#he’s doing it on accident because he’s GAYYYYY

[ask-emf]

what plans do you have for Parkour Civilization? Now that you're the Champion!

Are you just trying to do what you think Evbo would want?

Are you gonna make the buildings You themed like Evbo did lmaoao

I don’t really have many plans for parkour civilization yet, but right now I’m just trying to rebuild it. Evbo does help me a lot.

I’ve actually tried making the building purple black and gold a few times! But they usually end up green black and white. I’m not sure why I keep accidentally making things Evbo themed.

[chair002]

BRO CHAIR I WATCHED THE SUPER SECRET GEAR VAULT VOD. now i can't stop thinking about stupid temu eclipse federation (okay i dont watn this name to stick but that is their tentative name for the sake of this ask) something has awakened inside of me so here ARE ALL MY THOUGHRS 

i can't believe i havent watched this ever until today. this is targeted losers propaganda im not even joking. im cheating on spacewaffles today because what is this. what is it

there are so many good losers moments i wish i could talk about them all but. i honestly have no coherent thoughts i just hate them and need them dead also think they should kiss but that’s an issue for another day "you can't even make me mad today" "yeah? i bet i could" <- like wha t was that . what was that

i NEEED TO GET TO THE MAIN POINT OF THIS. okay theres no main point im just gonna dump everything here

LIKE FROM 40 MINS ISH AND ONWARDS AFTER PLANET LOGS ON?? THE WAY MAPICC REACTS COMPARED TO BACON??? 

bacon: good news though, i think i built the door mapicc: okay that’s not important if he’s gonna jump us. look at me? here. 13 gaps, the goodie bag i gave you has some pots in it bacon: oh. like i’m not worried though! like he wouldn’t come and kill us, you know? mapicc: yes he would. yes he would and he probably will. bacon: you think he will? mapicc: yes i think he’s on his way. let me get some harming arrows ready. ummm let’s see bacon: alright chat, hey. he might come and jump us but what’s really important is the friendship. just our general outlook on life is what’s most important. and if we stay positive, there’s nothing he can do that can hurt us!  ... mapicc: put down my goodie bag and put some pots in your inventory just in case bacon: okay… but then that would mean i’d have to get rid of my—mapicc: just sacrifice like 6 inventory slots it’s really not that deep

okay whats intersting to me is. why is bacon being so weirdly optimistic about planet. does he still. slightly believe that planet wouldn’t jump them because of their past friendship

like idk?? how'd u interpret what he meant in his little monologue to chat. "if we stay positive" what is this bullshit coming out of your mouth bro. what are we saying. 

ugh its just something about bacon choosing to believe in planet and mapicc NOT. it just feels. so? bacon is clearly not Thinking this through despite being the Thinker of the two. bacon being so chill about it and trying to change the topic to his STUPID PISTON DOOR??? pushing aside mapicc Who is Clearly worrying and trying to prepare him for pvp despite bacon not wanting to take redstone stuff out of his inventory for god knows why. 

bacon is just so detached from the idea that planet could jump them like i actualyl feel unwell. like is the thought that painful to you? is the familiarity of trust, despite knowing that it isn’t there anymore, easier than accepting that planet will kill you with No Hesitation????

even assuming that planet wouldnt go to the extent of turning their outer layer off like. the remnants of trust from s4. (and calling parrot planet’s name by accident because it just slips out. remnants of love shown through habits. aren’t habits and routines like the biggest representations of love ever because they’re built over days and weeks of just being around each other and doing things WITH each other. i’m sick) despite being jumped at the beginning of s5. despite planet saying "keep the diamonds so i can kill you later". bacon is PUSHING IT ALL AWAY like Stage 1 of grief is denial.

losers but bacon isn't over his ex best-friend* (*ambiguous) and will never be. lmao!

okay small aside. mapicc being like ill just shoot you a fire res made me think about "sharing potions are we? gayyyyy" from planet in the planetlord duel vod and i giggled to myself a little bit. losers… I know what you are. 

anyways mapicc literally. leading everything when they’re trying to find planet. bacon just sits back says nothing in chat just listens to what mapicc wants. does he not want to confront planet like this? so he lets mapicc do it for him?

until. until bacons like oh planet’s being so silent he’s usually mr yapper then "im trying to speak to [planet] in a language he understands" and it’s a language from their past. stupid keyboard smashes. that really hurt not gonna lie

AND OFC MAPICC WANTS TO DROP DOWN DESPITE THE POSSIBILITY OF PLANET WAITING DOWN THERE WITH TNT MINECARTS AND OFC MAPICC WILL JUST TRIPLE GAP AND HOLD HIS SHIELD AND BE SELF SACRIFICIAL 

of course planet is there and of course all of bacon's believing was Wrong and of course mapicc was right 

yk losers have really been on my mind lately since recently with the wardens. this is making it Worse. i kinda died a little bit when mapicc got up at 4am because bacon called him to help him w fighting subz. it's you call i answer (even though i hate u and you’re a dumbass dipshit asshole and annoying). fuckkkk like yeah they hate each other and get on each other's nerves but when they lock in... they Lock In. 

mapicc's "the tables turned" line in s6 i think might be The Line about this trio. mapicc being the one to deliver the killing blow on planet during wormhole. mapicc being the one to protect bacon from planet in s5. mapicc being the one jumping bacon and planet in s6. the tables turned. oh how the tables turn. and they revolve around bacon actually!!! 

but why do they revolve around bacon. Is The Question. in his words he’s always the one being jumped. 

mapicc: i get planet– i don’t know. i get why he did it. bacon: why did he do it. cause he was bored? mapicc: yeah playing on 20 hearts, i don’t think you understand bacon, playing on 20 hearts is so fucking boring.

this part intrigued me. even after all of that shit and a wasted stream and mapicc calling planet annoying probably a good 10 times he still… is able to empathize with planet? over heart count specifically. and the “i don’t think you understand bacon�� part. there is something here i cant connect the dots.

i dont knowwwww does it stem from the mapicc being the one to kill planet 30 seconds before the wormhole timer ran out. the one to kill every bit of hope they had of Winning. of being victorious for once in their lives. was mapicc not just the killing blow in terms of wormhole but also the killing blow for planet and being weak? the final straw before planet decided to go on their s5 20 heart arc? it’s like. mapicc passed a torch onto planet. and those two understand power in a way that bacon will never. which is why the trio is the way they are. 

me: oh i’m bored. Lets watch this. i was then shot 57 MILLION times

okay fjnal note the thing is i don’t know eclipse fed lore well enough (I am a fake lifesteal fan…) to fully understand why u called them temu eclipse fed so i’m also curious about that 

HAHAHA YESSSS ITS WORKING!!! MY EVIL PLAN TO MAKE EVERYONE A FAN OF THIS TRIO...!!!! its such a fun vod i love the losers & planet in it so bad im glad you enjoyed it!! the boy best friends ever. everytime i think about the sharing potions line i think of the image of the guy in the zoo throwing a rock at an elephant going 'gayyyy'. dont worry you cant cheat on spacewaffles with losers because bacon has two hands <3 sooo glad i got you into this swamp

hmmm that speech about friendship is a little funny. i think for sure bacon has a lot of sympathy for planet still, even after he becomes the way he is in s5. because that's still planet. and this is relatively early in the season so of course there are some gears in his brain left unswitched. you know how we talk about planet keeping habits from season 5, maybe bacon also kept habits from season 4. season to season teammate switch is often very drastic.

planet is also very interesting, because like yeah, he's bored and he's always bothering losers. sometimes he kills them, but sometimes he just hangs out around them for one peaceful moment. and i love this, because from planet's video, we know planet is lonely, and this is true overall but it’s a little funny that for the sake of the video’s point (being powerful on lifesteal makes you lonely) losers barely show up, even though he spends a lot of time with them on steam. right before the duel he calls them 'my best friends on the whole lifesteal smp' which is clearly a half joke, theyre about to fight to the death, but also not. because spoke told him, when you become powerful, all ties are cut. i love watching him through losers pov this arc so much because he's ruthless and cruel to them but he acts friendly, because they still are friends in a way. bacon is definitely still a friend to them, its not like PLANET is the one getting mad at bacon. to planet hes still the same bacon, and mapicc might as well be a friend too with how much they spend time together. he's merciless towards them but still very much a friend.

mapicc is like. he hates planet i think, but there’s also mutual respect. They get each other. there's a funny s4 chat message i love that just says '<Mapicc> PlanetLord i hate you on a personal level' and thats BEFORE all this shit happened, but also planet & mapicc are in many ways similar, not in their attitude or personalities but in their, like, position i guess? the position of the tables getting turned, around bacon, yeah. mapicc's mind is completely unclouded when it comes to planet, and he is better at chasing people down no matter who it is. bacon's best bet when fighting planetlord is to talk to them because that's one thing he knows best, and also it's planetlord, but when they dont wanna talk and instead just want to kill, well, what can he even do realistically? just sit back and try and listen to mapicc.

to be honest i have never thought about the fact that it was mapicc who was the last person to kill planet before he decided to become powerful but now that you say it ohhhhhh this makes sense. this makes so much sense. Im gonna be thinking about this. The last hit and the biggest loss of season 4 was by mapicc’s hands, and so him getting back at mapicc, now that HE’S burdened with the responsibility of being weak and being with bacon, makes a lot of sense. Probably not intentional but there has to be some sort of catharsis in doing all that after being enemies with mapicc for so long.

dude have you seen like. the clip where mapicc & zam ask bacon if he can call mapicc cute and bacon is like ???no and mapicc goes "is planetlord cute?" and before bacon can answer he goes "who's cuter, me or planetlord?" and after bacon refuses to answer and he calls him a little bitch ;like ????? what is this beef ?? if i were mapicc though i’d be angry too imagine you've given this guy everything he can ever need and more for a season straight and you ask him if he likes you or the Guy who maimed you with knives and logs on once every 3 months and he cant even answer... maybe bacon IS a little bitch

I think my favorite mapicc + planet moments are when they’re with bacon and, even if they dislike each other, they just click instantly simply because they want to make fun of bacon as much as possible. Like s6 day 2 when bacon says ‘how are you blaming this on me?’ and planet replies ‘ummm because its fun?’ and mapicc chimes in going ‘it IS fun to blame bacon isnt it!’ just setting aside all differences to psychologically torture their best friend. The goddamn 20 hearts prank?? The fact that he called Planet (& spoke) up, and was like ‘hey, i need you to kill bacon like 10 times in a row, think you can do that?’ and planet was like yeppppp lets do this bestie. Thats hilarious. but also so deeply fucked up of them. both of them just watched him scream and rage and threaten to kill himself as he kept falling down from the island onto Planet’s sword frantically screaming ‘yesss kill me more, keep killing me! I dont even care!’ and neither of them were like hey arent we going a little too far. 

Also, never not thinking about the fact that the only times bacon has been at 20 hearts were because Mapicc just gifted them to him. youre SO right about the 'you call i answer' because when Wemmbu was humiliating Bacon during the Quickdrop Daycare stream he asks if anyone is going to get his stuff and no one responds, so he calls out mapicc by name, and zam laughs at him and goes "bro thinks it's season 5!" and then. then mapicc just listens to him and actually attacks wemmbu and tries to get his things back. of course mapicc is the first person he's asking, mapicc will always help and he knows it. mapicc is always there and he never refuses to help anyone he's on good terms with, let alone bacon. this has always been the case but this season especially, he's just so completely selfless. he does so much for other people, including bacon, it's actually concerning. when he saved Bacon & Hannah's things from spawn he didnt quite get everything so he literally stood there in front of Hannah and, my jaw dropped to the floor here, said "sorry i couldnt be more helpful". like ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU ARE LITERALLY MAPICC. YOU ARE THE MOST HELPFUL PERSON MAYBE EVER? you logged on when they asked, got their stuff after they died, almost got killed in the process, and YOU are standing there APOLOGIZING for not being helpful?? are we serious? 

i called them temu eclipse cause it's just a trio that's kinda like a car crash but you cant look away it wasnt a serious comparison to be honest LOL i just thought it was a funny thing to say

this is not even character analysis anymore im just yapping and fujoshing out. Thank you for the ask juyo reading & writing this was awesome i loooove yapping with you we should set up tubes between our brains to get c!bacon thoughts delivered to each other at a faster pace

[holdenmgrudges]

Chapter 3 - Helpsies

I know, I’m a couple of days late. I’ve been busy. And I had a bit of trouble writing this for a few reasons. The first was coming up with a reason for Crutchie’s messed up leg. I know he’s canonically supposed to have polio, but since it was pretty much eradicated in the US back in the 90s, I felt that it wouldn’t be a good enough reason. So the reason I came up with is a bit simpler than that, and it opens up a plot point I might use in the future. Second, was coming up with a math problem for the Sprace part of the chapter. I’ve never taken statistics and probability, but seeing as how the problem I used is a probability problem, I felt it worked. Anyway, here’s chapter 3! Enjoy!

Or read on AO3 if you prefer.

The next day, David couldn’t help but feel he was doing a great job of adjusting to his new school. In PE, the kid Crutchie had called Race, completed his usual lap, but just before overlapping him, slowed down next to David to say, “Hi Davey…” with a smile. And then, “Bye Davey…” as he sped off again. In his English class, Katherine gave him a quick smile before taking a seat and huddling with two other boys. Despite ignoring him for the rest of the class, David was satisfied. It was safe to say joining the LGBTQ+ Club was the best decision he could’ve made.

Lunch came around and after waiting in line for a calzone, he headed to the Little Theatre. Inside, he quickly spotted Jack and Crutchie, sitting at two desks that had been pushed together. He also saw a few other kids he didn’t know playing some trading card game he didn’t know, and a few others either reading or doodling. No one else he’d seen yesterday. Even Miss Medda wasn’t there.

“Hey Davey, grab a desk and sit with us,” Jack said, as David approached him and Crutchie. David did as he was told and Jack moved his desk so the three of them were in a sort of triangle. “We were just talking about what kind of trust exercises we could do for the club.”

“He’s been trying to convince me physical activities, like a trust fall, wouldn’t work,” Crutchie chimed in. He grabbed his crutch and tossed it to David. David held out an arm and was able to catch it right before it hit the floor. He looked a bit startled, but Crutchie laughed. “See, I’m good with the physical stuff. I don’t need the crutch to stand and catch someone.”

David let out a small chuckle as he handed the crutch back. “I’d think a trust fall would be too obvious. But I don’t think we should rule out anything physical.” Crutchie stuck his tongue out at Jack. “If Crutchie says he can handle it, I think we should trust him.”

Crutchie laughed again, saying, “I like you, Davey. You got some great ideas.”

Jack crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Alright then, Davey with the great ideas, what do you suggest?”

“Hmm...lemme think…” David took a bite out of his calzone and then put it back down on the paper plate it had come on. He scanned his brain for ideas as he chewed, thinking about anything he’d ever done at camp or his family reunions.

While David was thinking, Jack took a second to give David a discreet once-over. Crutchie, however, noticed and gave Jack a light kick in the shin with his good leg. David, in turn noticed this and looked back and forth between the two of them, trying to figure out what was happening. Crutchie was giving Jack and accusatory look and Jack was staring at him as if he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Uh...what’s going on?” David asked, feeling out of the loop. He thought that he could really benefit from a trust exercise right about now.

“I’m just punishing Jack,” Crutchie answered quickly, “for trying to use my disability against me. As if I don’t get that enough from everyone.”

“I’m just very overprotective of you, Crutch,” Jack replied. “Someone’s gotta be.”

“If I fall, I fall. It’s not a deadly stunt.”

“But it’ll hurt like shit…”

“You’re a shit…”

“You’d be the one eating shit…”

“We’ll see who eats shit when we’re doing the trust fall…”

“Not me, ‘cause I’m not doin-”

“What is your disability?” David interrupted. “Like, what happened to your leg?” The other two fell silent and David felt like he’d messed up. He needed to learn to keep his mouth shut.

But then Crutchie smiled. “People don’t usually ask,” he said. “They just see that I have a crutch and move out of my way.”

“Even I didn’t know until his foster mom mentioned it while I was sleeping over,” Jack contributed.

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re a shit.” Crutchie kicked Jack again before turning back to David. “But to answer your question, I was in an accident. Got hit by a car. I mostly recovered but my leg didn’t. But I’m still alive and other people have it worse. So I don’t let it define me.”

David nodded in understanding. “But you still call yourself Crutchie.”

“I didn’t start that shit,” he responded with a laugh.

Jack covered his face with his hand and mumbled, “Kick me again.” Crutchie did so, but not as hard. “I thought it’d be a cute nickname. Better than ‘Crutch Boy’ or ‘He-Who-Must-Have-The-Crutch.’”

“You could’ve called me by my actual name. But of course, Crutchie stuck. I wear it as a badge of honor. And it makes people wonder if it’s my real name.”

The three laughed and then David asked, “What is your real name?”

Crutchie smirked and shook his head, “That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own, Davey..”

David nodded and then remembered he was supposed to be thinking of ideas for the club. He continued eating his calzone.

“What about you, Davey? What’s your story?” Jack asked.

David shrugged with a nervous smile. “I don’t know...I’m just Davey.”

“But what makes you special?” This came from Crutchie.

“Oh uh…” Whenever he was asked this question, he always went to his go-to list of interesting David facts. “I can play the piano...I’m a Ravenclaw...but House Lannister...I’m a twin, but not identical-”

“You’re a twin?” the other two boys asked in unison, curious to learn more.

“Yeah, figures that’s the most interesting thing about me,” David replied with a snort.

“That’s not true,” Jack said, as if he knew something about David that he didn’t. “You’re in our LGBTQ+ Club which is interesting on its own.” David nodded in agreement. “Which uh...letter do you belong to?”

David raised an eyebrow in confusion while Crutchie rolled his eyes. “He means, are you gay, bi, trans, queer...plus?”

“Oh,” David responded and then thought for a few seconds. “I guess queer. I know I’m not straight, that’s all I know.”

“Cool,” Jack said with a smile. “I’m a proud bisexual.”

“And I’m straight...up guh-guh-gayyyyy.”

The three laughed again and continued talking until the end of lunch, when David remembered, “Oh, shoot, I forgot we were supposed to be thinking of trust activities for the club.”

“We can brainstorm some more in art class, but…” Jack took out his notebook, wrote something, and ripped the page out, handing it to David. It was a phone number. “You can also text me with ideas.”

“Oh okay, cool,” David replied. The three got up and headed out of the Little Theatre. Before Crutchie could walk off to his class, David called out to him. “Hey, do you wanna...maybe...give me your number too? Wouldn’t wanna keep you out of the loop.”

Crutchie grinned widely and nodded. He wrote his number down on the piece of paper and then they went their separate ways. David smiled. Now he had two friends.

Spot wasn’t bad at math. In fact, he’d been the first kid in his third grade class to learn all his timetables. But he wasn’t in third grade anymore, and he wasn’t learning his timetables. Statistics and probability was much harder than he thought it was going to be. He thought it was all about percentages and fractions, but what he got was so much more confusing than that.

He was in class, scratching at his chin, trying to figure out the problem the class had been given. It didn’t seem hard but as he looked around the class, everyone seemed to have a different answer. But he couldn’t ask for help. He was Spot Conlon. He was never helpless. He looked over the problem again but still didn’t understand how some people were arriving at a different solution than the obvious one.

“You need help there, Spot?” came the friendly voice of Jojo. Jojo was pretty special to Spot because he was another one of the few people that wasn’t afraid of him. Not that Spot had ever threatened to hurt Jojo. The kid was too sweet to ever want to harm. He was funny too, which didn’t hurt. And he was a great teammate to have, cheering people on at not just every match, but every practice as well.

So when Jojo asked him if he needed help, he knew he was in good hands. He trusted Jojo. “Yeah, man. I don’t get it. I mean, the answer’s one-half, right?”

“Actually, it’s two-thirds.” Jojo took a second to double check his paper. “Yeah, two-thirds.”

“But how?” Now that he’d gotten confirmation that his answer was wrong, Spot needed to know how. He wasn’t satisfied with just the answer.

“Uh...I forgot. Hold up.” Jojo turned around to the desk behind him to ask his friend. Spot had seen him before, running around the school track like he was Usain Bolt. He’d been impressed, but didn’t think more about him. Now, he had to because the guy had turned his head to stare at Spot. Jojo turned back to Spot as well, and said, “Race here is gonna show you how you get the right answer.”

Spot waited while Race hesitated. He’d obviously heard about Spot’s reputation. But after a few seconds, he began to talk, trying to explain to Spot why the answer was two-thirds using mathematical terms. Suffice it to say that Spot still wasn’t understanding.

“Okay, so you have three boxes, right?” Race spoke. “And each box has two drawers, right? And each drawer has a coin.”

Maybe it was the way Race was talking to him, or maybe it was the fact that he was fed up with the problem, but Spot was not having it. “Yeah, I’m not stupid. You don’t have to talk down to me like I don’t know what the scenario is. I know what the scenario is.” He ran his fingers through his hair, getting a good grip.

Race went silent and looked down at his piece of paper. He hadn’t meant to offend Spot. In fact, he was aiming for the opposite. Sure, in class he was safe, but who knew what Spot could do to him after school. His only hope was running fast enough, but he didn’t know how fast Spot could run.

Jojo looked back and forth between Race and Spot and then giggled. “Go on, Race. Don’t mind Spot. He’s like this all the time.”

The other two boys made eye contact and Spot nodded. Race straightened up and continued. “Alright, so you pick a box and open up a drawer at random. It has a gold coin inside.”

Spot knew each box was different. One had two gold coins, another had two silver coins, and the last one had one gold and one silver. The question was, what was the probability of the second drawer also having a gold coin?

Race went on. “So you’d think, it could only be one of two options, right? The box you picked can’t be the one with two silver coins, so it must be one of the other two. Which means that the second drawer will either have a gold coin or a silver coin, making the probability of the second coin being gold one-half. Well that’s wrong.”

Spot took a deep breath, making a conscious decision not to bang his fist on his desk. This kid was telling him what he already knew.

“Okay, okay. So let’s start with the first coin instead of going directly to the second one. Out of the six coins, how many are gold?”

Spot glanced at Jojo, who looked like he was enjoying himself. “Three,” Jojo replied, and Spot rolled his eyes.

“Right. So the first coin you pick will be any of those three coins. Which means for the second coin there will be three possibilities.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Spot interrupted. “How?”

Race paused for a second as he thought. He took a pencil and placed it into his mouth, holding it as if it were a cigar. After a few seconds, he took a piece of paper and drew three boxes. In each box he drew two circles and then labeled each of them with either G for gold or S for silver. He then crossed out the box with the two S circles.

“So,” Race started again, pointing to the box with one gold coin and one silver. “If you picked this gold coin, then the second coin would be silver. That’s one possibility.” He then pointed at the first G in the other box. “If you pick this gold coin first, then the second one would be gold. That’s your second possibility.” He moved his finger to the second G in the box. “But let’s say you picked this gold coin first instead. Then your second coin would still be gold, but you’d have a third possibility.”

Spot’s eyebrows raised in understanding.

“Therefore, the probability of your second coin being gold would be two out of three possibilities.”

“Two-thirds,” Spot stated as his lip curled into a smile. He didn’t notice Race perk up at this, but Jojo did.

“That’s right!” Jojo pat Race on the back. “Now I remember. See, Spot, I told you it was two-thirds.”

Spot was too distracted writing down the explanation to say anything. Race gave Jojo a quick smile before going back to his own work.

“Isn’t Race a genius?”

“I wouldn’t call me a genius. You can google the answer and get a better explanation.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t need to ‘cause we have you.”

Spot finally finished and looked up. His smile was gone, but he gave Race a nod of gratitude. Race would’ve been satisfied with that, but then Spot followed through verbally. “Thanks, man.”

Race relaxed a little, realizing Spot wasn’t the bully he’d been led to believe he was. He’d been afraid to talk to him all year long because of the stories he’d heard about him. But now maybe Spot Conlon could be his friend. Or at least someone who wouldn’t beat him up. “Mhm,” he replied, giving Spot a nod right back, and then one to Jojo.

Jojo was all smiles. He lived not only for making friends, but for making his friends become friends with his other friends. He was like a friendship wingman. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when he said, “We should start a study group.”

Immediately, Spot and Race looked at Jojo and then at each other. It was really up to Spot to decide. “Yeah, maybe,” he decided. It might as well have been a no. He already had a lot to worry about with wrestling, and he didn’t want to add a whole study group to his list of responsibilities.

The other two nodded and went back to their work. It wasn’t until near the end of class, when their teacher was passing back their latest test results, that they spoke again. Race had gotten an A, as he always did. Jojo got a B, which he was proud of. And Spot got a D, the last grade he wanted. He might as well have gotten an F.

“Alright,” he said, turning to face Jojo and Race. “Let’s start a study group.” Jojo did a little victory fist pump while Race looked up in surprise.

“We can meet at my place,” Jojo said. “I can have snacks ready and all that.”

“Sounds good,” Spot replied. “Text me your address.”

The three made arrangements to meet that weekend, and thus the Stats and Probs Study Group was born.

Sarah had collected as much as she could the night before. Old essays, class assignments, and even some diary entries that she felt were really good pieces of writing. She put them all in a folder, thinking Katherine would take it home and read each piece in her free time.

She was so nervous about what Katherine would think, that she was barely paying attention in her last class. Her usual thoughts about Jack were nowhere to be seen, though he didn’t seem to mind. He seemed giddily distracted.

When Sarah got to the computer lab after school and handed her folder to Katherine, she surprisingly began reading then and there. Skimming, more like. She’d move on to the next piece after a few seconds, giving a few nods of approval and even some quick chuckles at the diary entries. About halfway through the stack, she handed it back.

“You didn’t read everything.”

“I don’t need to. You’re qualified. Some of that stuff was actually pretty good.” Katherine went back to her computer where she was editing an article. “Also, I have more important things to do.”

"What can I do to help?" The day before she'd been shown around and explained most of what they do. Everyone wrote at least one article with at least one picture, though from one of the sample newspapers Sarah had seen, it was clear Katherine wrote most articles. She was also in charge of editing every article. Darcy and Bill helped print out the papers and distribute them every Friday morning, which happened to be the next day. And Mr. Denton looked over everything to make sure it was PG and PC. So far, Sarah didn't have any job in the club, so she was just there to help in any way she could.

"Nothing right now," Katherine responded, brushing her off. "Go see if Darcy and Bill need anything."

Sarah was a little disappointed but she knew the girl didn't need any distractions. Darcy and Bill were sitting together talking with Mr. Denton. As she approached, the teacher saw the folder in her hand and gave her an amused smile. "You know, you didn't actually need to bring in any writing samples. You're in the club no matter what Katherine has to say about it."

"She's just so in charge," Sarah said, putting the folder in her backpack. "She's inspiring. I wanted to impress her."

"And was she impressed?" Denton asked. Darcy and Bill looked at her in anticipation.

"She said some of my stuff was pretty good." The boys nodded as if they'd expected that.

Mr. Denton just smiled. "That's a good sign. Katherine likes to go on rants when she reads bad writing."

"I wonder what she'd say about great writing. If I was pretty good, my brother would probably be amazing."

"You should have him join then," Denton said. "We're always looking for writers."

"I'll ask him, but he's not really the joining type."

Denton soon went back to his desk to do some of his own work and Sarah stayed with the two boys. "So what are we up to right now?"

"Waiting for Katherine to finish editing, basically," answered one of the boys. Sarah didn't think she'd be able to remember which was which, but as she saw that each was wearing similar clothes to what they'd been wearing the day before, she deduced that the one who had just spoken was Darcy. He had on a dress shirt tucked into his khaki pants and his hair was neatly combed. The other boy had on a superhero shirt.

"When she's done," Bill said, "we arrange everything on the template, print out a bunch of copies, and tomorrow morning we release it."

"She lets you arrange the paper?" She would've figured Katherine would be in charge of everything.

Darcy replied, "Mr. Denton felt she had too many responsibilities and we not enough, so we do it now."

"But we still ask Katherine for help with it," Bill whispered. "When Denton's not around."

"Of course," Sarah said, nodding. "So you guys hang out with her outside of the club?"

Darcy shook his head, but Bill nodded. They looked at each other and then Darcy explained. "We have English class with her, but we only ever talk about the paper. If it's not about that, she's not really interested."

"We've never hung out with her outside of school," Bill added.

"Well, except that one time she asked me to walk her home because the Delancey brothers were being creeps. But that was only one time."

"Does she have any friends outside of the paper?" Sarah couldn't imagine anyone being so obsessed with one thing.

Bill responded, "Not sure. At school she spends her free time either writing or interviewing people for articles. I know she wants to be a journalist someday."

Katherine seemed almost as antisocial as David, but Darcy and Bill didn't seem to know anything about her outside of school. And just like that, Sarah's curiosity grew. She was gonna make it her own personal assignment to find out as much as she could about the girl. And if she couldn't find information from other people, she'd go directly to the source. After all, Denton had told her yesterday that she would grow on Katherine.

It didn't take long for Katherine to finish editing. She sent the articles and photos for each to Darcy and Bill and they started copying and pasting all over the news template they used. Sarah was bored out of her mind watching the two boys try to figure out where everything should go. She could see Katherine out of the corner of her eye, just fidgeting, probably wishing she could do it all herself. Mr. Denton seemed to notice it too because he sent her home soon after. Sarah was slightly disappointed with that, but then Mr. Denton came to the three of them and requested for her to take the reigns.

"What?" She knew she was new and didn't want to risk ruining all the hard work that was already put into the paper. She would hate for Katherine to come in the next day and absolutely abhor anything she did.

"Don't worry," Denton replied. "We’ll help you out. I just want to see what you can do. Besides, how else are you going to learn if not by doing?"

She supposed he was right, but she was still nervous about it. Luckily, she had no reason to be.