take on the new orders. Amaya hated turning people away, especially if they were cute couples in love. It would only be until spring break and summer, and in an effort to avoid the insane cost of childcare, they were alternating Saturdays so that one of the four of them could watch the kids.  

The business had always made just enough money for everyone to live comfortably. Amaya’s hope was that with the extra orders, everyone would be able to splurge that year. Sara agreed to it because she wanted to be able to afford a good summer vacation for Sin. Of course, Sara didn’t tell Sin any of this, as she didn't want them to worry about money.

“The wedding fairy isn't real.” 

Sara turned around to see Cassandra Savage standing next to them, but before she could say anything Ms. Sharpe approached them. “Yes she is and I'm sure she's very thankful to have Ms. Lances’ help.” 

Cassandra sneered and looked like she was about to say something else but Ms. Sharpe led her away, talking to her on the other side of the room.

“Why can't I help the wedding fairy?” Sin asked, with curiosity rather than disappointment. 

“You can! How about tonight you and I work on thank you cards for all of the orders!”

Sin thought it over and nodded. Sara sighed in relief and smiled, then leaned up and kissed Sin’s forehead. 

“Have I told you that I love you and that you're the best kid in the world?”

“Yeah, you say that every day,” Sin teased, rolling their eyes.

“Well I mean it every day,” Sara teased her back, then tucked a stray strand of hair behind their ear. “Are you going to be okay today?”

“Yeah,” Sin said, with a somber nod. 

“You want me to go or stay a little longer?” Sara asked, her eyebrows knitting together, she couldn’t help but worry, especially when it came to Sin.

Sin looked around before answering, they still had a few minutes before class started and most of the kids were already there milling around. Sara looked around as well and saw Hector wave at them from his desk. They both smiled and waved back. 

“You're picking me up today, right?”

“Yep.”

“Okay,” Sin said and then took off their backpack and walked over to talk to Hector. 

Sara smiled and watched them for another minute before heading out. She stopped in the doorway, realizing that she was still holding the glitter bottle. 

“You can take it if you want to,” Ms. Sharpe said, catching her at the door. “I'm sure Sin would love to have one at home.”

“Thanks,” Sara said.

“I keep the bottles around for situations like this and I'm glad you were able to use them. You handled that really well,” Ms. Sharpe replied.

“Thank you,” Sara said, surprised at her genuine words. The two had been exchanging petty notes and words since their meeting a week before. 

Ms. Sharpe gave her a genuine smile before turning back to her classroom. Sara took one last peek at Sin, who was laughing with Hector before leaving. She looked back over at Ms. Sharpe who was talking with one of the other students, maybe Sara had her pegged wrong, maybe she should give the teacher another chance.

[fishy12233]

Chronicles of Sturgia

Prologue Part 2: “The Wacky Week”

It was a quiet night in Citrione City. The date was Friday, May 18. There was only one week left until summer vacation.

A group of kids sneaking out in their pajamas interrupted the peaceful night in the suburbs. They quietly made their way towards a hidden treehouse; it was their clubhouse, and a secret meeting was about to take place.

The clubhouse was filled with all sorts of objects, such as walkie-talkies, binoculars, toys, spy gear, game consoles, and most importantly, piles and piles of books. In the clubhouse, the kids would talk about their plans for summer vacation, studying for final exams, and possible rumors and adventures. However, the biggest thing that the kids worked on together was a guidebook of places they’ve been to. The guidebook had information about Citrione City and the neighboring Spookyville, but there was still plenty of blank space for their future adventures. They never expected it, but the kids’ guidebook would be almost completely filled up before the end of summer vacation.

“I can help you guys study in the library on Sunday, if you want,” said Chris, with a hopeful look in his eye.

“That would be great Chris, but me and Susan still have to go to church,” said Maddie, looking a bit more gloomy than usual.

“You guys can go to the library early, then we’ll be over later. There will be plenty of time for us to be there!” Exclaimed Susan, who wore a warm smile on her face.

“Now that that’s settled, what are we, like, going to do this summer?” Asked Lisa, with a bored but energetic expression.

“None of us have plans this summer, but I’m sure we could find adventure somewhere in our town,” said Peter, who wore a thoughtful look on his face.

“We can do it! It’s going to be so much fun! We’ll go camping, exploring, eating, and just doing whatever we want!” Exclaimed Annie, who looked as gung-ho as ever.

“Alright then, so we’re still on for the park tomorrow, right?” Chris asked. He was hesitant, but hopeful.

“Of course,” said Maddie. “We’ll meet up tomorrow. Well, goodnight everyone.” Maddie quietly left, while the others followed. Everyone returned to their homes, falling into a deep, peaceful sleep.

* * *

The date was Saturday, May 19.

For every kid, Saturday morning was the time for their most important ritual: Saturday morning cartoons. While these cartoons have become rare in recent times, kids always found a channel that still played Saturday morning cartoons. All the kids in the neighborhood were watching cartoons on Saturday mornings in their pajamas while eating colorful, sugary cereals.

After the cartoons stopped playing on TV  in favor of boring adult shows, the kids would all go out to the park to play. Some played on the playground while others played on their portable gaming consoles. The kids weren’t the only ones at the playground, however. Teens who lived in the neighboring town of Spookyville would often hang out at the playground. There were a series of popular home movies that featured some of these teens as stars of a sort of horror movie parody. Many kids gossip about them, creating rumors that the events in the movies are real. However, nobody ever believes these rumors. Peter’s older sister Jessica often goes to the park to sit at a homemade stand she made that sold advice. Her business was popular among both children and teens alike. This is how Jessica knew all the latest gossip and drama. It was also how she got extra cash. Like many of the kids in Citrione City, Jessica was a schemer.

Each of the kids loved going to the park for different reasons. Maddie and Chris loved looking for bugs or reading books together. Susan always liked to set up a nice picnic with bento lunches for everyone. Peter would always walk his dog Biscuit or play super spy with Lisa. They had walkie-talkies, binoculars, and a bunch of other spy gear that a spy kid would need. They loved to spy on people in the post office or watch people from the vantage point that came with their clubhouse. Whenever Peter wasn’t walking the dog or playing super spy, he would play video games, find someone to play trading card games with, or do tricks with various skill toys like yo-yos. Annie was always volunteering on Saturdays, helping clean up the park or helping maintain the garden. Sometimes, Chris and Annie liked to feed the ducks at the duck pond. They always thought there was something shining in the water, but they weren’t allowed to dive in. Sometimes, all the kids would get together to play tag or hide and seek. One of their favorite games was sardines, a variation of hide and seek where there were multiple seekers who would go hide in the same place as the first hider.

Today, Lisa happened to be listening to a popular band on the radio: The Crazy Eights. She was dancing her heart out while wearing round, rose-colored sunglasses. This band happened to be in town, which made Lisa pretty excited. Rumor says that they’re in debt with the local music venue, trapping them in Citrione City. Lisa was hoping to meet them and hear some of her favorite songs from them, such as “Utopian Train”, “Soaring Guy”, or “Makin’ Pals”.

“Tomorrow, after we go to the library,” said Lisa to Peter, “I want to sneak into the local theater and get an autograph.” Lisa had a scheming gleam in her eye, a look that Peter knew well.

“But Lisa,” Peter said, “We’ll get in trouble again! Remember the mailman incident?”

“I had to break into his house!” exclaimed Lisa. “He was too suspicious! I still think he’s an alien.”

Despite Peter’s pleas, Lisa was determined to get an autograph.

By the time the kids got home, the sun was already setting. It had been a long day. Lisa slept over at Peter’s house while everyone else returned to their own houses. Saturday night was the best time to stay up late watching movies or playing video games.

Despite being close friends, the kids’ families were all different in their own way. Maddie and Susan were sisters, and they lived with a mom who owned a church gift shop, a dad who was an English teacher, and their Uncle Samuel, who was a gemcutter. Peter had an older sister and a younger sister, and they both lived with parents who were dealing with financial problems. He also had a loving Border Collie named Biscuit. Lisa was an only child, and she lived with parents who were just as free-spirited as she was. Annie lived with her older brother, who recently graduated college. Her parents lived far away. Chris lived with a younger sister named Ash, who often spent time drawing on her tablet, away from other people. He also lived with a dad who was a scientist, but his mom left when Chris was only two years old. Chris and Ash would often see their mom on the news, living her life as a successful programmer.

Saturday was always a day of fun for the kids. Tomorrow, they would have to get ready for their last week of school.

* * *

The date was Sunday, May 20.

Today was the day that the kids would go to the library and study, even though Maddie and Susan could not go for the first hour because they were with their mom at the church gift shop. The library can be a cool place to explore, especially modern libraries. Many libraries house art galleries and may have bizarre sculptures. Books are also fun to find, because anyone can find a book interesting to them. For the first 30 minutes, the rest of the kids were having fun at the library, hanging out and getting help from Chris. The six coordinated girls who went to their school were there as well, hanging out by a nearby table. However, things quickly got boring without Maddie and Susan. So they decided to go wait for them to get out of church. When Maddie and Susan got out of church, the kids played tag, had donuts, spent time at the gift shop, and played around the fountain and fire pit. The kids’ favorite thing to do there was play with the wind chimes in the gift shop. Afterwards, they returned to the library to study.

After a few hours, Lisa left the library and ran off towards the theater. Of course, her friends immediately noticed and ran after her. Lisa snuck around the back side of the theater. She saw the Crazy Eight’s bus. It was yellow and was painted with colorful swirls and citrus patterns. Lisa pulled out a picture of the band so they would sign it. When she saw Cool, one of the original members of the band, she screamed with joy so loud that his sunglasses fell off his face. She rushed to him, speaking so fast that no one else could understand her. The other kids remained in hiding, watching her talk with Cool. He was weirded out by her sudden arrival, but happily signed her poster, anyway. Some other members came out of the bus, including Retro, who looked like an alien with a hippie outfit and a black shirt with a red ghoul on the front, making Lisa practically faint out of excitement. The other kids watched as they all signed her poster and sent her home.

“Did you see that?” she exclaimed. Lisa was shaking like a chihuahua. The other kids nodded nervously. Then Lisa leaned in and whispered, “You know Retro, right?

I think he’s an alien.”

“Not this again!” Peter exclaimed.

“I’m serious! That definitely does not look like a costume, does it?” said Lisa. “His face moved and everything!”

“I believe you,” said Maddie. “He is definitely an alien.”

“Thank you, Maddie!” said Lisa. “At least someone gets it!”

Chris shot a doubtful look at Retro, then at Lisa.

“Alien or not, that’s not what we need to worry about now,” said Annie. “We need to go home and get a good rest! Our final exams are gonna be hard, but I know we can do it!”

By the time the kids got back home, it was time to get ready for bed. When there is a school day the next day, time at home always seems to fly by, since the kids have to go to bed earlier. Sometimes, kids like Chris would prepare for school too much, leaving them laying awake in bed all night thinking about nothing but what they would do the next morning. By the time they finally fell asleep, their ten alarms would go off, indicating that it was time to get ready for school.

* * *

The date was Monday, May 21.

Mondays is definitely the worst day of the week. The transition from weekend mode to vacation mode always left the kids tired and unwilling to go to school. Luckily, it was the last week of school before summer vacation, so it was slightly more bearable to get up earlier. Some kids, like Chris, were heavy sleepers. Even though they may have set ten alarms, they would always sleep through them, pressing the snooze button five times before actually getting up.

After getting ready and eating a nice breakfast, the kids would walk to school. Their school was only one block away from the kids’ houses. Unlike weekend mornings, when Citrione City was lively and busy, weekday mornings were peaceful and serene. The soft glow of the rising sun coming to wake up the sleepy town was a beautiful sight. It didn’t make up for having to get up early for school, but it helped.

One of the strangest things the kids saw on the way to school was the neighbor’s house. Chris described it as Art Nouveau, which was an art style that focused on natural forms and structures. The house had been around for about seven years, so the kids had gotten used to seeing it all the time.

The nice thing about the last full day of school was that the kids didn’t have to do much work. They had plenty of time to study and enjoy themselves and reminisce on the past year. They remembered field day, when they got to play fun games and get soaking wet. Afterwards, they would eat ice cream and frozen fruit pops. The book fair was one of their favorite events, since there were plenty of cool books and toys to buy. It was all the rage at school. Kids always loved reading the latest book series, whether it was about time traveling tree houses or secret organizations that fought fires. Science fairs were Chris’s favorite. He won first prize for the first time at the most recent science fair. There were so many fun events it would take hours to talk about all of them. Through the fun memories, and even the trials and tribulations, Citrione City was home sweet home.

After school was over, the kids went home to study and relax. The late afternoon was the time of day when the kids just sat around or walked around the house looking for something to do. Some kids just watched TV or played board games. Others rummaged through their toys or bookshelves, leaving a mess that their parents would make them clean up. However, this afternoon wasn’t like other afternoons. It was the beginning of something strange.

Maddie was sitting in her room, which was decorated with many spooky things. She was busy reading a book series on wizards. That was when she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. The wardrobe door was open. Curious, Maddie slowly walked up to it reached for the door. Suddenly, it snapped closed. Then, something unbelievable happened. The wardrobe came to life, jumping towards her. It opened its doors and started sucking everything inside. Terrified, Maddie leaped for the door. She threw whatever she could find at the wardrobe. After struggling to not get eaten, she finally escaped, closing the door inside her. Thankfully, the wardrobe was too big to fit through the doorway. It couldn’t open the door, even if it knew how to.

She ran to Susan’s room and told her everything that happened.

“Really?” Susan asked. “That’s scary. You could sleep in my room if you want.”

“No thank you,” said Maddie. “I would rather sleep on the couch bed.”

Then, Maddie and Susan went to their parents and uncle and told them what was going on. Their parents laughed, but Samuel believed them.

“I’ve seen stranger things than an evil wardrobe,” said Samuel. “Compared to the weird stuff that’s been going on in Spookyville, this is nothing.”

Meanwhile, Peter’s family was freaking out over the vase and boombox that had come alive in the kitchen. Peter was intrigued, but when they started attacking everyone, he bashed them with a baseball bat until they ran away.

Back at the Avarell household, Samuel was wondering what to do. “We can’t make the wardrobe leave,” he said.

“Then what are we going to do?” asked Maddie. “Is it going to live in my room forever?”

“Maybe we can fight it,” said Samuel. “What do you have on you?”

“I just have some old books that I got from the Spookyville library last week,” said Maddie. “I should probably return those soon.” Samuel looked at the books. They were actually spell books that taught simple magic attacks.

“Why does Spookyville have all this weird magic stuff there? I guess that kind of stuff would be normal there, but I’m pretty sure it used to be just a normal town a few years ago.” Susan asked.

However, there was no time for questions.

“Are you ready?” asked Samuel.

“Yes,” said Maddie. She was hesitant, but Samuel could tell that she was shaking not only from fear, but from excitement.

Maddie bravely marched inside her room. She felt the strong winds. While she had read over the spell book many times already, she never tried out the spells. The wardrobe relentlessly tried to suck her in. She stood her ground. If this was real, it would be a dream come true for Maddie.  The winds became stronger. Maddie began to lose her footing. Samuel was right behind her, just in case. Hesitantly, she chanted the spell. A shot of electricity hit the wardrobe. The winds died. She did it. The wardrobe was shaking in fear. It wouldn’t bother her again.

After some celebration and confusion, everyone returned to their rooms and went to bed. Maddie got to sleep in her room that night, but was still apprehensive of the wardrobe that quietly slept next to her bedside. That night, Samuel couldn’t help but worry about why these things were occurring, especially since it’s been only three days since the seventh anniversary of the day he was separated from his fiance.

* * *

The date was Tuesday, May 22.

Today was the first day of final exams. The kids couldn’t afford to worry about the strange occurrences that happened last night. Only Peter, Lisa, Susan, and Maddie knew about the inanimate objects that attacked them that night. None of them had the opportunity to tell Annie or Chris that day.

Anyone who has taken a test can testify to how difficult, tedious, and terrible it is. Hours of complete silence, having to resist the urge to cheat, and not knowing the answers to many of the questions is unbearable. The only strategy is to study and be a good test taker. Thankfully, Chris could help his friends study. But even with the knowledge, tests are still impossibly difficult for bad test takers. Imagine only hearing the sounds of writing, coughing, and the ticking clock, working quickly before time runs out. When the students took their tests, time felt tediously slow yet frighteningly fast. It took forever to get through the test, but there was still not enough time to answer all the questions.

After the long hours of test-taking, it was finally over. However, there was still two days of test-taking left.

The kids left the school worried about their grades but relieved that it was over for the day. Since the school didn’t serve lunch on half-days, the kids went to the pizzeria. There were two pizzeria’s in Reality Valley, the area where both Spookyville and Citrione City were located in. Everyone went to the pizzeria in Citrione City, but no one went to the one in Spookyville. Despite it having a full arcade and an area for kids’ parties, it had a history of ghost sightings, dangerous incidents, and bad service.

Maddie and Susan told the group about what happened to them last night.

“You too?” asked Peter. “Lisa and I were attacked last night.”

“So it wasn’t just us,” said Maddie, with a meditative look on her face. “Were you or Annie attacked last night, as well?”

“No, of course not,” said Chris. “Uh, this has to be a joke right? I mean, that isn’t scientifically possible!”

“Didn’t you see Retro the other day?” asked Lisa.

“But, that must have been a costume,” Chris said, “There are plenty of costumes with moving facial features like that.”

“What about those happenings in Spookyville?” asked Maddie.

“Um, those have to be fake, right?” Chris asked. He was notably more anxious after Maddie started questioning him. “They just, um, faked those home videos to gain publicity. That has to be it.”

“I believe Chris. After all, nobody believes those rumors, so neither should you,” Annie said. “Listen, Chris and I need to get going. We’re volunteering at the food bank today. My brother’s taking us. See you later.”

After Annie dragged Chris out with her, the other four kids were alone.

“We can just show them the wardrobe in my room, right?” said Maddie. “They’ll have to believe us! After all, there’s no way for the wardrobe to leave, right?”

Maddie wouldn’t need to show Chris and Annie the wardrobe. The events that transpired that afternoon would be all they needed to be convinced of the strange happenings in Reality Valley.

The food bank in Citrione City provided many volunteer opportunities. Annie was a regular volunteer there, but her friends also came along with her sometimes. Since she needed an adult with her, her big brother would always go with her. They always volunteered on Tuesdays for a couple of hours. The food bank always needed people to help pack food to send off to people who needed it. Working there was pretty boring. However, it would stop being boring once a good conversation started between volunteers. Then, work went by very quickly. Annie always prided herself in her many volunteer hours. It was one of the few things she felt she was good at. She always felt safe when she volunteered.

However, that would soon come to an end.

Chris, Annie, and her brother were busy packing lunches into small, disposable lunch boxes. The one thing Annie didn’t like about volunteering was how the food she was packing always made her hungry. She often stole  snacks for herself. Her big brother noticed this, but never said anything. He knew how much Annie loved eating food.  Annie even saw kids from her school there, including some of the girls who dressed in coordinated clothes. The afternoon was fun and peaceful.

Suddenly, everyone heard a loud crashing noise from the warehouse. The coordinator in charge asked someone to volunteer to go investigate with him. Annie’s brother volunteered and went with him. After a few minutes, they never returned. However, everyone could still hear noises. The rest of the volunteers cautiously entered the warehouse. There, they saw an unbelievable sight. A bunch of inanimate objects had come to life and made a mess in the warehouse. There were many strange creatures and animals devouring the food scattered by the mess. The volunteer coordinator and Annie’s brother were busy fighting them off. Chris and Annie could only watch in shock and disbelief. The look in their eyes was the look of someone whose life has been turned upside down. It was the look of someone who was facing the shock of having been betrayed by their knowledge of how the world works.

The sight froze Chris in place. What could he do? He was only a kid, and he had to come to terms with the supernatural creatures that stood before him. As a lover of science, Chris couldn’t process how this was happening. Annie was also in shock, but she quickly realized that her brother was in danger. She had to snap out of it, there was no time to waste. While she tried to grab Chris and drag her along with him, he wouldn’t move.

“Stop moping around!” yelled Annie. “There’s no time! We need to help, you can question everything later!”

“O-okay,” said Chris. He slowly started running with Annie to help defeat the enemies. They grabbed whatever they could and threw it at the creatures attacking Annie��s brother and the volunteer coordinator. Having distracted the creatures, everyone had the time to evacuate.

Everyone was standing outside, staring at the food bank. The news had arrived to report on the mysterious incident that occurred. Chris’s family and the other kids quickly arrived to check on him, Annie, and her brother. Everyone was in utter shock and confusion.

“Is everyone all right?” Chris’s dad asked.

“Y-yeah,” said Chris.

“I guess you were right about those weird creatures,” sighed Annie. She had a weak smile on her face.

“How do we stop them?” said Maddie. “It will only get worse.”

“Do you think Uncle Samuel could help?” asked Susan. “It wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

And so, the kids made their way to Maddie and Susan’s house. Uncle Samuel was running out of the house.

“What is going on, Uncle Samuel?” asked Maddie.

“I should be asking you that,” said Samuel. “I saw the news, and I’m afraid of what could be happening.”

“Of what happening?” asked Susan.

“You might find this hard to believe, but there’s another world beyond the mountains behind our house. I used to live there, but an evil queen separated me from the love of my life and banished me.”

“This is ridiculous,” said Annie. “How can we believe you?”

“Look around,” said Samuel. “The unbelievable has occurred before your eyes. I know it may be hard to accept, but it’s true. Remember the meteor from seven years ago? It was on the news.”

“Yeah, I remember!” said Peter. “I was only a kid, but I remember seeing the meteor outside my window. The news the next morning said it was two meteors colliding with each other, but what does that have to do with our current situation?”

“I don’t know,” said Samuel. “But it happened the night I was banished.  I can only imagine how devastating that must have been for the citizens of Sturgia.”

“Sturgia?” asked Lisa. “Is that, like, the name of that place?”

“D-do you really believe we can only believe your word on this?” said Chris.

“Chris!? What are you saying?” said Maddie.

“It’s okay,” said Samuel. “You don’t have to believe just my word. There’s someone else who can testify to what I’m saying. Do you see that strange house there?” He pointed towards the Art Nouveau house that the kids walked by every day. “An old friend lives there. She can tell you everything you need to know.”

“But how come we’ve never met her?” asked Susan.

“You’ll understand when you meet her,” said Samuel. “It’ll be best to get some rest tonight, then we can meet up with her after school tomorrow.”

Everyone said goodnight to each other. Then they went to bed. Most everyone was worried, not only about the supernatural occurrences, but also about the final exams. Only two days left.

* * *

The date was Wednesday, May 23.

Everyone was tired and confused. In two days, the kids’ lives were turned upside-down. They could barely focus on exams. Who was the woman who lived at the strange Art Nouveau house? How was she connected to all of this? Did the meteor have to do with any of this? There were too many unanswered questions.

After school, the six kids met up at the strange house with Samuel. The group slowly approached the house, seeing the strange flowers growing on the vines that crawled up the wall. They also saw a large group of birds playing in an ornate birdhouse. There was also a broomstick against the wall next to the door. As they came up to the door, the kids noticed a strange symbol on the door’s window.

Samuel knocked on the door. After a couple of minutes, someone opened the door. It was a woman with short black hair and glasses. Her eyes were filled with distraught and worry. She wore a long, flowing dress that was swirled with green and white. When she saw Samuel, her expression became gentle.

“It’s been a while, Samuel,” she said. “Come in.”

The inside of the house was cramped, but just as bizarre as the outside of the house. There was a casserole that smelled like it was fresh out of the oven. It didn’t look like the house was connected to any gas or electricity. The house appeared to be completely self-sustaining. There were plants everywhere. Everyone sat around the dining table.

“I see you brought everyone,” the woman said. “It’s nice to meet you all. I’m sorry I couldn’t come and visit you Avarells.”

“By Avarells you mean me and Susan?” asked Maddie.

“Who else?” said the woman. “Anyway, I should introduce myself. My name is Caroline Porter. I should probably explain this situation.” Caroline leaned in closer. “Seven years ago, Samuel was getting married to the love of his life, Gabriella Reyes. But the evil queen, Mareen Tarlington, split them up. She’s been acting strange for so long. The night after the wedding, she hosted a Royal Parade and seriously injured my husband. He’s been in a coma ever since, and I’ve been waiting for him to awake for seven years. Sturgia has become dangerous and desolate. I would help everyone out myself, but I can’t abandon my husband.”

“But what does that have to do with what’s been happening here?” asked Peter.

“That’s the thing,” said Caroline. “May 18 was the seventh anniversary of that fateful day. I suspect that the queen is the one behind it. She’s become too powerful. I can only suspect she’s been influenced by an old enemy.” Caroline stopped and took a breath. “Anyway, the important thing is that I want you six kids to go to Sturgia.”

“What?” said Susan. “Why?”

“Because,” Caroline said, “I want you to talk to someone there. Go see Gabriella Reyes and tell her that there is a plan. Tell her not to lose hope. I also want you to find someone names Liana Culiseta and tell her that the items are ready to be retrieved.”

“Items?” asked Lisa. “Like, what items?”

“Liana will explain when you get there,” said Caroline. “I need you to know this because you will go through the cavern in Eagle Mountain to get there. But there is one more reason you’re going through the cavern.”

“And what is that reason?” asked Maddie.

“I need you to retrieve an item for me,” said Caroline. “It’s a pair of blue diamond slippers. They’re one of the eight items you need to bring to Liana. She’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

“But we have exams,” said Chris. “We’re only kids. What can we do?”

“Tomorrow is the last day of school, right?” asked Caroline. “Tomorrow, you can start your journey. It’s a pretty simple task, but it’s also a crucial one. I believe you’re the only ones who have the attitude and the free time to accomplish this task. Are you in?”

Annie put her arm out. “I’m in. What about everyone else? We can do this!”

Chris reluctantly out his arm out as well. “O-okay, I’m in too. I’m still sort of confused, but I think that we’ll figure it out along the way. We just need to get used to it, right?”

Lisa excitedly put her arm out. “Me three! This sounds like fun!”

Peter put his arm out too. “Me four! I can’t just shy away from my friends!”

Finally, Maddie and Susan decided to put their arms out. “It is a difficult decision,” said Maddie. “But I think it is important for us to do this. This situation is bigger than us now. If we do nothing, we will only be part of the problem.”

“I’m not really as good with words,” said Susan, “but I’m in too!”

“It’s settled then,” said Caroline.

That night, the kids would have to say goodbye to everyone. Maddie and Susan felt that their parents wouldn’t understand. After all, they didn’t even believe the news story. Uncle Samuel promised to tell them after the kids left.

“I’m sorry I can’t come with you,” said Samuel. “If I could go, I would have gone seven years ago.”

Peter’s family held a going away dinner that night. His mom always made the best food in Citrione City. Her food was so good that she wrote her own cookbook. Tonight, they had a fancy steak dinner with meatloaf. It was a family favorite. Their dog Biscuit had plenty of leftovers.

Lisa said goodbye to her parents, who fully embraced her decision. They went to Peter’s house that night to visit and play board games.

Annie said goodbye to her brother, who was pretty cool about the situation.

Chris gave a heartfelt goodbye to his dad and sister, but he was still sad that he could never say goodbye to his mother. They watched her on the TV that night as she announced her latest programs.

Everyone went to bed. It would be the kids’ last night in Citrione City for a long time. They were nervous, but they were sure that things would go well.

* * *

The date was Thursday, May 24.

It was the last day of this wacky week.

It was the last day of school.

It was last day the kids would be in Citrione City for a long time.

The morning was as peaceful as always. The kids got up, knowing that today was the day that their adventure would begin. They silently walked to school, appreciating the last time they would see the sleepy town awake for a long time. People never truly appreciate something until they lose it. School was bustling with the same kids and the same garbled gossip as always. The kids saw the coordinated girls walking down the hallway, the bratty kid who liked pranking everyone, and even Ash, who was drawing on her tablet as always. There was one thing that was different, though. Everyone was excited, talking about plans for summer vacation and signing each other's yearbooks. Now that school was over, it didn’t seem so bad. During final exams, the bratty kid began bothering Peter.

“Hey Parker!” he said.

“It’s Peter,” said Peter.

“I don’t care if your name is Peter or Parker!” said the bratty kid. “What’s up with that weird stuff that’s been going on? All of the students are completely ignoring it!”

“I dunno, Lincoln.” said Peter. “Leave me alone.”

“The name’s Landon, Parker!” said the bratty kid. “Everyone here’s such a weirdo!”

Peter tried to focus on his test while Landon kept throwing stuff at him. Thankfully, he wouldn’t be seeing Landon for a while. Kids like that have always bothered Peter and his friends. One of the best things about summer is not having to see annoying kids in school every day.

The final minutes of the school year are the most exciting. This is when all the students count down to their freedom from school. Once the bell rings, everyone cheers. It’s time for celebration as the students say their goodbyes.

After school, the kids went to buy supplies to take with them on their adventure. It was their last outing. Peter’s mom gave him some cash to use to buy supplies and anything they would need. The kids wandered around the mall, having fun and buying supplies. Malls are the most popular hangout spots. They’re large and have a variety of cool stores. Peter decided to buy some video games to use with his portable game console. Annie bought all the food that would be long lasting, filling, and cheap. She also bought a bunch of the survival tools they would need. Shopping at the mall was almost an adventure in and of itself. By the time their visit to the mall was over, Peter’s bag was stuffed to the point where it couldn’t close. The kids needed to use other bags to hold everything they needed.

After visiting the mall, the kids met Samuel behind the Avarell house. Maddie and Susan said their goodbyes, then all of the kids entered the cave. They hesitated at first. It was dark, and no one knew what lurked inside. However, they needed to face the great unknown in order to proceed. They entered the cavern, bravely facing the future that lay before them.

[uniformbravo]

“quick” life update while i wait for my ipod to charge

(do ppl even still use ipods in this day & age. whats spotify)

i never made any posts abt it but i started the new semester & im taking 2 classes, it’s funny actually bc i waited even more til the last minute than i usually do to figure out my classes & spent the 1st week of school trying to see a counselor to find out if i still needed classes and that’s a whole other story for a whole other day but long story short the answer was no but i decided to take a couple anyway

mainly because every time im not in school The Depression takes over & i just needed something to Do so im taking intermediate painting (even tho painting 1 made me want 2 die every day) and animation (even tho i’ve already decided i don’t want to be an animator????)

so heres the thing, okay, since these are classes i don’t need in order to fill any requirements or anything i had to pick them based on nothing, really, like my main reason for taking classes this semester was to give myself something to do, right. i picked painting because my friend had told me she was taking it so i was like yo i’ll just do that too bc we had fun last time & it’s a good way to stay in contact. originally that was gonna be my only class bc i knew it’d be a lot of work and time but then i talked to my school’s art counselor about transferring to another school after im graduated from here and i’d said i was maybe interested in storyboarding so we looked at schools with animation programs and i decided super last minute to just take the animation class here and Boy what a mistake

last semester i was talking on here about a computer art class i had considered taking but dropped bc it seemed kinda... shitty?? because i hated the way the teacher taught and i felt like i wasn’t gonna gain anything from the class??? well animation is taught by the same guy and hhhhhhhhh he’s so fucking unhelpful it’s such a nothing class

see i was hoping to learn some hand-drawn animation basics like timing, squash & stretch, the fucking bouncing ball assignment, shit like that, right. the teacher was like “today we’re gonna go over the 12 principles of animation” and i was like “sweet i’ve heard of that this’ll be good” & literally he brought up a list, read off most of the names, briefly described a few, and told us to google it if we wanted more info like?? holy shit dude????? thanks for nothing oh my god

i’ve been taking a lot of time practicing animating in flipnote studio on my 3ds and watching youtube videos and i’ve been learning so much more from that than anything explained by my teacher bc godddd. basically what the class boils down to is like. flash animation. so far we’ve been working in adobe illustrator and animate & i cannot stand illustrator. i know it’s a good and useful program and if i wanted to i could learn how to use it & eventually get used to it but just the way he teaches it makes me want 2 slam dunk my computer

the computer art basics class was strongly recommended to be taken before this class but tbh i don’t even think that’s the issue here because i tried to take that class and his method was the same; he does a demo on screen that you’re supposed to follow along and do with him and he explains what hes doing as he goes but he goes so fast that if u miss a step ur fucked 

and it’s not just that he goes fast, it’s also that theres no understanding of the program itself, like ok u know how in math there’s all these formulas where if u just plug numbers into them it gives u the right answer? i always understood formulas better when i knew what each variable stood for & why the values were being added or multiplied together because then it made it easier to extract the information i needed from word problems and also helped me memorize the formulas themselves easier because i could make those associations between numbers and purpose. i had the groundwork of the formula, so i could apply it to all kinds of situations

this class is like, he only gives you the very specific formulas required to accomplish very specific tasks in the programs so i can’t make the connections to figure out how to perform other tasks and i get super lost every time & it’s super frustrating & i could ask for help because he comes around and helps people who need it but i sit in the back corner so he never really even looks my way so i feel like i can’t get his attention w/o speaking up or getting up to go get him & i get lost so often that it’s really just a pain to ask him every single time

i just hate when i have a problem in one of the programs & i just have absolutely no clue how to fix it or even work around it? im used to photoshop and illustrator is just so opposite that my brain doesn’t want to work with it so im. 100% floundering in this class

we have 2 assignments during the whole semester, the first was a group project where we hand draw a 3-second animation (~30 frames) and that was literally the very first thing we did in the class with no prior guidance and honestly i suspect that the only reason he assigns it is to fill the requirement for a group project (which i know is a thing bc a lot of my past teachers have talked about it being a thing) so it was literally just. a nothing project

the second assignment is our final which is a 90-second animation (~1080 frames) and we have basically the rest of the semester to work on it, so about a month and a half-ish? and all we’ve learned how to do so far is motion tweening in animate, basically. i mean we did a ball-and-string thing which was kind of different but it mostly involved a lot of copy+paste bullshit in illustrator & also like automatic shortcuts & stuff, there was really no drawing involved at all

also it’s one of those classes where everyone just kind of messes around and does their own thing like?? i saw one girl reading manga on her computer & these two dudes at my table were comparing yugioh cards & i hear like 50 thousand conversations about anime every day & i mean im not one to talk tbh but it’s just the atmosphere, it feels like u either know what ur doing or u just fuck around w/ ur friends and im in the “neither of those” category and the girl who was reading manga is in the “both” category bc every other time i’ve looked over there she’s got this amazing masterpiece on her screen that she made in illustrator & i die inside every time what the fuckkc 

he showed us examples of final projects from last semester and i noticed that some of them were done traditionally or in programs that were obviously not illustrator so i asked him about it & he said it doesn’t have to be done in illustrator/animate as long as it’s 90 seconds long so Guess What i think i’m just gonna make it somewhere else lmaooo i mean i feel like it’s a missed opportunity bc i have these programs at my disposal & im not even using them but god amn. god fuckign damn

im thinking of animating it in flipnote bc that’s what i’ve been using & im pretty familiar with it by now but im not sure because there are some important things im not sure i’ll be able to accomplish with it like backgrounds (which are another requirement for the assignment) and i don’t want to back myself into a corner, especially with how little time i have to do it, so idk for sure. my other idea was to use clip studio paint but i have the pro version which only lets u use 24 frames per animation which totals out to a whopping 2 seconds so idk if i want to have to deal with that bullshit either. right now im considering making the rough animation in flipnote so i can figure out the timing & shit and then slapping it into clip studio to finalize everything (or technically i could even do that in photoshop, since im more familiar w/ it & can probably work faster there- from photoshop it’d be a matter of copying the finished frames into clip studio to export into 2-second clips & then compile those in movie maker & then bam finished animation)

so!!! it’s a lot of shit im dealing with in this class & im just like. if im doing it this way then why do i even need to show up for class. what am i even in this class for im just basically making an animation on my own time with my own resources using none of the techniques taught in the class. im only doing this animation because it’s an assignment for the class im not gaining anything from. it just seems so pointless & the only thing getting me through it is the thought that i could possibly put this in a portfolio somewhere down the line, and for that i’d want it to look nice and not rushed so im thinking that for the sake of finishing the assignment i might just use my rough animation so that i can spend more time on the “nice” version afterward

aaaanyway it’s um Late for me & i went on about this for too long but i needed to get it off my chest tbh, i’ve been thinking abt making this post for like 2 weeks so there u go. i didn’t even talk about my painting troubles good lord. if you’ve been wondering why i havent been online as much lately This is why. also bc im a huge loser and 100% of my free time has been going into watching anime bye

[thewidowstanton]

Philip Rosenberg, hand-balancer and acrobat, Cirque Le Roux

Philip Rosenberg – who comes from San Francisco – is one of the founders of Cirque Le Roux, together with his partner Grégory Arsenal, Lolita Costet and Yannick Thomas. The company is based in the small coastal town of Labenne in south-west France. Philip first trained in Chinese acrobatics under Master Lu Yi at the San Francisco Circus Center and appeared in New Pickle Circus shows, including being a member of the original Birdhouse Factory cast. At 18 he went to the National Circus School of Montreal, where he refined his technique in hand-balancing, acrobatics, dance and theatre. Graduating in 2008, he immediately began a two-year international tour with the 7 Fingers' show Traces.

Following that, Philip appeared in German cabarets and with the Canadian company Vague de Cirque. He was in the original cast of Diane Paulus' Broadway revival of Pippin – which received four Tony Awards – with the rest of Cirque Le Roux's troupe. Their show The Elephant in the Room – a film noiresque caper set in the 1930s – was acclaimed at Edinburgh in 2015 and is nearing the end of a three-and-a-half-month run at the Bobino Theatre in Paris. In the second of our series with Cirque Le Roux artists, Philip chats to Liz Arratoon ahead of their tour of France, which starts at Vallauris Golfe-Juan on 19 January 2017.

The Widow Stanton: How old were you when you stated at the San Francisco Circus Center? Philip Rosenberg: I was seven.

What led you there? I was doing gymnastics and also a kids' theatre school in San Francisco. I did my first gymnastics competition around that age, around six and a half or seven. It was very simple stuff but I really didn't like the competition aspect of it and my parents tuned into that and they were like: "What else can we do?" Because of the acting school I was an extra in the movie Dr Dolittle in this big circus scene and there were all these fire-eaters and contortionists and they were all were like: "Oh well, you do flips and stuff like that, you should check out the circus school in San Francisco." So I went to see a presentation there and I was so excited, and my parents said: "Oh, I think we're found the right thing."

Is anyone else in your family in circus or showbiz? No, not at all.

Which disciplines did Master Yu Li teach you? Hoop-diving, Chinese pole, acrobatics, teeterboard a little bit… and I guess my beginning of hand-balancing was when I used to do chair-balancing.

Did you go high? Yeah, I did.

[Laughs] Is there anything you can't do? I'm not a contortionist.

It obviously gave you a fantastic grounding because you started appearing in shows while there… Yes. When I was there they kind of refounded the Pickle Family Circus and called it the New Pickle Circus and so every year they would come and we'd do a wintertime show. That was really the base of learning how to perform onstage.

Why did you want to go on to Montreal? At the time I graduated from high-school I was doing a lot of painting as well and I was wondering whether I wanted to go to an art school or to a circus school. I came to the conclusion that I could always be a painter and take it up later but there was only one time in my life to do circus and I should jump on the occasion. I also had a lot of influence from Gypsy [Snider] and Shana [Carroll] – two of the co-founders of the 7 Fingers – and also seeing the way the other kids from the youth circus, like Francisco and Raphael [Cruz], Will [Underwood] and all those boys that went off to the circus school and how they were doing. It inspired me to follow that same path.

Did Gypsy and Shana have some input into the youth circus? Yes, they would come and direct a lot of our shows.

Why did you choose to specialise in hand-balancing? I always really liked hand-balancing but why I chose to specialise in it… it's one of those things… handstands, tight-wire, juggling, that you can spends hours and hours and hours on and always see you can better at it. It's such a long process to get good at it and I liked that about the discipline. There are certain circus disciplines that once you learn it, it's kind of like, 'OK, I know my tricks, I got it', and that's it, but I felt I wanted almost like a lifetime goal so I could continue progressing for years and years and years.

What's your advice for anyone wanting to train it? I would say that you have to be very patient. [Laughs] The progress you’re making is not always evident. It feels sometimes you're not making any progress and all of a sudden you leap forward. Sometimes you'd feel like, 'I'm losing these tricks, I'm tired, I don't get it', but if you look at it as a whole and see the years that have passed, you see the progression. But when you're in it it feels very slow at times. And hand-balancing can be very tedious, I mean you're looking at the ground half the time; it's a very solo thing, you're there with your teacher but at the same time you're very much alone.

Are there any hand-balancers you particularly admire? I have always looked up to Anatoly Zalievsky. He was really one of the first handstand balancers trying to do something a bit more original, especially choosing to do the number on the floor; clean and straightforward but inventive.

Then you got Traces. What was that like? My first Traces experience was replacing someone in the first cast of the show in London. After that I did the second version of Traces for about two years and then after that small stints replacing in the third cast, when they went to New York and Denver…

I love the fact you were in a major show straight from school… It was a little intimidating. In my second casting three out of the five of us were a bit older; people who'd worked for Cirque Eloize before, and they in particular showed me the ropes of what it is to be a circus artist on tour, and kind of introduced me to that lifestyle. It was really great having these role models there, who had already been on tour for about ten years. It was great to learn from them.

Is touring a bit weird, because you can never go home? It is a bit weird. It's great that you get to see lots of places and experience lots of things, always see and meet different people, but around my age now, I'm starting to be like, 'I'd kind of like a place to put my stuff'.

Why did you start doing cabaret in Germany? When I graduated from school I said I really wanted to try a little bit of everything and see what I liked; a bit of traditional circus, a bit of varieté, a dinner show and so the easiest way when I went out of Traces was to start looking up German varietés and getting on that circuit a little bit. Then afterwards the small traditional circus in Quebec, Vague de Cirque.

When did you meet the others in Cirque Le Roux? Grég and Yannick were at Montreal with me. Lolita I met later on when I was performing at a German varieté with Grég and Yannick and she was Yannick's girlfriend. Our first project we did altogether was Pippin in New York.

How was it being on Broadway? Pippin was actually really useful. It gave us a lot of tools to work with for this show. We had a really great experience working with the director Diane Paulus and we learned a lot about not getting too attached to certain ideas and really looking at what is globally good for the show. Before seeing that we had a tendency of, 'We've put so much time or energy or money into a certain idea, we have to make it work', and then I learned, ‘No you don't, you can throw it out and think of something completely new’. We tried to employ that when we were doing the creation of our own show and I feel it's one of the best tools that we learned.

What made you decide to do your own show? It actually started with the three boys. Lolita had her own company at the time, and we were having a vacation in Labenne and the old director of the Bordeaux circus school said: "Hey, I have a project. I'd like to put on a show inside of a local church and I'll give you guys a week of residency to make an hour-long show." We had not intention of working together or anything like that but we said: "Let's go for it, let's try it." So we did that and it was really well received and people really enjoyed it. We said: "Oh wow, if we can do that in a week maybe we can create something really good."

So we'd done two or three sessions of residency in-between gigs and then when we got the Pippin contract we said: "OK, this is something that only comes around once in a lifetime, we're going to do this project but always have our project in the back of our minds." Since we were doing Pippin with Lolita we thought it would be nice to have a female energy in the show. We had a really good relationship, the four of us together and we said: "OK, we think this is going to work."

When we were in New York, we took advantage of all the resources of finding people to help us make the costumes, asking people so many questions about set design, lighting design and really trying to get informed as much as possible. We stayed a year on Broadway and then said: "OK, we're going to leave." Everyone on Broadway thought we were crazy for leaving but we said: "No, we're going to pursue our own project," and that's what we did.

Didn't you and Grég do the costumes for The Elephant in the Room? Yeah, basically it was a team effort between me and Grég because I had more of the artistic visual skill, of actually designing them and Grég spent hours and hours and hours on shopping for fabrics. He found them all and we made a nice little design book with all the swatches and then we took it to a professional maker on Broadway. It was amazing for us to see how she took the drawings and the costumes look exactly like them.

Tell us about The Elephant in the Room. It's a real merge between theatre and circus. It's really a show where you're gonna find 50 per cent theatre, 50 per cent circus. We try to put the audience into an ambience, into a film, into the 1930s… and I feel the show has a crescendo vibe. It starts off a little bit easy and smooth and as it goes it grows in intensity and finishes a little bit more on an emotional side.

Do you all particularly like old Hollywood film noir? Yes!

As the character Mr Chance you do a lot of acting. Do you enjoy it? I love it, especially as I'm now going into my thirties and realising, you know, maybe all the tricks that I'm doing, I'm not going to be able to do forever and I'd like to find new ways to explore the artistic side. Acting is one of those things that takes years to perfect and you can learn from it in your forties, fifties and sixties. It is like my younger view of what handstands was; a lifelong process.

You balance on some mannequin parts, as you did in Traces, was that from your graduation piece? It was, but without the couch we use on the set. So we found the concept of how we were going to integrate it, but this is the last show where I want to use the mannequin pieces because I really want explore the full extent of what I can do with hand-balancing and so after this show, no more mannequin.

Which is your favourite bit of the show? My duo handstand act with Grég, which we just do on the floor. It's one of the first moments in the show where we can actually be a little more human and be a little bit more ourselves. It's really physical and simple and it's nice to have a very human contact with someone onstage and be the two of you together in this different world. It's interesting, when we originally created this stuff – now there are some other groups that are starting to come up with certain things that are like this – our thing was hand-balancers are mostly solo artists and don't really do things together, so we said: "OK, we wanna try to figure out different ways that we can interlock and make new material.”

How has the long run in Paris been? It's been good. In terms of the run it's not too physically demanding because we do only four or five shows a week, and we have a really good rhythm here at Bobino. Once we got past all the technical details and most of the press openings and all of that added stress we can now just go in to the show and play it and enjoy it. It feels very good and easy, like a routine, which is perfect for us.

What do you like best about working with the others? In life being with them it's like having an extended family, especially with Yannick and Lolita having their son, Wotan, and we're his godfathers. It's like going onstage as a family and really sharing something. Onstage I feel it’s really interesting to work with them because we all have different rhythms onstage; maybe Grég has the quickest rhythm, I'm underneath that, Lolita's underneath that and Yannick has the slowest rhythm. It's interesting that we can all be onstage and it's so complementary at the same time… and we have fun doing improvisations together. When we get to a new theatre when we're on tour we do a cue-to-cue for spacing and lighting and we have so much fun doing that. We like to try new things because there's no one watching and there's not pressure so we let loose and have fun.

Do you sometimes improvise during the show? Maybe in the way we react to someone. At certain times we'll decide, 'I'm going to look at the audience at this moment and stuff like that, and as we're getting better and more comfortable in acting we're taking more and more risks and improvising a little more, which is good. Before we were worried about messing up each other's timing but our director, Charlotte Saliou, said: "Don't worry about it. You're onstage and you fight for your jokes, fight for what you think is funny, go for it."

Has there been a particular highlight in your career? There have been a lot of steps during the process of doing this show that have been highlights; when we opened in Edinburgh, when we opened here in Paris, and going back to Montreal with the show and being able to perform with people we went to school with and teachers was definitely a highlight.

I guess I'll also remember always performing at the Tony Awards when we were doing Pippin was just crazy. It was insane, [laughs] especially at Radio City Music Hall, which I think is an 8,000-seater. You look out and it's just a sea of people and it's so intimidating but at the same time it's so rewarding once you're onstage and doing it, and once you've done it.

The Elephant in the Room runs at the Bobino Theatre in Paris until 14 January and then opens its tour of France in Vallauris Golfe-Juan on 19 January 2017.

Picture credits: Frank W Ockenfels; Larry Rosenberg

Read our interview with Lolita Costet here

Cirque Le Roux’s website

Twitter: @cirqueleroux

Follow @TheWidowStanton on Twitter