#my math teacher was failing me for having missing assignments even though i had turned them in because she hadnt graded them yet

[nerdylibertarian928]

Hot take: You shouldn't get in trouble for having bad grades if you're doing your assignments and participating in class but are struggling in school even though you are trying your best. However, if your bad grades are caused by you being on your phone in class instead of paying attention in class and not doing your assignments, you 100% deserve to get in trouble for having bad grades.

[erwinsvow]

𝐚𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨

note: part two to the college headcanons! part one can be found here! i had a lot of fun writing these and i hope everyone enjoys them :) teacher/student dynamic warning for zeke and hange's, and i guess bullying for annie's :/

𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐝

the very definition of kind-hearted frat boy who doesn’t fit the stereotype he’s been assigned at all

starts off with accounting before realizing he hates math, moves into business management and marketing

the linkedin profile is absolutely popping, 500+ connections and details about every club and organization he’s ever been a part of

the friend that helps everyone find internships and fixes their resumes while offering helpful advice and not being condescending… anyways so that’s how you meet porco

he works at the career center 100% and does various coaching/prep help, and you, pieck’s friend, are in desperate need of an internship

so you’re complaining to your friend as usual, when she tells you to stop by the building and ask for a “pock”

so you do just that, walking in and asking for “pock” and porco is a little stunned by this pretty stranger calling him by a nickname reserved for his close friends, and even then he just barely tolerates it

but he doesn’t want to correct you, especially since you’re being so sweet and he can tell you need some help

so a meeting at the career center slowly turns into facetime calls to review applications and last-minute edits, stopping by your dorm to help you fill out paperwork and walking together to mail it out

i have a feeling porco doesn’t wanna be too forward, and he thinks he’s being very aloof and casual, when he really just seems oblivious

and you cannot tell for the life of you if he likes you or he’s just being friendly since you’re close with pieck

finally after you land the internship and won't have your normal excuse to spend time with him, you get the guts you've been searching for

you tell him about the position later in the day, stopping by the center for hopefully the last time

"by the way, my number's on my resume if you're ever gonna ask me out."

leaves pocky-boy flustered and red and scrambling to ask you out, and you have been happily dating since

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

oh boy

conny is a very typical college kid in the sense that he will sleep through every 8 am class he has, blow off class to go wait in line for the nacho bar, and has adopted the mantra ‘c’s get degrees’

but he is an extremely lovable education major with a focus in history

rarely seen without his shadow sasha, but now that she started dating niccolo, she thinks that conny could use a relationship too, and that it might do him some good to be with a funny, down-to-earth person

thus begins the most grueling two weeks for every girl on campus, as sasha hunts down girls that she thinks would be a good match for her best friend

this includes airdropping a photo of conny to the lecture hall with the caption “would you date this man? serious inquiries only”

creates a fake tinder complete with a google form to narrow down the options

however, none of this is necessary because sasha bumps into you in the smoothie line and causes your triple berry blend to go flying

she helps you clean up and idle conversation leads to you talking about dates and so forth

“well, i’d love to set you up with my best friend? how do you feel about a blind date?”

yes, conny met you, the love of his life, on a blind date set up by sasha with a stranger

it’s one of those funny stories that people don’t believe when you tell them, because how ridiculous is that, but you both think it’s perfect since you get along so well and it made all the waiting worth it

bonus: double dates with sasha and niccolo! fondue night at their apartment, going to the arcade and having to lug up sasha and her food baby while niccolo parks the car, just overall a grand time :)

𝐳𝐞𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫

zeke yeager, ph.d. started his new job at university with one rule in mind: absolutely no illicit affairs

he also coaches the club baseball team, because why not get involved on your campus

he really believes that he’s gonna stick with it too, despite the overwhelming number of students who come to his office hours with questions that his less handsome teaching assistants could answer

but no, he doesn’t want to earn a reputation as that professor, and so he heads into the new semester with absolutely no lingering thoughts of an exciting little dalliance to get him through the monotonous days

he knows his huge lecture classes would always come with a few pretty students, but it’s the smaller, upper-level psych class he’s teaching when he meets you for the first time

zeke has you all figured out, or so he thinks. sitting in the front row, raising your hand for questions he wasn’t expecting anyone to actually have an answer to, neatly handwritten notes in a color-coded notebook. he wouldn’t peg you for the type to jump and take the risk by starting a relationship with a professor.

but he soon realizes that he didn’t have you as figured out as he thought he did.

you avoid the gaggle of freshmen during office hours by scheduling meetings instead, sometimes right before class, coming to him with two cups of coffee and a wide smile that actually had him fooled into thinking you were here for academic reasons

this facade quickly fades though, because after a semester of interactions with you and getting more and more comfortable with each other, to the point where coffee orders are memorized and it’s zeke rather than professor yeager, you’ve had just about enough

he knows he’s fucked when you come visit him at practice for the baseball team, bringing him a drink and engaging in conversation while the players watch their coach flirt with you

he’s especially fucked when he realizes he’s looking forward to practice just because there’s a chance you’ll stop by on your way to your next class

you submit your final paper early, nearly a week before it’s due and of course the first in the class to do so, and waltz into his office the next day with another steaming cup of his favorite drink

“you submitted your paper pretty early, you know.”

“i know. i also know that it means i’m not your student anymore, so if you were going to make a move, now’s the time.”

no, he definitely had underestimated how much he knew about you.

𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐬𝐚 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧

mikasa is a forensic sciences major and is still debating on the minor- she’s torn between criminal justice or history like armin.

she loves her major classes, but she just wants something else interesting to look forward to as well, so armin suggests sitting in on a couple classes early in the semester and getting a taste for it.

so you don’t really think twice when she claims the empty seat next to you on the first day of classes, smiling politely and paying attention to the professor. you do notice, however, that she’s not writing anything down or looking at the syllabus, leading you to strike a conversation on why that is.

she explains herself and then before you even know it, the lecture ends and you spent the last forty minutes talking to mikasa about anything and everything.

she’s sitting in on another class tomorrow, and absent mindedly invites you to come along, to which you agree all too quickly, because why wouldn’t you

numbers are exchanged, times are fixed, and mikasa leaves wondering why she’s so excited at the idea of sitting with you in class again.

you two hate the history class she had chosen, with the professor droning on and on and you being focused entirely on the conversation you’re having with mikasa

until the professor kicks the two of you out for not shutting up, that is

you’re both laughing hysterically once you reach the hallway

“i’m gonna have to discourage you from doing that history minor if that’s what all the classes are like.”

“well, i have to do criminal justice so we can have that class together, anyways.”

𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭

true to form, annie goes into one of the most difficult majors: cheg. definitely flies through intro courses with straight As and minimal effort, but that’s also mostly because all she and bertholdt do is study

reiner tries his hardest to get her to go to a party every once in a while, but usually to no avail because she always has an exam to study for

you’re a tutor, and honestly, you’d say you were pretty good at your job. you can answer questions and explain reasonings fairly well to confused students. but when annie comes to your office hours with some complicated problems and she’s asking for explanations that you just don’t have, you literally feel your face burn with heat for the entirety of the time she’s there

long story short, your first encounter is embarrassing, to say the least. you’re stumbling over words as you try to look through your old notes and piece together an answer for annie, who you cannot even look in the eyes.

anyways, she leaves eventually and you want a hole to open in the ground and swallow you up, but at least she won’t be back next week, right?

wrong.

miss leonhart doesn’t know how to express her feelings any better than you, so her way of flirting is spending time with you in the tutor center as you fail to answer her questions time and time again

you want to scream at her to stop coming because she and you both know you’re not helping either of you with this

but also you really don’t want her to stop coming because you don’t have any other ways to see her outside of class

both of you reach your wit’s end on the same day, her coming to you with the absolute easiest problems she could find in the textbook, and you with every intention of asking her out to dinner

she opens her book, and you reach and close it quickly

“unless this is the only way you know how to flirt, something has to change now.”

𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐳𝐨𝐞

dr. zoë teaches, just, way too many classes

we’re talking multiple chemistry labs and upper-level research courses as well

you’re just a ph.d. student doing rotations as per usual, and you’ve heard the comments from students senior to you about dr. zoë, who makes every student in rotation say hange instead of the formal way you’re used to

you’ve heard everything from crazy to genius and everything in between

what you weren’t expecting was… so good looking, and young? and comforting? and talking about all the things that you didn’t have the guts to bring up with other people, like how you always feel a little left out in the field and that you think no one cares about your research interests that much—a lot of stuff that you find yourself pouring out to hange on your very first day in the lab

you’re wondering why it’s so easy to talk to them, and why none of the other rotations ever felt this comfortable

and then you realize you’re spilling your guts to someone who probably doesn’t even care, and has way more to deal with on their plate than a ph.d. student with imposter syndrome

so you’re apologizing right after you’ve finished, when you’re met with the warmest look and a reassuring hand on your shoulder

it’s so easy to fall after that, with weekly meetings and regular check-ins, and you know it’s wrong to have this strange crush on your superior, but hange really feels like the one person you can count on here

you hide the crush in favor of getting the mentorship you desperately think you need, but it’s not long until you’re onto the next rotation and the next lab’s work is even closer to the stuff you love

you hate the way you feel, that you’re not gonna have any reason to keep in touch and you never even got to explain how you feel about them—and that you didn’t even get to experience hange’s energy because she was always listening and helping you out

it’s not until you get a text the night before your first day in the new lab from hange, filled with reassuring words and asking for a coffee date later in the week to talk about how it goes, that you realize just how well hange understood you

𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

last but not least, miss pieck is double majoring in french and public health

absolutely obsessed with her majors and loves the subjects, but works herself to death to keep up with it all

you don’t even realize that the pretty, studious girl you’re seeing in the library all the time is the same girl you spot with some of your friends from class

pieck is as oblivious as they come. you invite her on study dates after you two are introduced by reiner, invite her to get coffee after a particularly late night of studying, pretty much start spending most of your days together

you can’t help but be disappointed that pieck doesn’t see you in that way, because you’ve slowly been falling head over heels, but you accept that maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, and you still love the friendship you two have

it takes a while for things to click for pieck, but they do right as the semester eases up

once exams are over, you two decide to go to these famous parties porco and reiner never stop talking about

it’s not the usual scene you’re comfortable with, but what’s wrong with letting loose a little, especially after midterms? no harm in having fun, right?

wrong again! you definitely get plastered way too quickly, and eventually pieck takes you to a room to settle down

drunk confessions of love aren’t usually the way to go, but you can’t help but reveal everything you’ve been feeling for the last few months when pieck is taking care of you in your current state

you definitely wake up hungover and ignorant to last night’s shenanigans, but you’re in your dorm, with a bottle of water and ibuprofen on the nightstand, phone plugged in and shoes off

pieck comes back with breakfast, coffee and your favorite pastries, and checks up on you

“so.. about last night..”

“i’m so sorry, did i throw up on you?”

“no, but you did say you were in love with me. was that just a drunk thing, or is it a sober thing too? because i think i’m in love with you too.”

[ghostgothgeek]

Pull.

My first for the Phic Phight! 1,685 words.

Danny's been summoned. But not by who you'd expect. In fact, not by an actual person. Prompt by Greyheartwriter.

-----

Danny had been summoned before. Or rather, Phantom has. Usually by Sam, with Tucker occasionally tagging along. Typically when he was grounded. His two best friends always got a kick out of it. Grounded or not, they were going to hang out with their friend, especially when he insisted he should probably stay home “just in case”. He hadn’t gotten caught yet, but there have been a few close calls. Regardless, summoning Phantom was one of the rare moments the trio had to goof off and be regular teenagers. Well, regular enough anyway. 

Danny sat with his elbows on the desk, hands gripping his hair in frustration. Falluca had assigned a large problem set to be done overnight. Like Danny didn’t have anything better to do - rest, catch ghosts, nap, hang with his friends, sleep. At 10:30 pm, he was almost done, he was just stuck on this one problem. He thought about calling Sam and asking for help, but he really wanted to try getting this on his own first. 

He grabbed his pencil and tried writing out the problem for the 400th time when he felt the pull. “Oh no,” Danny muttered and looked around his room before trying extra hard to focus on his math homework and not the pull. It always failed, but he had been trying to train himself to ignore the pull. “Not. Now.” 

Danny put his face closer to his paper and tried to focus, but the pull was getting stronger now. Ugh, why him? Why can’t people summon other ghosts? Well, that could get ugly and dangerous real fast, but come on! He was gonna kill Tucker and Sam. Or maybe…

Maybe his friends were struggling with the same problem as him and they wanted to put all their brain power together. But they could have just called. Regardless, he was still resisting the pull. 

The pull was just a feeling of needing to be physically somewhere else. Or it started out that way, anyway. It was like holding your breath and forcing yourself to not hiccup again. You could try to deal with it absentmindedly, but usually it was all you could focus on until you were satisfied. And that’s where Danny was at now, the pull was beginning to consume all of his thoughts, it was beginning to cloud his brain of anything else. He gripped his desk as he felt another strong pull. Whoever was calling him had done it at least 3 times now. Again, Danny tried to focus on his paper. 

Another pull, and Danny’s vision became cloudy. He felt anxious. He needed to be somewhere. What about math homework? That was supposed to be his top priority, they had a test on Friday. He gently started shaking as he tried to refrain. 

He fell out of his chair at another pull, another call. Fuck it. He couldn’t hold on anymore. 

He sighed, took a deep breath, and focused on the pull. He felt immediate relief as he answered. He felt the familiar feeling of following the call, like riding a waterslide or a rollercoaster in the dark. You had no idea where you were going, you couldn’t see anything in front of you. You didn’t know how long the ride would last and you had zero control. You were just being forced in a different direction, sometimes feeling the whiplash of the unexpected. 

He could feel his core becoming colder. He felt his transformation into Phantom, and soon enough, the blackness was beginning to fade, and he tried to gather his surroundings. “Sam, Tucker, if it’s you I swear I’m gonna-” 

Oh, OH. This was new. Danny didn’t even know that this was possible. He guessed it made sense though. Maybe Ouija boards were like cell phones in the Ghost Zone. Ghosts had to get a hold of each other somehow. 

He turned his body as he slowly looked around. He didn’t know this part of the Ghost Zone. He didn’t even see any ghosts around. He started to panic. He didn’t know where he was, or who called him, or if anyone even actually called him at all. Was this some new stupid ghost power he had to learn to controll again? He just figured out how to keep his pants from falling down when he tried to flirt with girls. Not important right now, he reminded himself. He formed a small ectoball of energy in his hand, preparing himself for any attack. 

But no attack came. Instead, he just felt a little nudge at his feet. Looking down, he sighed and dropped his ectoball. “Really?” He glanced down at his caller. “First of all, how did you even learn to do that?!” 

Headbutting his ankle was the small green fluffball nicknamed Cujo, in his puppy form. To answer Danny’s question, he used his nose to nudge the planchette on the board, moving it around until Danny began to feel the pull again, though this time the pull wasn’t as strong because he was already in his destination. 

Danny chuckled and scratched the pup’s ear. “What’s up buddy? I gotta finish my homework.” 

Cujo barked and wagged his tail ferociously, sticking his butt up towards the air as he bounced around. Eventually, the dog dragged his squeaky toy towards the halfa and barked again. 

“I can’t play! I have to finish my homework so I can try to get a few hours of sleep in a row tonight. Sorry dude, but no.” 

The puppy’s excitement level deteriorated quickly. He let out a little whine, and gave Danny his best puppy dog eyes. Danny sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. Cujo was adamant on playing, that much was clear. He called him 6 times already, what was going to stop the pooch from doing it again until he got what he wanted? Maybe just for a few minutes…

Cujo’s tail began wagging again as he could see Danny caving in. “Alright, alright. I needed a break anyways.” He formed another ectoball and threw it as hard as he could. “Go long, Cuj!” He smiled as the pup darted after the ball at lightning speed and stretched his muscles for the few seconds it took for Cujo to return with the ball. The pup barked excitedly. 

Danny smiled, he always wanted a dog anyway. He threw the ball for Cujo for another few minutes, before playing tug of war and teasing the dog with the squeaky toy. “Who’s a good boy?” Danny said in a voice only reserved for Cujo and other animals (except for Sam’s pet snake...he couldn’t use his little baby voice on that thing, it was too weird). He rubbed the dog’s belly, laughing when Cujo’s back leg would twitch in response to the belly rubs. 

The phantom yawned as he laid down on the ground next to the pup, using one hand to prop his head up and the other to scratch Cujo’s chin. “I’ll admit, you are making me feel more relaxed.” 

Soon enough, Danny was snoozing with the little puppy curled up into his side, snoring softly. Though, the moment of peace didn’t last more than 15 minutes as Danny woke up to the feeling of being pulled again. He groaned, gave Cujo a little kiss on his head, and answered the new call. 

Sure enough, he was in the middle of Sam’s room, falling to her rug as he was still too drowsy to make a better landing. He heard Tucker’s laugh and jolted up, shaking the remaining grogginess out of his head. Danny groaned, “what?!” 

“Look who woke up on the wrong side of the...rug…” Tucker tried. Danny could feel Sam rolling her eyes as she offered him a hand so he could stand up. 

Danny couldn’t help but let out a low growl, “Tucker…” 

“We’ve been trying to call you for 25 minutes already! Guess you didn’t have your phone on you. Thank the goddesses for Ouija boards,” Sam stated as she straightened out her skirt. 

“Why? What’s wrong? Is there a ghost?” Danny examined her room, making a face at the snake that he swore was glaring at him. 

“School starts in 4 minutes, dude,” Tucker explained as he grabbed his backpack. 

“You gotta fly us to your house to get your stuff then fly us to school, and maybe we won’t get detention this time,” Sam put her backpack on as well. 

“Ah, fuck,” Danny quickly grabbed his friends’ arms and flew as quickly as he could to his room, grabbing his backpack and flying to school. His parents were already in the lab working on stuff, and Danny doubted they even noticed he was missing and almost late for school. A bomb could go off in the town and they would be so immersed in their work that they wouldn’t hear it. His overattentive sister, on the other hand, had apparently been trying to get a hold of him for an hour now, only stopping when Sam texted Jazz that they had Danny with them. 

The trio landed in the bush as the first warning bell rang. Danny transformed and they ran into the school together, making it to their homeroom late, but for once luck was on their side as the teacher wasn’t paying attention...her car alarm mysteriously went off. 

Danny pulled out his notebook and realized he still had to finish that math problem. Shit. 

He turned as Sam tapped his shoulder, handing him her homework. He smiled gratefully. 

“Don’t worry, Tucker had to copy mine too. That problem took me 5 hours to solve. You both owe me.” 

Danny sighed in relief and nodded. He had 10 minutes to copy this down, and it was two pages long. It should be a crime to assign problems that long. He pulled out his pencil and started scribbling down the solution when he felt it. 

Another pull. Damn that dog. No, he loved Cujo. Damn that Ouija board. “Remind me to find Cujo a puppy friend,” the halfa muttered to his friends.

[flooffybits]

Heart On My Sleeve

Idol: Kim Jiwoo (Loona)

Anon: Can I request a Loona Chuu highschool!au when Chuu 'falls in love' very easily but usually stops liking them cause of the pickiest reason like if they laugh weird or something like that, but when she meets (fem) reader she falls head over heals for her. So that's really all I can think of. Sorry if it wasn't much lmao.

☕buy me a coffee☕

A/n: guess who’s back :3

"Are you going to start talking about Sooyoung again or have you set your eyes on someone new?" A weird sound came from the girl’s lips as she looked at her friend with a pout. “I don’t like Sooyoung anymore.” She muttered, arms crossed with a huff as she doodled on the end page of her best friend’s notebook.

Hyunjin shook her head whilst Jungeun rolled her eyes, not at all surprised by the admission. “Well aside from the fact that she’s dating someone already, what’s the reason your crush was a no go?” Hyejoo questioned while munching on the snack the eldest handed to her. “Sooyoung is nice! She’s just... I don’t know. When she squeals, it’s so high pitched sometimes.”

Her three friends gave her an odd look. “You’re complaining about her having a high pitch?” Hyunjin snorted and Hyejoo scoffed. “Unnie, have you heard your own voice?” Jiwoo pouted even more as the youngest spoke. “You don’t even have to try for us to hear how high your voice can be.”

“Shut up.” Jungeun just rubbed the bridge of her nose before letting out a sigh. “I honestly don’t know with you.” She chuckled before giving her best friend a light pat on the arm. “Well, whatever happens or whoever you set your eyes on, next, try not to criticize them too much.”

“I don’t do that.”

“You do.”

“I thought you were on my side!” Jiwoo whined as Hyunjin shrugged her shoulders and began to collect her things. “I’m on the entertaining side. And right now, that’s against you.” She teased playfully, making the other two laugh while Jiwoo attempted to glare at her, only to fail as she buried her face in her hands and let out a groan.

“We’ll see you later.” Hyejoo told them as both she and Hyunjin exited the classroom, being they were from a younger year. “See you!”

Once their two friends left, Jungeun cleaned up the bits of crumbs on her desk left by Hyejoo before she turned to her best friend, whose shoulders slumped and her expression clearly screamed out what she was exhausted.

“You know, it doesn’t hurt liking someone a certain way.” She suddenly spoke up and Jiwoo rested her chin on her desk, sulking. “I know, but it’s so hard to find just one person who makes everything perfect.” She complains, making her friend crinkle her nose and cross her arms. “People are always going to have flaws, Chuu. You just have to learn to accept them if you really want to be with someone.”

Yet her words only caused a pout to form on the latter’s face as she laid her head on her desk, huffing as the teacher finally arrived and greeted the class, something she would usually be listening to, but due to her sulky mood, she didn’t bother lifting her head.

“It’s a bit late, but I hope you can all be nice to your new classmate. She’s not from Korea so I hope you guys can help her out.” The teacher explained before waving for you to enter.

You stand next to his desk and smile lightly, waving to everyone before bowing deeply. “My name is Y/n L/n, I hope we can get along.” You greet them, Jiwoo’s head raising at the new and unfamiliar voice before she felt her eyes widen when she sees your smiling face.

“You can take the seat next to Jungeun, please raise your hand to show where you are.” Jiwoo’s head snapped to her friend when she raised her hand, offering you a friendly smile as you thanked your teacher before heading over to your assigned seat.

Jungeun didn’t even seem to bother checking on her friend when she happily greeted you. “You’re really pretty!” The compliment made a rosy hue appear on your cheeks before you giggled, a sound Jiwoo found herself wanting to hear again.

“Thank you! You’re really pretty, too.”

To see you naturally talking with her best friend left Jiwoo in awe that she ended up paying attention to you rather than the lecture. The entire time, she couldn’t help but steal glances whenever you leaned over to Jungeun and asked her for help when you didn’t understand something.

“Do you need any help getting around?” Jungeun asked when the class was over and you look up at your friendly seatmate before nodding your head. “The school isn’t exactly that big, but being new makes it really hard.” You laughed and Jiwoo couldn’t help but mentally coo at how cute your accent sounded as you spoke in her native tongue.

“You’re Korean is really good!” Was the first thing that came out of the brunette’s mouth and you seemed startled by her sudden intrusion in your conversation, though she’s pleasantly greeted by a bright blush adorning your cheeks due to her compliment.

Jungeun glanced at her friend and quickly realized that she wasn’t alone. “Right, Y/n this is Jiwoo, or Chuu if you’d like.” She introduces and the girl waves happily at you. “Though she’s right. Your pronunciation is really good, where did you study Korean?” Your newfound friend asked curiously and you giggle while hoisting your bag on your shoulders.

Jiwoo takes notice as you blow a few strands of rebelling hair away from your face before feeling her heart skip a beat. “I’ve been studying online. When my dad said we might move, I decided to plan ahead, just in case.” You reply and Jungeun nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense.”

“What’s your next class? So we can help you out on the way there.” Jiwoo speaks again and you giggle at the cute little hop she does, accompanied with a bright smile painted on her features.

It suited her.

Pulling out your notebook, you open the page with your schedule printed on it before showing them. “I have Math for my next class.” You inform them and Junguen grins before patting her best friend on the back. “Looks like you have someone who can keep you company.” Jiwoo blinked a few times, taking your timetable into her own hands to confirm what her friend was saying before her entire face lit up.

“I can show you to our next class and you can sit next to me!” She cheered, latching on to your arm and surprising you by the sudden action, but you laughed nonetheless, enjoying her enthusiasm and excitement as you nodded your head.

And something about the whole thing just made Jiwoo’s heart melt right then and there before she’s tugging at your arm to head to the next class.

Instantly, her best friend could tell by the look on her face just what it was that was running through Jiwoo’s mind, but she could only sigh, shaking her head as she waved her hand. “I’ll see you at lunch. Jiwoo, try not to scare her.”

The statement earned a pout from the said girl and a laugh from you as you both finally walked away, Jiwoo still having yet to release your arm and Jungeun merely sighed as she walked to the other direction. 

“Here we go again.”

..

“Jungeun! Jungeun!” Said girl turned her head in time to see her best friend running over, bouncing on the balls of her feet before she took the seat next to the blonde and squealing with her body visibly shaking.

“What do you-”

“Y/n is amazing!” The bubbly girl didn’t seem to hear her friend as the words came spilling from her mouth at an unbelievable speed that Jungeun had to cover her mouth. “Jiwoo, breathe and talk slower.”

Following her friend’s instructions as best as she could with her excitement, Jiwoo began to recount everything you did during class, which wasn’t exactly much but she found it all too endearing anyway. “We don’t get to sit next to each other, but she sits in front of me.” She explained as Hyunjin and Hyejoo joined them.The pair looked questioningly at the blonde, and she merely shook her head as the other continued with her little ramble. “You said that people have flaws, but she doesn’t! Everything she does is so perfect and even when she mispronounces a word, it’s still the best thing ever because she’s so cute and her little accent sometimes slips.”

The three listen to the girl’s rant and Hyejoo looked more confused before she finally asked. “Who are you talking about this time?” And Jiwoo replies without missing a beat. “Y/n! She’s a transfer student, and she sits next to Jungeun for our first class.”

The name seemed to cause Hyunjin’s ears to perk up before she’s cocking her head. “You mean that Y/n?” She points to the table at the other side of the cafeteria and when everyone looks over, you’re seated next to one of their seniors, Ha Sooyoung in the table with you along with another blonde that Jungeun recognizes as her childhood friend, Jung Jinsoul.

“Heejin mentioned something about her being Vivi unnie’s cousin or something.” Hyunjin informs the group and Jiwoo’s eyes were locked on your figure as you happily conversed with the people who surrounded you. She saw as your supposed cousin gave you a small push after making a comment that had caused Sooyoung’s cheeks to burn and Jinsoul to burst out laughing before she then proceeded to tease her classmate.

Jungeun looked to Hyunjin, a curious look in her eyes. “Since when did you have the guts to talk to Heejin?” She snorted, making the latter glare at her before crossing her arms. “We’re classmates. We talk.” She retorts, though there’s a noticeable blush on her cheeks that she tries to hide by ducking her head, but the youngest at the table was already scoffing.

“I bet it was Heejin unnie who talked to you, first.” Hyunjin grunted before she shoved the younger girl. “So? At least we talked. What about you and Yerim?”

“I’ll have you know that Yerim and I are completely fine and that we’re going out this Friday.”

“You better take care of her, Hyejoo. I don’t want to have to kick you out of this table.”

As the three’s conversation went on, Jiwoo had drowned them out, a small frown on her lips as she continued to watch you from afar. There was a small sting in her chest that made her uncomfortable as you continued to make yourself comfortable with other people, more so when Haseul and Yeojin joined your table and you were then washed with affection by the older girls.

Her usual smiling face had been replaced by a concerned frown before her friends decided to snap her out of it.

“Jiwoo, it’s nothing to be worried about. You know that Vivi unnie has Sooyoung, and Jinsoul unnie and Haseul unnie are naturally affectionate people, so that’s normal.” Yet it didn’t ease the girl as much as she had hoped. “Hold on, let me call someone over.”

All three watched as Hyunjin stood from the table and walked to another group, one that consisted of the mentioned Heejin, along with another blonde. Both seemed confused by her appearance, yet were compliant as they followed Hyunjin to the table she previously sat at.

“Uh...?”

Heejin flashed the group a smile and Hyejoo awkwardly looked away from the shorter blonde, shooting her friend a glare. “Hyunjin said you guys wanted to ask us something?”Jungeun seemed a bit taken aback and Jiwoo was even more puzzled, knowing that the two were Hyunjin’s classmates. So she didn’t understand how two underclassmen would know about you when you were a year above them.

“Hyunjin mentioned that you know Y/n?” Jiwoo asked and the pair seemed to quickly understand before Heejin was gesturing to the girl beside her. “Chaewon can explain better than I can, but we are acquainted.” She explains and the blonde rubbed the back of her neck. “Y/n unnie is my neighbor, actually. Vivi unnie had some things to do, so she asked me if it was okay for me to help unnie adjust, seeing we lived right next to each other.”

“So they are cousins?”

Chaewon nodded in confirmation. “I was also helping Y/n unnie with her Korean lessons right after showing her around.” She added before waving in Heejin’s direction. “That’s how Heejin met unnie. When I was tutoring her at the café, she came and, yeah.” She says, the others already understanding where the story went.

“Why so curious about her?”

Though unlike her friend, Heejin was already looking at Jiwoo with a knowing smile. “Well, if you want to get to know her better, I suggest talking instead of burning a hole into her head.” She says teasingly, now prompting Jiwoo’s face to heat up as she snapped her gaze away from you and Yeojin again.

“Oh.” Chaewon chuckled before shaking her head. “Well, one thing’s for sure, you don’t have to worry about the others. Vivi unnie’s made it clear that they aren’t allowed to try anything.” That caused everyone at the table to perk up and for Jiwoo’s face to go pale.“Why?” Hyunjin couldn’t help asking and Chaewon shrugged. “Protective unnie mode.” She says simply. 

“Well, good luck to you then, unnie.” That was the first Hyejoo’s spoken since the pair arrived, yet everyone agreed with her sentiments as Jiwoo tried to keep a calm expression.

“If it’s any assurance, Vivi unnie only told her circle of friends that, so if you’d like, I think you’re good.” Heejin pats her back, but it doesn’t shake her nerves away. “Are you crazy?” Junguen asked with wide eyes. “Vivi unnie is scary!” Jiwoo squeaked, visibly panicked, but the three ‘00 liners didn’t seem too bothered with the fact.

“In the end, if Y/n unnie ends up liking you, Vivi unnie can’t stop that even if she wanted to.” Chaewon explained nonchalantly, knowing both of you enough to understand your dynamics with your cousin.

Jiwoo pursed her lips at that, the thought stuck in her head for the majority of the day.

But the cherry on top was when she had spotted you in the music room, along with Sooyoung and Haseul. When she was asked why you were there, knowing you weren’t a member of the music club, Haseul answered for you.

“I know that it isn’t exactly the start of the year and that we aren’t really recruiting, but we thought it would be nice to give our friend a shot, considering she’s new and has no clubs.” The older girl stated while patting your shoulder.

You seemed a little embarrassed with the situation, but really, there was only the four of you in the room since everyone else had gone home due to there not being a scheduled meeting for the day.

“If you guys aren’t recruiting, then I think I can wait until the time you are. Seriously, it’s okay.” You tell them, but Sooyoung was already shushing you. “Come on, just give it a try.”Haseul looked to Jiwoo pleadingly. 

“You’re the head of the team, so we just want you to give her a listen. I swear, we aren’t being biased.”

And so she did listen, unknowingly letting Haseul and Sooyoung leave the room without her noticing right before you began to sing. Although weak at first due to your shyness, your voice had eventually enraptured Jiwoo up until the end of the song.

She told you that she would give it some thought, and she really wishes she didn’t.

Because what Heejin and Chaewon told her didn’t leave her after a day or a week.

Her thoughts were filled with only you for weeks, and she doesn’t know what her poor heart has gotten herself into because every day, you only show her more and more reasons to love you instead of stopping like all the other people she’s claimed to have fallen in love with.

And now, she has no idea what she was supposed to do.

[anakinthetrashking]

the batkids as things I did in school

Dick:

take dance class and be friends with everyone even though there was some weird infighting going on between everyone. forget to do the assignment to make up a dance ourselves, just improv'd it and got a good grade, somehow. had the most fun slipping down the hallways in socks.

halfway through the year asked to have a free period instead of ASL 3, bc the teacher wasn't teaching us anything or even keeping it interesting so I spent the whole afternoon in Physics class instead.

went all out for 80s day during Spirit Week but turns out no one else did. got a lot of weird looks and concerned questions that day. one kid said I looked like a jumpscare. thanks dude.

missed more than half of my statistics classes but was still getting a better grade than the seniors I sat near. 😭

Barbara:

got really angry when the Pre-AP Bio teacher disnt know whether Carbon was 6 or 8 on the Periodic Table. 14yr old me thought that it was extremely important to know as a science teacher. failed the first 6wks, got moved to a regular bio class, was late everyday but the teacher still loved me. found and identified a tumor in the stomach of the pig we dissected in class. Can still sing the entire DNA song(to the tune of I Want it That Way) word for word over 10yrs later. Still gets stuck in my head sometimes.

kept getting told off in sewing class bc we weren't supposed to hold the pins in our mouth while sewing bc it's dangerous if we accidentally swallow them but that's what I was used to doing at home.

Jason:

stunned the much older kids in my class playing Hangman by looking up and immediately guessing "Labyrinth" from the few letters that everyone else had guessed (one of them looked up what the hardest word was for the game and that was it. it would have been if I wasn't so obsessed with Phantom of the Opera and the David Bowie Labyrinth movie at that point in time)

read all of the short stories in that years English textbook within the first month of school every year

Cass:

smile at people (esp teachers) so wide that id have to close my eyes, and then immediately dropping the smile. (it gave me a break from eye contact and trying to figure out what expression I "should" have in that moment)

Everytime I joyfully played in the rain during lunch and then froze my butt off during afternoon classes in the AC.

also the times I was late for afternoon class bc I was overjoyed at seeing snow.

Tim:

was too overwhelmed to actually do the required amount of weekly reading so I just picked classic books I had already read and picked a random place to put the bookmark and easily answered the teachers questions on what I was "reading"

be a "gifted" student so I was put in the fast track math class but was too anxious to deal with that teacher's incessant yelling at the students so I begged them to put me in a different class. they put me in a regular paced class and told me to just go ahead and do the fast track by myself at my own pace. got distracted and never did the work. switched schools the next year and got put in the next math up and totally regretted it but was in too deep to back out.

dropped out of public school in 11th grade to have a mental breakdown ✌️ eventually finished HS later through online classes and stuff.

Steph:

get hooked on Kpop bc the one friend I had made moved away and now I was stuck with her friends at lunch without much of anything in common so we had to make something.

fell asleep in class bc I was awake all night watching kdramas.

had to do a report on a European country and then got overly attached to the country of Moldova...

Duke:

only got detention twice in all of the years of school. once for being late all the time and once for not turning in my homework on time(the teach didn't want to give me detention but she threatened everyone with it and it was only fair)

Always skipped Pep Rallys and hung out in the Orchestra room instead. also ate lunch in one of the empty practice rooms behind the band hall with friends bc we could :)

got overly excited about black hole radiation and decided to ask my then science teacher about it and was SUPER disappointed when she didn't know anything about it (despite it being a fairly new concept at the time and she only taught middle school non-specific science)

Damian:

got put in theatre class to fill an empty spot on my schedule, enjoyed it IMMENSELY, got assigned "weirdo kid" role by the teacher for the end of year play. really went all out to play up the weirdo role. probably could have just been myself and it would've been enough.

managed to get into a Ceramics class without taking an applicable basic art credit first. the teacher thought it was weird but she didn't kick me out!

all three times I was asked out I turned them down brutally because I didn't really understand social convention. whoops. sorry dudes.

accidentally offended someone when I said that Art 1 was easy :/ (I think they thought I was saying art in general was easy, which. no. I was taking Art 1 as an online class and it was all the basic stuff about art I had learned from my older sis over the years)

[noyasboxdye]

Waiting- Tanaka Ryunosuke

Notes:  I can't really say to much with out telling the story so just have fun reading.

Pairing: Tanaka Ryunosuke x Male! Reader

WARNINGS: none it’s fluff

You and Tanaka have been best friends since you were in about second grade. He's always been there for you didn't matter what the situation was. He was your life line and you were his. So when you started distancing yourself from him he took it really hard. It's not like you were trying to hurt him you thought it was the best option for him. He was focusing on volleyball and his grades so he could get into his dream school and you were a 'distraction'.

But after two painfully slow and extremely boring weeks he had, had enough. He decided that he was going to find you and talk to you and get you to talk back since  the last time he tried to talk to you, you didn't say anything you only stared at the floor while trying to move around him.

He was over it. Yes he had his friends like Noya, Hinata, and the others but it just wasn't the same. He needs you, you're his best friend the longest you guys have gone with out seeing each other was three and a half days because he went on a family bonding camping trip but even then he still called everyday.

Tanaka was fidgeting around in his seat staring at the clock as if it'll somehow magically move faster. The seconds felt like minutes and the minutes felt like hours. But finally after 50 minutes of listening to his Spanish teacher explain the rules for his assignment the bell finally rang for lunch, he could finally try and talk to you and see why you've been avoiding him. He thought you just needed space but usually that only last like a school day and then you both  FaceTime or text all night after finishing homework.

Quickly standing up putting his books in his next class so he doesn't have to rush getting his things out of his locker he finally makes it down the flights of stairs and speed walks to the doors of the lunch room waiting for you to pass by him.

Finally seeing you be quickly grabs your arm takes you under the stair case and traps you into the corner not giving you a chance to escape. You know you can't but you try anyways.

'jeez dude really don't want to see me that bad'

"Could you move please" you mumble while looking at the floor. "No. " he says while crossing his arms. "What?" you say as you look up. "No, I'm not leaving until you tell me why you're avoiding me !" he says with an annoyingly determined look on his face. "I'm not avoiding you... " you mumble looking back down. "Yes you are dude we literally haven't talked in or out of school in two weeks" he says holding up his fingers showing you the number two. "Well -... I've.. been busy more or less. " you say looking down again. "No you haven't I know your schedule like the back of my hand and you know mines! You're avoiding me so tell me why and no lying!" he says like a parent scolding their kid. He waits for you to reply and you just stand there and don't say anything. You thought maybe if you just waited for the bell to ring everything would be fine like last time. But Tanaka wouldn't let you do that again, he was going to get you to talk one way or another even if that meant following you home and staying there.

"You can't just stand here and not say anything. I'm gonna get you to talk whether you like it or not. " You can tell that he's not going to let you go so you just decide to tell him. "...go- fine..." " Yes " he says doing a little victory dance. "Well...what...?" you say trying to stall because you really didn't want him to know that you liked him and what not, you thought it was embarrassing because not only did you not know how to control yourself around him but he was straight. You felt like an idiot but now's not really the time for sulking with your huge math test coming up. " Why are you avoiding me" he asked getting straight to the point. You knew it was coming but you were still kind of thrown off by it. Slightly rolling your eyes you say "I told you I've been -" he cuts you off, "Busy yeah yeah. Now what's actually going on, are you like mad at me or something what did I do? " he said getting a little sad at the thought of his best friend being mad at him for unknown reasons. "No, not at all I could never be mad at you bubs." you say feeling guilty. "So then what?" he says. He was getting impatient there was only so much time before you both had to go to class and he didn't know if he would get an opportunity to talk to you like this again any time soon. "Uhm- I'm giving you space because you said that you we're trying to get in to that volleyball program for your college application (idk if it's actually called that I just pulled that out of my ass lol) I didn't want to be a distraction." you said regretting telling him the truth. "You're not a distraction (M/N) I don't know why you thought that." he said getting closer. "Well didn't you bomb your test because of me..." you said like it was obvious. "What-... no. I bombed my test because I didn't study and I ended up falling asleep, but that was because I was binge watching assassination classroom with Noya. We gave up on studying so I wasn't prepared either way.  

You were relieved. I mean you still were going to  avoid him because you're like head over heals for this boy but still at least you know that him failing wasn't your fault.  Well now we have to think of another excuse instead of you liking him, maybe you'll try out for a sport. Maybe swim that seemed like a good sport ran from 3:40- 6:00 then your schedule would be full and then Tanaka would leave you alone.

"So can we hang out today? You don't have anything to do." he says with a hopeful glint in his eye. You couldn't say no not while he was looking at you like that and you just cleared things up... kind of. "Yeah sure! Where do you want to go the movies maybe? I don't have any homework today." you say while thinking about how much you missed him. "Yeah sure and we can get food after!" Tanaka says jumping a little while you giggled at his movements. "Ok meet me outside after school we can drop off our bookbags at my house and then we'll go." he says while smiling with the faintest blush on his cheeks. "Ok see you after science.

••time skip>••

The school day was over and you were at your locker grabbing the things that you need to take home. You grabbed your things and walked out to the front of the school to meet up with Tanaka. You really didn't know how you were going to make it through this afternoon and probably evening with him. "(M/N)" you turned your head towards Tanaka and smiled. He really did make you happy. You hated that you couldn't be around him with out blushing, getting flustered, or over thinking. He was perfect. He really could do everything and flawlessly.

"Hey Tanaka!" you say while running up to him. "So where do you want to go? Still want to do the movies?" he asks looking at you. "Yeah sure I'm up up for the movies. You want to eat before or after?" you ask. "Uhm-... I don't really care we can do what you want to." he says rubbing the back of his neck. "Ok maybe we can eat before and then watch the movie. What do you want to watch?" you say kind of unsure about yourself. "Maybe we can go see (F/M)?" he asks while you guys turn down his street. "Oh yeah sure."

It had felt like so long since you both hung out. It was refreshing being with him again he was like a breath of fresh air for you after stressing about homework, grades, projects, and things like that- basically school as a whole- he was like reminder that everything was going to be ok and that its fine to take breaks (you tend to over work yourself). It was one of the reasons you liked him.

"Come on!" he says as he turns on to his lawn. You hum in acknowledgement as you follow him. "You can put your stuff in my room. Do you want or need anything before we go?" he asks opening his door and walking towards his closet. "No, thanks though."  you say putting your bag down next to his bed. "Ok well I'm gonna change my shirt and grab a jacket." he says taking his shirt off and you blushing like a mad man. "Take one of my hoodies if you want I know how easily you get cold and how cold it can get in the movie theatres." he says looking for a new shirt. "Oh ok thanks dude." you say walking towards his closet and going through it finding one that you liked. "He should we pack a bag? Like with blankets and our own snacks and stuff." he says putting on his signature cologne and grabbing his jacket. "Yeah I think we should. I don't want to pay 20 dollars for 3 boxes of candy when I can get them for four at dollar tree." you say while finally finding a hoodie that you liked and putting it on.

You were going insane while packing the bag. every time you moved his hoodie scent made its way into your nose, you absolutely loved it. The nice smooth vanilla scent with hints of honey and mint it was paradise for you. You were seconds away from loosing it and squealing. I mean like you wouldn't because you would probably never be able to look at him again but still you get the point. He dumped a whole bunch of candy on the bed and said "there now we don't need to buy candy" while looking proud of himself. "Holy crap dude where'd you get this?!" his mom never let him eat a lot of candy so him having this much surprised you. "Secret stash. I've been saving it and buy it then not eating it. Specifically for occasions like this so I don't have to spend as much money.

You put the candy at the bottom of the bag then blankets, your chargers, and water bottles for the both of you. He walks up to the door and sticks his head out of it "SAEKO!!" you flinched slightly being caught off guard. "WHAT" you didn't even know she was home. "TAKE ME AND (M/N) TO THE MOVIES" he says sticking his head back in the room. "Are we sure that's the safest option?" you say feeling unsure about being in the same car as her while it's on and she's in the drivers seat. "I mean no it's not but like it'll be fine and plus would you really rather walk almost twenty minutes with this bag than let her drive us?" he says while zipping up the bag and and putting it on his arm. "Yes. Yes I would rather walk than be in a car with her driving have you seen her drive?" you say while laughing a bit. "Um no slandering my driving its immaculate." she says walking in. "Shawty bae... now you know that that's a damn lie." you say holding in laughter. "Well I think her driving is fine" Tanaka says grabbing you and Saeko's hand and walking out of his room into the kitchen to fill up the water bottle's.

Time skip

After telling Saeko thank for taking you too to the mall you both get out of the car and go inside. You still had time before the movie and were both really hungry you went to (F/R) waited for the waiters to take you to your seat. "So what are you gonna get?" Tanaka says finally breaking the silence. "Oh um I don't know maybe (F/F) still trying to decide." you say looking up at him from your phone putting it away from texting your (P/F) that you might bee home later than usual since it was already starting to get a little dark out. "Hello, I can take you to your table now" the waiter says as Tanaka goes to stand next to you an grab your hand. "Ok thank you." you say blush at the contact, it seemed like he was blushing but you brushed it off as the lighting of the restaurants lighting. You sit in your seat and say a quick thank you to the waiter as he handed you your menu. "Hi my name is Mafuyu and I'll be your waiter today, can I start you off with some drinks or do you need a minute?" the waiter says smiling and pulling out his notepad. "You can go first." Tanaka says putting his menu down with a small smile and a hint of blush on his cheeks.

Tanaka's POV

I'm going to confess to them tonight. I was suppose to a while back but I chickened out and then they started avoiding me so that made it harder, but I'm for sure going to do it tonight no matter what. I told Noya so he knows, he said that if they  rejected me that he had ice cream, candy, and Attack on Titan ready for me to come over all I had to do was be there.

I think they like me back I could be wrong though they don't really talk about there emotions and stuff. But I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at reading them. They said yes to hanging out which I thought they were going to say no to but didn't which is good so phase one of the plan is complete. Next phase is to make them get that happy glow that they get when they're really happy and comfortable around someone. I really like when that happens they're like-...ok you know those super cute, calming and aesthetic cottage core videos on tiktok where they like wear the pretty dresses and the elf ears and are really pretty and they make you feel fuzzy and warm on the inside? Yeah that's what they're like but better.

The waiter guy is flirting with them you can tell. (M/N) probably just doesn't care or isn't thinking of it in that way. "-naka, Tanaka! Jeez dude you were like super zoned out, anyways what do you want to drink?" (M/N) says while giggling. "Oh sorry a  loganberry will be fine." I'm literally so freaking embarrassed right now what the fuck.

"Would you like bread while you wait?" Mafuyu says looking up from his notepad. "Do you want bread" (M/N) asks looking down from the waiter to me. "Yeah we can get bread I don't really care" I say as I shrug my shoulders. "Ok then yea we'll get bread." (M/N) smiles at the waiter as he says that, god they're so pretty what the fuck. "Alrighty~... I'm gonna go get your drinks and bread and I'll be right back. "Ok thank you." (M/N) says going to look back at me. I look up from the table and see them blushing. I wonder if they think that Mafuyu guy is cute, maybe I mean he wasn't ugly he was pretty good looking and it did seem like he had a bit of muscle not a lot but enough to be able to throw a good punch. I notice (M/N) look up at me and "Thank you..." he said. What. "Why're you saying thank you" this really wasn't making sense I didn't even do anything for them to say thanks... well not that I know of. "For following me around and not letting me avoid you. I appreciate it, didn't know how much I missed you." I'm going to combust. Holy shat! They- He- I- HFRNJRSBRB!!! I probably look like a fire hydrant right now. "Oh- um you're welcome! It no big deal really I just missed you and didn't know what was going on hahah." I sound so awkward oh my god I'm embarrassing myself. Ok Noya said be fresh cut swag.

"Here are your drinks, bread, and butter. Are you ready to order or do you need a minute?" the waiters back I really don't like him. He keeps flirting with (M/N) and I mean like its not like (M/N) knows, and they would probably say no if he just asked like randomly and (M/N) isn't like prepared or anything or like doesn't know he's flirting with him. "-and what would you like to order sir?" I look up at the waiter, I mean if (M/N) did date him I could see why he's pretty cute and seems nice but that's also his job as a waiter so- "can I get a bacon cheese burger with a side of fries, Please." I smile at him as he writes my order down. "Is there anything else you'd like" Mafuyu asks looking in-between the both of us. "Yes, please instead of putting the pickles on the sandwich can you put  them in a little container please.  Oh- and can I get blue cheese with my burger. If it's not to much." I say. "Oh absolutely no problem, is that all?" he says writing in his notepad.

"Is that all?" Mafuyu says looking at (M/N). "No I don't want anything else, thank you though!" (M/N) says smiling and going to take a sip out of his drink. Mafuyu walks away putting his notepad in his pocket. "So what time does the movie start?" (M/N) says going to grab a biscuit and put butter on it. (sorry if you don't eat bread lol) "It starts at 9:30... it's 7:00 now so we should have enough time to walk around a little before the movies if you want." I say while eating my bread. "Ok." its kind of awkward right now... I'm just going to- "I'm washing me and clothes" I say while looking down. "To put a fucking story short I shoved a whole bag a jelly beans up my ass, an' it's 24 hours later an' I ain't find nun yet" He said looking up at me grinning widely. "You think those jelly beans ever come outta her ass?" I say looking back at him. "I don't know but I'm finna try and find out" (M/N) grabs his phone and sits there for like five minutes. "So- I can't find anything on it but I think she did...because she could like shat them out or like go to the doctors... I don't know- anyways...-" he says looking up from his phone.

Mafuyu comes up to the table asks if we want more bread and gives something to (M/N) smiles and walks away. "Oh my fucking god what fuck-... uhm... shit." (M/N) says with a panicked look on his face as he turns to I'm assuming look for Mafuyu. "What- what's wrong?!" I say worried. "Uhm- fuck-... he gave me his number! And I like someone!...What the fuck do I do with this?!" he says whispering a little. " I mean I don't fucking know give it back maybe...? You could always throw it away if you don't want to tell him." I say trying not to think about how I'm basically fuming at the fact that 1.) Mafuyu FUCKING hit on him!! 2.) he likes someone and I'm like 85% sure it's not me ugghhh. "Well obviously I can't do that, that's like mean! I'll just tell him- yeah it'll be fine just- tell him." he says starting to calm down and get blush a little. "Yeah and plus if he's a douche I can always fight him.." I say starting to feel a little better about the situation.

Time skip about 15 minutes

"Hello! Here is your (F/F) and here, is your burger with... the.. sides." he says sticking his tongue out looking determined. "Hey um thank you so much for the meal and stuff, but I'm... not interested so... take your number back." (M/N) says while slightly cringing and flinching when Mafuyu chuckles to himself. " oh my god no- please this is so embarrassing crap. Uhm I wasn't trying to flirt I just wanted to be your friend but didn't know how to ask shit- I should've put context- fuck-... I have a boyfriend.. plus I'm not a home wrecker I wouldn't try to ruin your date with your boyfriend please I feel so stupid. I'm sorry jesus christ I'm dumb." Oh- well it's fine... sorry haheh. And we aren't dating he's straight." (M/N) says smile getting smaller a bit. "Oh I'm so sorry jeez you both just were looking at each other like you were in love and he was holding your hand when you first walked in so I just assumed sorry-...! "Oh no it's fine we get it a lot anyways it's kind of funny to me.

Damn, that shit hurt. Yeah I'm totally going to tell him when the night's over because friend zoning dude really ?

After everything cleared up with Mafuyu we ate our food and left. We were walking around the mall going into different stores and getting things. "You want it?" Tanaka says noticing (M/N) looking at a vinyl by (F/S). "Oh umm yeah, but I don't have the money for it." you say looking down and going to look at different clothes. "Okay." he says going to look for new beanies. After walking around for about 15 minutes you both decided that you were ready to leave and start walking towards the movie theatre. You and Tanaka walked up to the cash register. Putting your things on the counter while the cashier scans your stuff. After the cashier finishes ringing your stuff up and Tanaka put his things down he did a awkward speed walk straight towards the section of vinyl's grabbed the one he was looking for and ran back.

"Sorry just had to grab one more thing." he says putting the vinyl you were telling him about earlier on the counter and pulling out his wallet. "No problem sir" the cashier says continuing to scan his things. Putting the clothes, vinyl's, and other random things in bags Tanaka grabs his bags off of the counter and bids a good day and farewell to the cashier, grabbing your hand and practically skipping out of the store. Getting on the escalader and rummaging in his bag he grabs the vinyl and pushes it towards you. "What?" you say confused on what to do with the 1931 edition of a CD. "Here. Take it. It's yours, you were saying how you wanted it but didn't have the money so... I got it for you. So take it." he says pushing the vinyl further towards you.

"You really shouldn't have. It was honestly no big deal like I would've been fine without it, I would've just bought it another time honestly-." you say rambling a bit. "Hey it's fine! I wanted to so don't worry about it too much." he says rubbing the back of his neck with a faint blush on cheeks. "Oh um ok... thanks then..!" you say looking at the floor while feeling your cheeks warm up. "Yeah it's no problem!" he says as you two step off of the escalator, walking towards the theatre.

While standing in line to get your tickets you say "which vinyl did you get?" Tanaka turns towards you while stepping forward and says "I got Tyler's flower boy and cherry bomb albums" hearing this your eyes light up and you reply with "dude we got to listen to them when you get home oh my god!" Tyler was one of the main reasons you and Tanaka were best friends. Well Tyler and the banana fish manga. (if you don't like tyler the creator then pick another artist this is just a head canon lol)

Flash Back

"Hey do you know where the manga section is?" you  say walking up to the blond haired boy. You were new to the school and  didn't know where anything was. The school was like a maze and everything seemed so far from each other. "Yeah, follow me!" the boy says practically skipping and running on his way there. The library was bigger than you thought it would be, your old schools library was nothing compared to this one. "So you like anime huh..." the tan skin boy says. "Yeah it's really cool." you say looking down the aisles for the yellow book with bold black letters.

"So what you looking for, I might be able to help you find it." he says walking closer next to you. "Oh no it's fine you don't have to!" you shaking your hands in front of you. "No really I want to plus your new your going to need help with stuff anyways!" he says in a semi hyper tone. "Okay well it's called banana fish and it has a yellow cover-" you say before getting cut off. "You sure that you want that book." he says looking at you with wide eyes. "Yeah, I got books 1 through 10 but I can't find the others." you say continuing to scan the shelves. "Well the books are over here... I don't know if they have 11 though it might be being used." he says walking to the next aisle as you follow him looking at all the other books they had. "Ummm yeah. Here!" he says holding books 11 and 12 in his hands shoving them towards you. "Oh thanks!... well I have to start heading to my next class so uhm... bye! Have a nice day!" you say walking towards the lady at the front desk to check out the books that you had been searching for, for what felt like like all of eternity.

"Hey, I can take you to your class if you'd like."  the newly met male says while you both walk out of the library doors together. "Well I mean I wouldn't want you to be late because of me." you say continuing to walk. "Its fine and we're going in the same direction anyways- well I'm assuming." he says both of you turning the corner. "So what class do you have?" the blond hair  male says turning his head towards you.

"Um I have chem." you say looking at your schedule to be sure. "Same! Which teacher?" he says smiling. "Oh I have Mr. McGill." you say hesitantly while checking your schedule once again. "I have him too, I can totally show you if you want." he says perking up a bit. "Yeah sure! Also, what's your name? I never got it." you say stopping in front of the classroom door and resting your hand on the handle. "Oh sorry heheh I'm Tanaka... and you are..." he says nodding his head your way. "I'm (M/N) nice to officially meet you, Tanaka." you say smiling. "Yeah, nice to meet you too."  Tanaka says staring into your eyes.

Real Time

"-(/N)! (M/N)!... you zoned out there for a sec, come on." Tanaka says reaching for your hand and pulling you towards the doors that lead you to the lobby and the usher who's waiting to take peoples tickets. "Sorry, I just got lost in thought you explain as you look for (F/C) as Tanaka tried to decide on which ICEE flavour to get.

Walking up to the counter Tanaka asks "hey which flavour should I get?" replying you say "Well your going to get coca cola and cherry mix anyways so why ask?" "You know-... you're right. And why do I ask...? I do it every time we go to the movies." he says you both waiting for the woman in front of you to finish ordering her stuff. "I honestly don't know. But which should I get?" you say watching the lady leave letting Tanaka order for the both of you. Ordering your own food was never really for you.

After ordering snacks paying for them (obviously) and going to meet the usher so you can watch the movie, you both walk into the theatre noticing that there were very few people in the theatre. "You would think that that there would be more people considering its new." you say whispering to Tanaka while trying to find your seats. "Yeah but maybe we're just early." he says sitting in his seat and getting comfortable. "Dude... the previews are over now people just aren't watching the movie." you say going for the big container of popcorn. "I missed this... like hanging out with you like this." he says smiling at you. You becoming grateful that you both are in the dark at the feeling of your face heating up and a fierce blush going across your cheeks. (sorry if you're dark skin I know people can't really tell when you're blushing.)

The movie started and you were about 30 minutes into it. Getting some more popcorn you and Tanaka both reach in at the same  feeling your hands caress one another. Blushing for what felt like the millionth time you grab the popcorn and shove it in your mouth. Tanaka blushes and mutters a quick sorry. "It's fine." you say grabbing your slushie and taking a sip.

After a while the movie got to the best part and that's when Tanaka decided to be a little bold.

Tanaka's Pov

I'm finally going to make a move. Then hopefully I can have more of a chance with (M/N). Deciding that now would be a good time to act on my idea I grab (M/N)'s hand in one swift movement and intertwining my fingers with theirs rubbing my thumb across the back side of their hand.

They seem a bit- "You okay? Do you want me to let your hand go?" I whispered in a questioning tone worried that they didn't like me holding his hand. "No you're fine. But can I have some of the Twizzlers and sweet tart ropes?" (M/N) whispered. "Yeah here." I state handing him the candy.

I think I might have a pretty good chance with him. But we've always had a touchy relationship so its hard to tell. I really hope that they do though. It would be so fucking embarrassing if I took all his kindness and touchiness the wrong way.

20 Minute Time Skip

Getting our garbage and heading towards the door as the movie plays the credits and closing song. Walking out of the theatre, missing the contact of (M/N)'s soft chubby/slender hands I go to grab (M/N)'s hand. Feeling a chill go up my spine while feeling my face progressively get warmer I ask "You want to spend the night? It's getting late." looking at him. "Yeah it is pretty late I tell my (P/F) that I'm staying the night."

Third Person POV

"They said okay." you say putting your phone in your pocket. "Okay, I texted Saeko and she said she's on her way. She's supposed to be no longer than 15 minutes away." he says checking his phone and going to sit on the bench waiting for the blond haired woman and you following in his footsteps. "Hey so can I talk to you about something..." the usually loud and hyper boy says you barley able to hear him. "Yeah sure what's up?" you say going to face him. "So um I'm Bisexual..." he says neevously playing with his thumbs and avoiding eye contact. "That's so cool dude! I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to tell me!" you say a soft smile on your cheeks.

'Maybe I have more of a chance now... nah prolly not he's fucking whipped for Kiyoko' you think as Tanaka smiles giving you a hug and you doing the same to him. "Thanks dude." he says as his phone notifications goes off and reading the message saying that his older sister is outside waiting for you both. "Hai (M/N)! So how was the date~?" she says a huge smile on her face. "HUH- a date what no- he doesn't like me like that we're friends." you say giggling a bit feeling a slight pain in your chest. You really didn't want to be friends with him but as long as he's in your life you feel s though you'll be fine. "Saeko shut up and take us home." he says rolling his eyes playfully with a small smile as he grabs your hand, once again making you blush.

Arriving home and walking through the door you get a smell of fresh baked cookies. "What's that smell it smell so fucking good oh my god!" you say as you and Tanaka basically sprint into the kitchen. (On a Usain bolt type beat.) "Holy shit they smell so good." Tanaka says mouth watering and going to get  a plate to put some on for you both. "Hey- nuh uh no- these aren't for you! Make your own I still have some cookie dough left use that." Saeko says snatching the plate from Tanaka and putting it back in the cabinet after slapping his hand away from the cookies.

"What you making them for cAoCh uKaI~" Tanaka says in a mocking tone. "As a matter of fact yes I did. I owe him and he told me to make him cookies." she says sticking her head up and crossing her arms. "Bleh! Saeko could you please not flirt with him he's my coach dude I thought we agreed people like that were off limits!" Tanaka says in a whiney type voice practically throwing a temper tantrum.

"Oh shut up it's just cookies and plus I'm the older one here so you can't tell me what to do!" Saeko says sticking her tongue out, Tanaka doing the same. "Come on (M/N) we're going up stairs. She's about to start fawning over him" Tanaka says fake gagging while you giggle making your way up the stairs.

After going up stairs you take a shower remembering you didn't have any clothes. "TANAKA~!" you yell opening the door to the bathroom and wrapping your towel around your body and walking towards his room. "Yeah?!" he says opening he door and peaking out of it. "Do you have any clothes?" you say grabbing your leave in conditioner and combing/picking out your hair. "Yeah just pick something out. Anyways I'm gonna go take a shower." he says grabbing his clothes towel and walking out the door.

Coming back in Tanaka flops on his bed scooting next to you resting his head on your shoulder. "What you watching?" he mumbles snuggling more into you. "Twitch." you say resting your head on his. "Oh. Who's that?" he says looking up at you. "Quackity and Corpse." you said. "Oh they're cool." he says. Silence filling the room.

"Hey can we talk?" Tanaka says sounding a bit to serious for your liking. "Uh yeah sure." you say taking your headphone out and sitting up facing him. "So we've been friends for a while now and we're like super close, obviously, and I really like being around you and spending time with you and stuff..." Tanaka says playing with his fingers and hesitating slightly. "Tanaka what's going on? You okay, you bouta like die or something." you say jokingly trying to lighten to mood.

"Okay wait no- so um-... I kind of like... you... romanitcally-" he says avoiding eye contact. "Huh?" you said thinking you miss heard him. "If you don't like me back that's fine. We can pretend I never said anything, I'll just get over it-" he said before you cut him off with a kiss on the cheek, practically looking like a rose. "Um I like you too." you say smiling at him. "Really" the short haired boy looks up at you practically glowing. "Yeah. You wan to go on a date?" you say gushing hard as ever. "Yes!!- I mean yeah sure..." he says scolding himself for not being cool. "Okay." you say smiling at yourself and going to lay back down trying to calm yourself.

"You want to watch something?" he says laying down next  to you putting his head back to the spot it was at before. "Yeah... what you want to watch?" you say hugging him. "Wait so I found this girl on Youtube and I know you don't really watch content like hers but she cool as hell. Her Youtube name is liyah li." he says grabbing his remote and opening youtube.

After watching the recommended channel you both went down a rabbit hole watching her videos for a while, finally deciding that you wanted to go to sleep you both put on a random show him holding you in his chest kissing you on the nose and falling asleep with a smile on your faces.

[heckyeahponyscans]

Yeloli Watch Party!

Episode 4: Am I a Super Hero?

English translation

Previously, Mary lost her math notebook and her horrible teacher was about to shame her.  We pick up right where we left off, with Mary, tears welling, shuffling towards the front of the class.

Last week I noticed Mary had a jellybean in her backpack and didn’t think much of it other than “oh, nice background detail.” Little did I know that the jellybean . . . was a plot point!

The jellybean glows and . . . turns into Mary’s math notebook!  After a moment Shelly glances over and notices it.  “Isn’t this your notebook, Mary?”  

Mean Teacher says “Next time find it sooner” but accepts the notebook, and Mary returns to her seat, thrilled and relieved.

The next day the teacher hands back the corrected assignments. Only three students got perfect scores: Sean, Shelly, and . . . Mary!

Sidenote: Sean is wearing an electronic earpiece, maybe a hearing aid?

Okay, back to this earth-shattering surprise!  Mary is floored by her perfect score was unsure about several of the answers on this assignment and, as we’ve previously learned, is bad at academics in general.  She gets rare praise from Horrible Teacher Man, which buoys her mood even more.

But when she gets her notebook back, she’s surprised to find some of her answers have been CHANGED.  Who did it?  Is someone helping her?

She puzzles about it for a bit before putting her notebook in her bag--where, unbeknownst to her, it turns into a jellybean again!

After math class is P.E. (physical education), where the class has to run laps.

Mary and the kid behind her, who I feel bad about calling “the fat kid” but they haven’t said his name even once and I have to differentiate him from the other kids SOMEhow, agree to run together, because they’re both slow.  

Let’s call him Peter until we get an official name.

As I’ve mentioned before, the running looks funny / odd.

But anyway, Mary and Peter stumble along the course. After getting lapped by the fastest kid (Bandaid Boy), Peter decides he’s sick of running.  He’s going to hide behind a statue, wait until just before the end of class, and then complete the last lap. The teacher will never notice!

Now personally I think this is a brilliant plan, but Mary disagrees.  Her mother told her winning wasn’t the important thing, the important thing is to try your best.  So while Peter hides, Mary keeps running.

She gets lapped by the rest of the class, including Mean Girl, who of course takes the time to razz Mary. “Are you a turtle? Mary, you're not very pretty, you're not very smart, you're bad at sports, and your family is poor. If I were you, I would be ashamed to leave the house.”

WOW.  Even Gary Oak wasn’t quite this bad.

Mary stops in her tracks to glare after Mean Girl as she pulls ahead.

“Even though I'm not very smart, I always do my best! Sooner or later, I'll be good at something. I am sure!” she thinks.

And back in the classroom, the jellybean glows . . .

And Mary’s plain, worn white shoes turn into rad pink running shoes!

The shoes let her run ridiculously fast, and soon she has not only caught up with the rest of the class, but is neck-in-neck with Bandaid Boy, the athletic kid. Bandaid Boy summons one final effort and comes in first, barely.

Soon he and the rest of the class are congratulating Mary, except Mean Girl who asks if she’s been “taking” something, like she thinks there’s a middle school doping ring going on.  Mary is happy but confused and says she doesn’t know how she ran so fast.  When she looks down, she is wearing her old, scuffed white shoes again.

With the school day at an end, Mary sits down and reflects on the weird events of the day.  “It’s like someone was using magic to help me.”

Now here’s where the episode surprised me.  I thought the evil woman in black had been using magic to spy on Mary and grant her wishes so she could swoop in and tempt her again.  After all, these were wishes her magic gems could grant--making Mary smart and good at sports.

Instead the jellybean floats out of the bag and turns into Loli, who’s like, “It was MEEEE!”

Flashback to Mary saying Loli couldn’t go to school with her and Loli turning herself into a . . . gem? (okay, it wasn’t a jellybean, it was a gem) and sneaking into Mary’s backpack.  She made Mary’s math notebook appear and corrected the answers, then enchanted Mary’s sneakers to make her super fast.

Loli fails to notice Mary looking increasingly betrayed and upset as she says all this and is like “Yeah! I did a great job, right?”

Upset, Mary tells her never to do that again.  Loli is confused.  Didn’t it make Mary happy, getting her wishes granted?

Mary replies that she was happy . . . when she thought she was succeeding through her own efforts, not doll-generated superpowers.  (And if it seems kind of obvious that something was up, well, Mary is canonically kinda dense . . . Shelly was side-eyeing the hell out of the desk after the notebook magically appeared in a pile of papers Mary had already looked through ten times. And meanwhile Mary was just like “I guess I didn’t look hard enough :) :) :)”.)

Loli finally Gets It and agrees to respect Mary’s wishes.  She recounts how the doll shop is full of fairies-turned-lifeless-dolls who can only regain life if a child loves them--essentially hinting that she was trying to impress Mary.

She also reveals that she’d seen Mary before she came to the shop (through magic fairy powers, I guess) and been impressed by her kindness and gentleness.  Loli was the one who caused the magic petals to lead Mary to the doll shop.

With the two seeing eye to eye again, Mary says she wants to keep improving and someday be as good as Shelly.  Shelly is a top student and top athlete, and Mary greatly admires her.

“But for some reason,” Mary says, “she always seems very lonely.”

We cut to Shelly, who is making her way out of the school as all her schoolmates invite each other over to play and make plans.  She’s envious them; they have time to play and socialize, while her after-school routine involves more studying.

The driver is waiting outside, but as Mary walks towards it, Peter--who is hanging with Mean Girl and her lackey--calls out, inviting her to join them for ice cream.

I am FLOORED to learn that Mean Girl hangs out with Peter after school.  (My theory is she either solely torments Mary or else she just likes to have other people around to pick on.)

Shelly is instantly like “OMG, ice cream sounds so good!!”, but the driver is all, “Miss Shelly, don’t forget you have piano lessons, followed by five other extracurriculars”, and she reluctantly declines the invitation.

Mean Girl, being just The Worst, says, “She thinks that because she's pretty, she can look down on us.Am I right or am I right?” and her lackey agrees, noting, “she has her own driver, and is so privileged.  Meanwhile Peter is just like :( .  You’re a nice kid, Peter.

Meanwhile Mary is in the car, watching her happy classmates through the window and feeling depressed.  She asks the driver not to pick her up or bring her to school anymore.

But he’s like, “So you want your parents to FIRE me?”

No, Shelly says, she just wants to socialize with her peers after school.

The driver reminds her that she’s on “a very tight schedule” with her billion extracurriculars, because her parents are clearly That Kind, and says she would never get to them in time without being rushed to and fro in the car.

Shelly acquiesces, resigning herself to a lonely childhood, when suddenly . . . petals!  Petals in the car, despite the closed windows!

Shelly calls to the driver to stop the car and she jumps out.  She’s got to see where the petals are coming from!  And she heads down a familiar, narrow alley . . .  

[unholyobsessions]

Little Miss Perfect

Chapter One

Pairing: Reggie x fem!Reader

Description: According to everyone around you, you’re perfect. When that perfection is threatened by a failing grade, your teacher assigns a once familiar person to tutor you. (1990s fic)

Warnings: cussing

Word Count: 1.7k

Masterlist

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You have a reputation to uphold, have had to do so since you were a child. Your family is old money, traditional and proper in all aspects of life, and there is a certain way you were taught to act.

Always stand up straight. Never let anyone see you fumble. Walk with confidence. Always wear a smile. Dress properly, there’s always someone watching.

Be perfect.

And you are. Captain of the Cheerleading team, Junior Prom Queen, Straight As, loved by anyone and everyone. Guys want to date you and girls want to be you. You’ve never had to work for anything in your life.

Well, that last one is a lie.

Nobody knows what happens behind a closed door. No one knows the countless hours spent sitting on your desk, dozens of textbooks open around you and tears streaming down your face as you try to comprehend even the slightest bit of information. The ridiculously long amount of time spent in your dance studio choreographing and perfecting every cheer routine. The numerous weekends spent inside your bathroom learning how to get the perfect wing to your eyeliner and the perfectly natural shade of blush.

Having to keep up your reputation is hard, but you’ve never known anything else.

The sound of your heels clicking against the tile floor echoes throughout the school, announcing your presence to everyone in the vicinity. When you walk down the hallway, the crowd of people parts and a shimmer of guilt tugs at your heartstrings. You make it to your locker with no faults and a relieved sigh escapes your lips. You subtly tug down your skirt, feeling the hundreds of eyes on you. You fight to keep a natural smile on your face as you turn the combination of your locker. It doesn’t matter that your head is hidden by the locker door, the smile has to stay on or you would never hear the end of it from your parents.

The sound of your name being called snaps you out of your daze and you look up to see your best friend or well, whatever she was.

You grew up with Jane but you never really hung out with her until high school. Your parents are business partners so she made an acceptable presence by your side in the eyes of your parents. You don’t agree, she’s a bitch, but you still hang out with her because you’re told to do so. She’s perfectly perfect just like you, the only difference is that she actually enjoys the little bubble your families keep you in.

You roll your eyes as she immediately launches into a whispered rant about whoever dared look her in the eyes that morning. You grab your science textbook, enjoying the familiar weight that settles in your hands. Gripping the book tightly, you gently close the locker door, a large contrast from your peers, who slam it shut with their arm or shoulder absentmindedly.

You haven’t spoken a single word and Jane seems to either not notice or not care. As soon as you turn to her though, she shuts up. It confuses you a little, sure her parents were new money but that didn’t mean that you were above her. She acts sort of like a minion and you absolutely despise it but you go through with it blindly, as you do with everything.

You start walking to your class nodding your head at Jane, a signal to remind her to smile. She does and you hope yours does not look as forced as hers does.

The day goes by smoothly, lunch having been spent with the cheer squad. The smile is genuine but you only nod along to their conversation and give short replies. It’s not a rare occurrence for you to get quiet every once in a while. And when the bell rings and they all go back to class, you meet Jane by the cafeteria doors. You go your separate ways when you get to her classroom, AP Biology, and you keep walking until you reach yours, AP Calculus.

You sit stiff on the uncomfortable desk, a pencil gripped tightly in your hand. Your teacher starts the class by passing out the tests you took yesterday. You take a deep breath, hoping that the horrible feeling you had after you turned it in was wrong and that you actually did extremely well. After what feels like an eternity she finally gets to your row and sets the test down on your desk.

Your eyes widen at the paper in front of you. This can’t be right. You don’t fail, you can’t. You know math is not your strong suit and you have been struggling the past few lessons (derivatives are hard to understand, okay?) but you never expected to see the bright red F on the corner of the page. The teacher gives you a look and you know exactly what is means. Meet me after class.

At the sound of the bell, everyone rushes to get their stuff together but you take your time, waiting for everyone to exit the classroom before making your way to your teacher’s desk. You stare at the floor, unable to make eye contact with her.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve struggled in my class y/n,” you flinch at the disappointed tone, blinking away the tears welling up in your eyes. The voice of your mom echoes in your head, Don’t show weakness.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper, finally looking up. “It won’t happen again.”

“You said that last time.” When you refuse to answer she sighs. “Look I know what you go through to keep an A in this class but it’s okay to need a little help sometimes.”

This time you do answer. “I don’t need help, I never have. I’ll study more and do better next time.”

“Actually I’ve already recruited a student to help you.” Your eyes widen and your start to shake your head. “He’s one of my best students and he has agreed to tutor you a few times a week.”

“Who?” As if you invoked him by asking, the door opens. You look to your side and your breath hitches when you see who it is.

The Sinclairs are old money, go farther back than your family if you’re correct. Growing up, Reginald and you were thick as thieves. You took the same etiquette classes, had the same music instructor, had to follow the same set of rules. It was comforting, having someone who knew exactly what it’s like to live your life. But the guy standing in front of you is only a shadow of the boy you once knew.

This isn’t Reginald who would come to your parent’s fancy rich people parties, wearing an uncomfortable looking suit. Reginald who drank tea at twelve and never slouched. Reginald who is classically trained in music and would never be caught dead in anything other than black polished oxfords and a crisp button down tucked neatly into a pair of slacks.  

This is Reggie who wears thrifted flannels, leather jackets, torn black jeans and worn out vans. Reggie who was kicked out and disowned for playing bass and joining a rock band. Reggie who owns a fake ID and spends his weekends playing clubs. Reggie who you haven’t spoken to since the summer before high school, when it became dangerous to associate with the likes of him.

But apparently Reggie is just as smart as Reginald and is still a math genius. Maybe shadow is not the correct word. Because Reggie shines brighter than he ever did before.

You gape at him and he looks just as surprised. Most likely not expecting you to be the person he is assigned to tutor.

“Reggie, perfect timing. I assume you know miss l/n,” your teacher breaks the silence.

Not looking away from you, Reggie answers, “Vaguely.”

You gulp and look away from him, opting to stare at the wall.

Sensing the tension the teacher clears her throat. “Well I’ll leave you guys to set up a schedule, I have a meeting to get to.”

Neither of you move as she gathers her stuff and leaves the classroom. The room is filled with an uncomfortable silence as soon as the door shuts leaving you both staring awkwardly at each other.

“You don’t have to tutor me. It’s fine really,” you say, fiddling with the rings around your fingers, a nervous habit you’ve never been able to break.

“Don’t be dumb l/n. It’s no trouble.” The words leave Reggie’s lips effortlessly, not worried about saying the wrong thing, not even thinking before speaking and it’s hard to ignore the small strike of jealousy. “How about we meet Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at three?”

“I can’t Mondays and Wednesdays. I have cheer practice,” You say, confidence making its way back to your voice, his relaxed composure and vaguely familiar presence easing your nerves.

Reggie shrugs. “Miss it.”

“I can’t miss it Reginald, I’m captain.” You deadpan, already tired of this conversation. If it were anyone else, you would have fought to keep a smile on your face, to sound as polite as you possibly could, but being in Reggie’s presence made your walls shake, even if it was just a little bit.

“First off, it’s Reggie. Second those are the only days I can meet.” He sticks his hands in his pockets and leans back against the wall.

“Can we meet at four thirty?” You try to negotiate.

“I have band practice.”

“Miss it.” You don’t know what takes over you causing you to say something like that. You’re not sarcastic, you’re polite. You’re not sassy, you’re proper. Reggie raises his eyebrows and it looks like he’s trying not to laugh. You can practically feel the glare your parents would have given you and it terrifies you, causing you to rush out an apology. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to come off as rude. I’ll move cheer practice to four thirty. We can meet at three.” You stand up straighter and your nails dig into your palms, the slight pain serving as a small punishment for your ludicrous behavior.

The amusement leaves Reggie’s eyes and he nods his head, eyes glancing down at your hands. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought there was worry in his gaze. “Cool. Meet me at the library tomorrow. I would say don’t be late but I know you’re physically incapable of it.”

And just like that, he leaves. You stand there for a minute, shocked, confused, and slightly dazed. Taking a moment to process the interaction you realize, your parents can never find out about this.

This was supposed to go up later but i’m too impatient. Hope you like it and let me know if you want to get tagged on future chapters :))

[eyeofthedrgn]

I have finally decided on a title for this multi chapter Rowcan fic: A Heavy Battle Symphony. Inspired by two Linkin Park songs (Heavy{feat. Kiiara}, Battle Symphony) that seem to fit the bill of the overall tone of the story. Since it deals with such dark topics and mental health, it just works. I wasn't intending for this to be song inspired, but here we are.

Also, I'm bad at summaries, but here we go:

Set in a modern high school AU. Lorcan was forced to live with his Aunt Maeve and boyfriend James Perrington, both of which are abusive. Once they move to Orynth, Lorcan's life is thrown into disarray when he meets Rowan.

Trigger warnings : language, mental abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, violence, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, self harm, self-esteem issues, sexual abuse (only alluded to briefly in future chapters), just a lot of trauma, angst, smut - lots of lovely gay smut

Word count: just over 2k

Chapter 1 - Numb

Lorcan Salvaterre has had a pretty shitty life for only being 17. He's been to so many different schools, he doesn't remember them all. His mother died long ago, he didn't have a father, and he was then forced to live with his despicable Aunt Maeve when he was five. Lorcan didn't remember his mother anymore, all he knew was the cruelty of his aunt and her boyfriend, James Perrington.

Maeve's job required them to move every few months. Which meant his schooling was rather poor and often overlapped from school to school. He was always the loner and easily overlooked, at least until his growth spurt last year that catapulted him to be six and half feet tall.

He'd never had a friend in his life. No one would ever want to be friends with him in the first place. He always had a scowl on his face, wore black, long black hair, head down, his skin was a beautiful deep olive, his eyes dark as onyx. He was rather strange. And since his growth spurt, his hulking frame kept everyone away.

He never smiled, he rarely talked. To anyone. Not that he had much to say. He had no hobbies, no pleasures. All he was allowed to do in this meaningless life were chores, his homework, and lay in his room staring at the ceiling.

The way Lorcan had grown up was brutal. There were beatings for not finishing chores, misbehaving, or most of the time, just existing. He never got three meals a day, on the very rare occasion, he would get a small dinner, but generally, the only meal was usually lunch at school or when they were traveling. Even then, Maeve would order the smallest meal for the boy, gods forbid she had to spend more money on him than necessary or look bad in front of people.

That also meant that if he needed new clothes or something for school, he had to work extra for it. A lot of the time, he felt like a severely more abused Cinderella. His aunt made him do some of the most tedious chores in payment for his necessities.

The chores he could handle, sometimes they were even relaxing. The beatings on the other hand were less than desirable. Especially when most of the abuse wasn't even a result of Lorcan's supposed incompetency. But every beating was recorded in Lorcan's journal and accompanied by self harm.

Lorcan's mental health was far from healthy. He wished he had the courage to slice his wrists deeper, but if he failed to finish the job, he couldn't imagine how Maeve would react and what she would make Perrington do to him. So, he settled for the scars. 

His wrists and forearms were covered in scars. Every shirt he had was long sleeved to cover his coping habit. He didn't want questions or people staring, he hated being pitied. Honestly, he hated pretty much everything.

---

The new apartment Maeve had rented in Orynth was just like the rest of them. Lorcan's room was the smallest and also used for storage. Not that it mattered to Lorcan he only had a few things anyway, but it did mean that either his aunt or her boyfriend would barge in, whenever they wished, to grab something. Since Lorcan realized they were never going to stop and they always removed the lock from his door, he took to changing in the bathroom.

Lorcan was exhausted. He had spent all day moving every single box Maeve and Perrington had into the new apartment, making sure he put the boxes in the correct rooms. And setting up his room to give himself some semblance of privacy with the way he piled the storage boxes. 

A sleeping bag, a duffel bag full of worn and faded clothes in various shades of black, a few well worn books, a journal that he used to record every beating and every cut, and a fraying backpack full of school supplies were all of Lorcan's belongings. He didn't even have a real bed. Or a pillow.

Almost asleep in his sleeping bag, Maeve barges into his room and starts yelling at him.

"Lorcan! Where in the gods' forsaken apartment are my hair products!"

Lorcan had no idea why she needed them at midnight. "They're in your bathroom." Obviously.

"If they were, I wouldn't be here, you useless piece of shit!" She grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up, then shoved him into the hall. He knew better than to fight as he stumbled down the hall, he did his best to keep his face neutral, but fuck, that hurt.

Resisting the urge to rub his poor scalp, he stalked to Maeve's bathroom and opened the box labeled MAEVE'S HAIR PRODUCTS. Lorcan sighed when he was greeted with her towels.

"I already looked there, you little welp," she snarled. "Now find my shit!" She stormed out and slammed the door.

Lorcan hung his head and looked around the room. He just wanted to sleep. It wasn't his fucking fault she mislabeled her fucking boxes. Again. Finding the box labeled MAEVE'S TOWELS, he opened it and sighed with relief as he set eyes on her missing items, and set the box on the counter. He informed Maeve of his discovery before heading back to bed.

---

Five hours later, Lorcan woke up, like clockwork. He released a heavy sigh and rubbed his eyes. Hel, he was tired. Time to start an exhausting day of learning a new school and schedule.

Every morning was the same, up at five, shower, get ready for school, make breakfast that he wasn't allowed to eat. Only the adults were allowed breakfast. He'd get a knee to the gut if he attempted to snatch a strip of bacon or a link of sausage, or even a piece of toast. So, his stomach would growl until he got to eat a pathetic school lunch.

This morning would be slightly different from the rest, though. Maeve would have to take him to school and make sure he was registered. She always acted the caring aunt in public. It disgusted Lorcan. Especially when she would go the extra mile and kiss his cheek.

After Maeve left without a word to Lorcan, he stood in the main hall with his schedule and map in hand. This school was huge. Much bigger than most of the other high schools he had been to. That was to be expected, though. This was Orynth High after all, the biggest high school in the biggest city of Terrasen.

He looked over his schedule. He had no idea how he made it to senior year with all the holes in his education.

Fuck, why was pre-calc first? At least he was good at math.

He looked at the clock at the end of the hall, he still had half an hour before school actually started. Rather than wasting time, he found all of his classrooms in order, twice, and then went to the library to grab the necessary textbooks. 

By the time he left the library, the halls were filling up. Kids all around him were chattering, he was either ignored or kids looked at him with scared eyes and scurried out of his way.

He tugged his hood up and shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket and made his way to first period.

---

Since it was the start of a new semester, most teachers ignored that Lorcan was new to the school. That was fine, he didn't want the attention anyway. But in his last class of the day, creative writing, they had to split into groups for an assignment. Lorcan hated group assignments. He was partnered with the smallest teenager he had ever seen.

"I'm Elide. You're new here aren't you?"

His nod was barely perceptible.

"It's Lorcan, right?" He nodded again. "Where are you from?" Her eyes were filled with pure curiosity. 

He cleared his throat. "Originally from Doranelle, but I don't remember it. My mother died when I was five. My aunt took me in and we move a lot." He blinked and shook his head in confusion at himself for telling a complete stranger something he hadn't told anyone else before.

How did this petite young woman bewitch him to talk more than he had in weeks? Lorcan felt exposed under her gaze. It felt like she could read him like a book. It was unnerving. 

"That sounds rough. I hope you like it here and I hope we can be friends." She finished with a smile.

Lorcan just turned back to the assignment.

The class passed without much other conversation besides about the assignment they had to do together.

Finally, the bell rang signalling the end of the day.

The first day at this school was done and he was exhausted and hungry. Lorcan was so focused on packing up his supplies into his ratty backpack that he didn't realize Elide was talking to him.

"A group of us are going to the park to hang out, wanna join?" He was zipping up his backpack, not hearing a word she said. "Lorcan?"

"Huh?" He looked up, confused. She giggled. His cheeks heated just slightly.

"Do you want to hang out with my friends and I after school?"

Why would he want to do that? Lorcan did remember saying she hoped they could be friends, but he thought she was just being polite. Now, she was trying to follow through.

But there was only one answer.

"No."

---

Elide adjusted her bag on her shoulder as she walked to the park to meet her friends. She could see Lorcan walking on the other side of the street away from her. His hood was up, head down, hands in his hoodie pocket, his posture slightly hunched. She thought he could almost pass for a shadow if his black clothes weren't so faded and worn.

She remembered looking into his eyes during class and seeing deep pools of onyx, they would have been gorgeous, but instead, they were dull, and lifeless. He had been so hard to read. Elide had guessed that he didn't have a good home life and they were poor, by the state of his clothes and backpack. She had seen the scars on his wrist when he reached into his bag for an eraser. It broke her heart. Watching him walk away, she noticed how awkwardly his clothes hung off of him. He was definitely too skinny for his frame.

So lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear one of her friends come up behind and loop his arms through hers. Elide yelped and then realized it was her friend, Rowan Whitethorn. He had silver hair and pine green eyes that were always bright.

"I didn't mean to scare you! I called your name, but you were off in your own little world!"

"Sorry. I was thinking about the new kid that you will probably end up having a crush on." Rowan scoffed, Elide just laughed. 

They walked a bit in silence until Rowan made his confession.

"He is hot! He's in my gym class. Tell me everything, my precious Elide! I want to know!" Rowan was so excitable, it was infectious.

"He's in my creative writing class and we were partnered together. He said he's from Doranelle, his mother died when he was five, and his aunt took him in. And apparently, they move a lot." She also told him about the assumptions she made from her observations.

Rowan soaked up every word.

---

Lorcan was doing homework at the kitchen table when Maeve and Perrington came in with take out. It smelled good, Lorcan's stomach rumbled. Damn it. To his surprise, Maeve set down a small Chinese take out box right in the middle of this textbook. He blinked at it, and then up at his aunt, she looked kind for once. "Thank you." It was barely a whisper, but he knew she heard it because she nodded before walking away.

Sometimes he actually thought she loved him..

After his studies and meager dinner, Lorcan laid in his sleeping bag, using an old hoodie that didn't fit anymore as a pillow, trying to sleep. A sigh left his lips and he rolled over.

He couldn't sleep even though he was exhausted, so he pulled a well worn novel from his duffle bag. It was The Hobbit. Lorcan had read it many times. The spine was broken, pages were dog eared, some of the pages weren't even glued in anymore. But he enjoyed the adventure.

Lorcan was halfway through his book, when his window started lightening with the new day. He groaned and his stomach growled.

++++

Rowan couldn't get that new dark haired boy out of his mind. Lorcan Salvaterre. He had soaked up all the information he could from Elide about his new crush. Concentrating on his homework was so hard.

"Ugh." Rowan ran his hand through his hair and smacked his cheeks a couple of times to get himself to snap out of it. He still had homework to finish.

"Rowan, love, would you like some hot chocolate?" His mom leaned into his room. "You seem distracted today."

His mom, Barb, was the sweetest lady and the best mother one could ask for. They talked about everything. And he swore she had eyes everywhere because she always knew everything. Sometimes, Rowan hated that his mom was so observant.

"Yes, please." He got up from his desk and followed his mom to the kitchen. He enjoyed his cocoa with marshmallows. After taking a few sips, he told his mom about the new kid in school. She just smiled knowingly at him.

"Elide says he moves a lot. But I don't know exactly what 'a lot' means. Also, he's probably not into guys." He quirked his lips to the side. 

"You should probably start with actually talking to the boy."

Rowan whined, "Mom!" She just laughed and kissed the top of his head before retreating to the living room, leaving him with his thoughts and empty cup.

_____

Thanks for reading! I'll probably post the next chapter next Thursday or Friday.

[vanchlo]

Green Eyes

*Thanks so much for reading! c: There are now several parts you can read here:   2    3    4 

I’m so happy to share that I won a fiction writing award for this short story through my college’s art journal! c: 

Blurb Synopsis: You had been subbing for Mr. Styles for the last couple of months, but you’ve yet to meet him. The notes you leave for each other have sparked a friendship, leading you to want more, and you wonder if he does too.

Genre: Teacher Harry, lots of fluff, friendship, and maybe even some romance? ;) 

Warnings: None

Word Count: 5.5k words

Pairing: Harry x Reader

Music Inspo: Green Eyes by Coldplay (click to listen)

*

His shelves were full of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rumi, and Charles Bukowski. His desk was covered in scribbled Post-It notes, Bit-O-Honey wrappers, and empty mugs of tea. 

This is what you noticed the first few times you subbed in his classroom. 

These were the only details you knew about the man whose face you’ve never seen. As you gradually began to substitute for his high school English classes more and more, you learned about him more. This was due to his students, and his personal belongings. 

What he didn’t and didn’t like: all the way from no fringes on a notebook paper, no red pen ever because that was his grading color, no using the word ‘can’t’ in his class, and students can eat all the snacks they want as long as the trash goes in the bin where it belongs. 

The CDs in a stack on the shelf told you which ones he actually listened to because they were the ones that were on top and without dust. 

You learned that the pristine book on his desk was never the one he was reading. No, it was the weathered and used copy beside his mug with dog-eared pages and penciled notes. 

His drawers told you another story with their contents: boxes of teas ranging from peach to vanilla macaron, journals filled to the brim with words, adult coloring books with tv show themes, and books on Van Gogh and Monet hinting at his artsy background. His students slowly warmed up to you, and through them, so did he. 

At this point, you’d only been subbing for Mr. Styles the last five months, racking up around two and a half weeks worth of subbed days. He always left precise and concise lesson plans for you. The books were where he said they’d be. The webpages he mentioned were bookmarked on his desktop. The teacher copy of the textbook and current group book were on his desk. At the beginning, his desk looked like a professional organizer had gotten their hands on it. Slowly, as you came to sub more for him, it grew messier, albeit you kept it tidy during your appearances. As the first few months passed and you became one of the few subs in his room, you started to find notes. They weren’t just any notes. They were more than the straight forward sub notes for the day’s agenda. No, they weren’t that simple. You can still remember the first one you found on a Post-It note - it went like this: 

Y/N, peanut butter on your waffles or syrup? 

It took you by surprise, but nonetheless, you answered his call. Each time, you’d find a contrasting pen color and scrawl your answer underneath his. Then leaving it somewhere he would find it the next day. They were one-liners at the beginning, and always interesting. Walking to his classroom from your car on those mornings, you’d fill with excitement at the anticipation of finding the next one. Sometimes it took you the entire day to find where he had hidden them. 

In the closet. 

In a nook in a drawer. 

Under the chair. 

On the backside of one of his books. 

Hidden in plain sight amongst his current choice of notes and lists. 

They never failed to spark a smile on your lips, whether it was quirky, confused, astounded or humored. 

Guitar or piano?

FRIENDS or The Simpsons?

Vanilla or Chocolate?

Would you rather become a superhero or a wizard?

The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

Slowly, the questions became more personal, and more than just ‘this or that.’ His questions became longer, and so did your answers.  

What was the moment that made you decide to become a teacher?

Is Donny a good student for you, or is he lying to me about that?

What color are your eyes?

What book/film do you believe had the largest impact on you while growing up?

What is the one meal you always order at a restaurant?

Do you have a family?

Should I splurge and buy a new desk chair?

What book should I buy for my classroom you think I need to have? Why?

Why don’t you have a classroom of your own?

When is your birthday?

Star Wars or Lord of the Rings?

They were never a chore for you, or tedious. No, they were fun and you felt as if you saw a little sliver of who he really was with each note. After a while, you started to write and leave your own notes for him to answer. At first, many of them were similar to ones he had left you, because you wanted to hear his responses, too. 

*

The newest one stares back at you, his half-cursive registering in your eyes.

What’s your favorite part about subbing in my classroom? Don’t say the students, that’s what everybody says. 

Giggling to yourself, you reach over to his Pink Floyd mug to pull out a green pen. You take a moment to think of your answer. This time you found the note peeking out from behind the smart whiteboard. The sounds of the end of a school day tickle at your ears as you scribble down your answer. Pressing it to an open square of wood on his desk, you turn back to the royal blue pad of Post-Its. Peeling one off, the green pen hovers over the paper, but you can’t get yourself to write the question you’ve been wanting to know all along. 

He didn’t have a Facebook, or an Instagram. 

The high school doesn’t have a wall of staff pictures like others you’ve subbed at do. 

It’s late winter, so yearbooks are still a ways off. 

For all you know, you could have seen him here before in the halls when you subbed in another classroom. 

Exhaling, you press the pen to the paper before you can convince yourself to stop. Unlike the many times before when your fears got the best of you. 

What do you look like?

With a proud but nervous smile you stick it to the desk, layering the first note on top. It sticks to your lips as you bend down to reach your hand into your bag. The glossy bag greets your hand, and you pull it out to set down beside the note. 

A small bag of Bit-O-Honeys. 

Looking up, your eyes scan the empty classroom. Few footsteps, voices, and lockers slamming trickle in from the halls. You suddenly realize that this is the same view he sees, these are the same sounds he hears, and the same place he sits in every day. Well, when he’s not away on personal days, sick days, on holiday, and at workshops, hence your appearances. The thought knits something together inside of you, making you feel just that bit more closer to him. Something that’s been slowly happening over time since you first stepped foot in his classroom. 

One of the first things that did this was the posters scattered across his walls. A poster from the 2013 remake of The Great Gatsby, The Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover, a cartoon of William Shakespeare, a unifying print of Keith Haring’s art, and several posters of quotes from famous books - To Kill A Mockingbird, the Kite Runner, Of Mice and Men, The Life of Pi, and even The Hunger Games. It delighted you watching him add some of them to the walls since your time here, and you’ve been itching to purchase him one as a gift. You’re unsure of what he would like though, and the fear of failure has held you back from doing so. 

A bleep! catches your attention. Casting your eyes to the dormant desktop screen, you wiggle the mouse. A red circle has appeared on the title of a tab opened to your professional email. Clicking over to it from a YouTube video he had you show the class, you find you have a new message. At the sight of who sent it, your heart skips a beat: harry.styles@isd . . . . . . . 

Hi. I reckon you’re still sitting at my desk this moment, now that’s a funny thought. I wanted to ask you a question while I remembered. I have to go out of town on Friday for a funeral. Believe me, I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to, but these things are a must. I apologize for it being short notice, but I thought I’d ask you if you would like to take it before I posted it to the sub database. Please let me know either way by tonight, so it has a few days to sit on the website to be claimed. Also, I wanted to say thanks for everything you do. My students really love you, and it makes me wonder what I’m missing. Enjoy your night! 

Sincerely,

Harry Styles

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. - WW”

A smile warms your cheeks as you finish reading his words, and the familiar poem that ends every email of his. You quickly type up a response to him, agreeing to take the job on Friday, thanking him for thinking of you. A new email appears in your inbox shortly after from another colleague, which occupies you before you lose yourself in your thoughts again. 

Perhaps your favorite addition in his classroom is the Fender acoustic sitting on a stand in the corner. Of course, you’ve yet to see it move in the last five months. The stories his students have told you in a way have given it legs of its own in your mind. Much like the little notes you’ve been leaving for each other, something you dread ever ending. 

*

It was a Wednesday. You’re convinced that Mrs. Watson’s Pre-Calc class is surely the bane of your existence. You keep cursing yourself for taking sub assignments for math classes. Seeing that you’re terrible at the subject, you vowed you’d never take one of her assignments again, but you have to pay the bills somehow. You found your respite in the cozy staff lounge. Couches lined two of the walls, along with an arrangement of tables on the other side of the room. 

As you walk in, you see that one of the ancient history teachers has nodded off again on the plaid couch. Otherwise, the room is empty, and all to yourself. If that didn’t make you happy before, the assortment of food on the counter definitely does. 

Voices float in through the open door as the plastic lid to the cupcakes opens with a pop! 

“Ah, looks like ya got tha last chocolate one. I was savin’ that one fer me,” a voice comments from behind you. Turning, you find a tall man in his late 20’s walking towards you. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, you can have it,” you volunteer, holding the blue-iced cupcake out for his taking. 

His blush lips curl up with an amused smile. Dimples fall neatly into his cheeks covered with thick stubble. Its deep brown color matches that of the short quiffed curls atop his head. Misty green eyes stare back at you in the middle of his round, but sharp face. “‘m only joking. Go ahead and have it. I already had one earlier. They’re quite good actually, but I dunno ‘bout tha vanilla. Never really cared fer tha flavoir when it comes t’ cake and ice cream,” he comments, passing you to stop at the nearby sink. 

“Yeah, I like to forget vanilla exists half of the time,” you remark, peeling away the paper liner of the cupcake. 

Leaning against the counter, you watch as his ringed hand grabs a red coffee mug from the cabinet. “So do I. ‘s ratha boring, if I do say so meself.”

Nodding to yourself, a silence follows your words. The sweetness of the cupcake is shocking when you take a bite. It makes you wonder how you devoured these sugar bombs as a child. A few beeps and a hum from the microwave echo throughout the room as you check your phone. 

“Y’know, I haven’t seen ya here at tha school befo’. Are ya new dis year or a sub?” he asks, bringing your eyes back to his lean figure. He pulls a yellow square packet from his tight-fitting black slats, a blush button-down tucked into its waist. 

“I started subbing here this year,” you answer before taking another bite of the cupcake. Half of it consists of the sickeningly sweet frosting that makes your teeth ache. 

“Mmmm I see. How d’ya like it so far? Are ya a new teacher, ‘s that why yer subbin’?” 

“Yeah, I went back to school kinda late in the game after doing something else. I figure I’d sub for a little bit for some experience, because what’s another year of waiting by this time?” you comment, observing how he fiddles with his black tie while searching in the refrigerator. 

“Well, congratulations. ‘s a big step t’ go back t’ school fer sumthin’ ya love. ‘s a good profession, I reckon. I’ve been teaching fer 7 years, and here at dis school fer 5. Sumtimes schools even hire subs they’ve had when a position opens, so keep yer eyes open,” he tells you, turning to you with a smile, a yogurt in his hand. 

“Thank you,” you say sincerely, returning the smile. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“Sure thing. I know it helped loads when I was a newbie. ‘ll see ya around, I gotta get back t’ class befo’ me students do first. Have a good one!” 

Walking towards you with the steaming cup of tea in his hands, he pats your arm with his other hand on the way out. Nodding at your ‘thank you’, a small ‘you’re welcome’ falls from his lips before the door closes behind him. Eating the last bite you can muster of the cupcake, you toss its remains in the bin. A thought worms its way into your mind as you sit down at the table. 

Wow, I wonder who that guy was? And is he married, because shit, he was handsome. 

*

The smell of orange essential oil greets you when you stepped foot into his classroom the next time. The state of his desk made you frown, and made you want to scratch the itch to clean it. You resisted it and didn’t, and that thought was taken away when his students began to find their desks. 

Another day of 7 classes came and went. 2 classes of Introduction to Creative Writing. 3 classes of American Literature. 2 classes of World Literature. Amusing YouTube videos broke up the monotony of your day, and those of his students. The lesson notes he left for you had become more concise as the months have passed, and as you learned from each other. The same couldn’t be said for the dish of Bit-O-Honeys on his desk that he’s kept stocked for your appearances. You’re just glad he’s put the bag you left for him to good use. All throughout your day you had been looking for his newest note, but this time it wasn’t in any of his usual spots. After correcting some quizzes from today, you finally found it in the bottom left-hand drawer of his mahogany desk. Stuck to a tall can of Coke, your favorite drink of choice. 

I’m sorry it’s warm, although I’m not sure how you like to drink it. I just find warm soda to be rather nasty. The answer to your question is I have green eyes, brown hair, I’m rather tall, and I like to dress up. Is that good enough for you? Now, what do you look like, love?

Your insides melt at the sight of his answer, but then you groan at the vagueness of it. Off the top of your head, you know there are at least 10 male teachers here at this school with brown hair, maybe more. Maybe even with green eyes, too, and you know that because you’ve seen them in the staff lounge or in the halls. The thought only grows worse when you lose count of  how many teachers there are here at this school. Let’s just say, there’s a lot. Yeah, that sure helps a whole lot. Annoyed, you pluck a pen from the green mug and answer his question with as little detail as possible. Two can play at this game, you think to yourself as you sigh. 

If you could have a jam session with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be?

Sticking the new note where its corner peeks out from under his tabletop calendar, your eyes return to the Coke. It’s undeniable, you feel a little less perturbed at him just at the sight of it. Only a little bit, that is. Sure, you’ve subbed for a countless number of teachers at this school, and more so in this school district. A few of them are even friends or relatives of yours, but you’d never connected with one before like you have with Harry. You just wish more than anything you could find out what he looks like and what he’s really like. Continuing to take his sub jobs doesn’t really help with that. It only drives you crazier wanting to know the other side of this fascinating human being. 

*

There he was, snoring on the couch again, tv remote in hand. The weather channel is playing, surprising you very little. Snickering, you yank open the door to the black refrigerator. After retrieving your striped black and blue lunchbox, you place the container of leftovers in the microwave. A laugh is heard over your shoulder, and when you turn, you find Green Eyes from the other day. 

Tittering as the door closes behind him, he says, “No fail, John ‘s always passed out on dat couch, I swear.”

“I know, it’s every time I’m here. Maybe he should just retire already so he can take his naps at home. Then maybe we could watch something on the tv for once,” you comment, shaking your head. Unpacking your lunch box, you take out a clementine, vanilla yogurt, and silverware. 

“Nah, he loves it too much. I don’t see him leavin’ anytime soon,” he remarks, walking past you to search the shelves of the fridge. “What’re we having’ t’day? Couldn’t find any cupcakes dis time?”

“No, those ones were too sweet anyways. They gave me a stomachache,” you complain with a grimace. The beeeeep! of the microwave interrupts your thoughts. 

“Mmmm, I dunno, I thought they were pretty good.” Rubbing his tummy, he pulls a breathy laugh from your lips. 

Your steaming container of leftovers almost burns your hands, and you dread trying to eat it within the next 10 minutes. Setting up for a lesson in Mr. Harrison’s classroom was a pain, making you wonder why you take any sub jobs besides Harry’s anymore. 

“No free food fer us t’day,” he pouts beside you, closing the fridge door before venturing to the vending machine in the corner. Your eyes drift to his outfit choice today - a white button-down topped with a buttoned vest the shade of ochre, all tucked into brown slacks.

“That’s why you pack a lunch. I thought you’d know the drill by now, since you said you’ve been teaching for a while.”

“I do, but sumtimes I forget. Yer already ahead o’ me with dat part, love,” he who doesn’t have a name answers with a short laugh. Sliding a leather wallet from his pocket, you see him type in a number before you sit down at the table. “Who are ya subbin’ fer t’day then?”

“I’m on the west side in the Science wing for Harrison. Bloody Bio.”

“Ugh, I neva cared fer science. Where were ya a few weeks ago when I last saw ya?” he questions, sliding out a chair across from you. An assortment of vending machine food hits the table with a slap - peanut M&M’s, a nutrigrain bar, and a bag of Sun Chips. 

“Upstairs in Watson’s Maths class. Remind me to never sub for her again, because I can’t understand Pre-Calc for the life of me. I never could in high school so I don’t know why I thought I could know,” you chuckle. A warmth fills your cheeks at the sight of his lips spreading into an amused smile. 

“Yeah, I neva cared fer Maths meself eitha. Numbas neva made a bit o’ sense t’ me, words were always betta,” he explains. You nod along with his words, your mouth occupied with a bite of spaghetti and meatballs. “What subject would ya like t’ teach once tha year’s ova an’ ya go searchin’ fer a job o’ yer own?”

“Um, probably something in English since that’s my focus area. Dabbling in History has been fun, though. I enjoy learning about it myself, and I always have a better time subbing in either of those classes,” you reveal. 

“I see,” he replies, his head going up and down. The crinkling of the granola bar wrapper fills the silence between you before he takes a bite. Crumbs pepper his chin, but he wipes them away from his thin beard. “How often d’ya sub here then?”

“I’d say probably 3 days a week typically, but some weeks are 4. Otherwise, I sometimes sub for a friend or somebody I know over at the middle school.”

“Ah, so yer license is sumthin’ like 8 - 12, ‘s it?” he inquires, picking up the black mug you hadn’t noticed he had. 

“Yeah, I thought that would give me a good range for those grades. With my experience now, I think I’d like to stay at the high school level though,” you continue, twirling you fork around in the noodles covered in tomato sauce. Crossing your legs, the satiny fabric of your black dress pants moves with you. 

“We could always use anotha good teacher here. Ya neva know what’ll happen,” he smiles, standing to his feet with his snacks held in his large hand. Returning his smile, he adds his mug to that hand, patting your back once on his way out. “See ya next time, love. Keep yer head up, it’ll get betta.” 

“Thanks,” you automatically respond with. When you go to say his name, you’re lost for words, because you suddenly remember you’ve never gotten it. Now, he’s already too far away to ask for it. 

Shrugging your shoulders, you stab a meatball with your fork, wondering when the next time will be that you’ll see him again. Because, he sure is nice to look at, and he’s nicer to you than anybody else here. 

*

Stevie Nicks or John Lennon, it’s a tough call. Okay, I’m doing two questions from now on, because you ask such good ones :( Who would you jam with then? Question #2: What was the last concert you went to?

This time, you found the Post-It before the school day even started. It was on the seat of his chair, making you think he wanted you to find it right away. You’re thinking maybe he remembered one of the last times you complained about how hard he had made it. Sometimes you worry about how excited you get to look for these each time you sub in his classroom, but then you remember it’s only once every few weeks. 

That can’t hurt, can it? 

That day the hallways were louder than they usually were after school. You attributed that to the boys’ semifinals basketball game set to be played tonight in the gymnasium. The school’s home team against a nearby rival school. Students couldn’t stop talking about it all day, and many of them shared they’d be sticking around after school to attend. Checking your watch, you note that you should have enough time to stop at home to eat dinner before coming back for it. Even though you hadn’t even known about it before today. 

The Sufjan Stevens song floating from his desktop fills the room as you get out books for tomorrow. Your hands are full with copies of The Kite Runner, making you feel grateful again to Harry- Mr. Styles for picking a decent classic for the class to read. Although you’d only read it a few years ago yourself, and it broke your heart, you’re excited to sub next time to help his World Lit class with it. 

“Oh hey, be careful there, yer gonna slip and fall with all o’ those,” somebody says from behind you, distracting you from your mission of bringing the pile of books from the closet to a desk. 

Don’t I know that voice? Turning your eyes to the doorway, you find Green Eyes walk in with a coat slung over his arm. Wait a second. 

“I-I’m fine,” you stutter, but your actions that follow negate your words. Your eyes run over his familiar features, and slowly the puzzle pieces start to click in your head. Harry? A thought bomb explodes in your head, and the books tumble from your arms. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Yer okay,” he murmurs, stopping in front of you. Kneeling down, you both begin to pick up the books, stacking them on top of each other. “Thanks for gettin’ me set up fer t’morrow though. I appreciate it.” 

“Mmmhmm,” is all you can say, because any words that want to come out can’t get past the lump in your throat. One that’s there because of the realization you just had.

Green Eyes and Harry are the same person. 

How did I not figure this out sooner? 

“So, ya must be Y/N, huh?” he giggles, his head bent down as he helps you pick up the books. 

“Y-Yeah, surprise,” you admit, and your laugh soon joins his. Before you know it, the both of you can’t stop laughing. 

“Here,” you hear him say. Looking up, you find him standing in front of you holding his hand out for you to take. A cozy looking maroon sweater covers his upper half, and blue jeans don the rest. “Fancy meetin’ you here,” he jokes in between laughs. 

“You’re right about that,” you answer, taking his hand. He helps you to your feet where you smooth down the violet skirt of your dress. “I can’t believe I didn’t connect the dots.”

“Yer not tha only one, love,” Harry comments, bending over to grab a stack of books. He begins to set one on each desk as he walks down the aisles of them. “But I s’pose there wasn’t any way t’ know.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t find you on Facebook,” you confess, cursing yourself for the slip up a few seconds later. Lifting your head from the book you just set on a desk, you find his amused eyes on you across the room. 

“Ah, so ya were stalkin’ me, were ya?” he smirks, his delightful laugh following his words. 

“No, I wasn’t! You’re just one of the only colleagues I’ve subbed for who I’ve never met, or like don’t know what they look like.”

Your small stack soon disappears and when you return to the pile at the back of the room, he does too. 

“So, what d’ya think? Are ya disappointed then?”

“No,” you say automatically, lifting your eyes to his green ones that land on you. His cheeks lined with a thick, neat beard crease with dimples as he smiles at you. 

“Neither am I . . . .  Ms. Vance Joy fan,” he returns, holding your gaze. The sincerity in his words gets under your skin, going straight to your heart. The sarcastic joke inside of them makes you giggle. 

Clearing your throat, you look away with what you’re sure are blushing cheeks. Most likely, an entire blushing face. “What are you doing here, anyways, if you were gone for the day?”

“I can’t miss me boys’ big game, a few o’ me students are on tha team. I thought I’d catch up on sum emails and grading befo’hand, but didn’t know ya’d still be here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just leaving, anyways,” you mutter, your movements stilling. 

“I didn’t mean it dat way, love. ‘m glad we finally met, it was about time, anyways,” Harry insists, and you nod before continuing to place a book at each desk. “Hey wait, you said you were short and all plain in yer note. No, yer not, ya fibber.”

“Oh like your description was any more accurate,” you scoff lightheartedly, setting down a book before grabbing another from your dwindling stack. 

His rich laugh meets your ears, and you can’t resist looking over to him. “Ya didn’t give yerself enough credit, ya know,” he almost coos, and you swear your heart melted into a puddle right then and there. That’s if it hadn’t done so already when you realized he’s Green Eyes. Swoon. 

It’s hard to hold back the excitement curling at the edge of your lips. Soon, you run out of books again and when you take a peek at him, so has he. 

“Were ya gonna go?” he questions, and you deal him one when you look at him confused. “T’ tha game, I mean.”

Your body feels like jello, and that any move you make would be sloppy. Embarrassing. That’s the last thing you want to look like in front of him. With his dazzling smile, adorably dimpled cheeks, and the cozy vibes he’s giving off. Not to mention, the clean citrus scent wafting off of him. A smell you certainly would be okay with smelling for hours on end. If only. 

“Well bloody Rob around tha corner bailed on me, so I have an extra ticket now. Would ya like t’ join me? I was thinkin’ o’ grabbin’ a sub from ‘round tha corner befo’. Concession food ‘s always too expensive, and never worth tha lines at halftime,” Harry suggests, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. One corner of his mouth climbs up his cheek, making you feel like maybe you’re not alone in these jumbled feelings. Or in the fun you’ve had carrying on this blind relationship with him. 

“Yeah, that sounds like fun. Maybe we could get to know each other a little better than the few words Post-It notes can hold.”

Slowly, the other corner of his lips curls upwards, making the dimple fall into his cheek once again. Nodding, his lips split into a full-fledged smile, singing with a chuckle. “I’d really like that,” he reveals before venturing to the door and shutting off the light. Extending an arm, he waves a hand towards himself.

“Hold on, let me get my things.”

“No rush. ’s not like ‘ve waited seven months fer dis or anythin’,” he quips. By now, you’re certain your face resembles a tomato. You hope that in the muted light, perhaps he won’t notice. 

Hurriedly, you slip on your light coat and drape your bag over your shoulder. Your eyes catch something as you’re tucking your phone in your pocket. Grabbing one last thing, you turn to find him watching you from the lit doorway. 

“What?” he wonders aloud, still with that smile etched onto his face. One you’re fairly sure you could get used to seeing. 

“Here,” you tell him, placing the Post-It note in his palm. His fingers dotted with dark hairs brush against you, just for a second longer than need be. 

“Ah, can’t forget dis now. Important stuff here.”

“Indeed,” you note, stifling a laugh as the sarcasm floats in the air. 

You observe his eyes flit across the paper holding your cursive as your steps echo down the empty hallway. 

“Hmmm, funny. It says ‘would you like to meet up sometime’ on here,” Harry reads, casting his twinkling eyes to you. Green eyes. “I was jus’ ‘bout t’ ask ya tha same thing on me next note. But I had sumthin’ that woulda took tha cake fer sure.”

“What’s that?” you remark, wondering how that could be. Those thoughts fly out the window when you feel his arm come around your shoulder. A squeal sounds inside of your head, but hey, at least that’s far less embarrassing than doing it out loud. 

“I was gonna tell ya dat Tracy across tha hall from me ‘s leavin’ afta dis year, and I may have recommended a certain sumbody t’ tha principal t’ replace her,” Harry hums, a knowing glint dancing in his eyes as they hover over you. “What d’ya say t’ bein’ colleagues instead o’ bein’ me sub?”

“I think I could get used to that,” you answer, letting your smile take over your entire face.

“So could I, love. So could I.” 

[i-is-a-fan-weeb]

life is worth living. i wrote out some more about your mom and responsibilities and all that jazz but i deleted it on accident. fun. but the gist was - you were right to want to continue your homework and not prioritize something else that someone tossed onto you while you were doing something else. and cats. cats are beautifully graceful one second and absolutely the most uncoordinated animals the next. then they walk it off like nothing happened? i could never. anyway hope this helps!

Thank you so much. I really need this. My mom is one of those parents that has high expectations of my grades. She only accepts A's and B's and will only accept a C if I deserve it. The only time she thought i deserved a C was bc my math teacher last year was kind of a karen(she even had a variation of the kaircut). She told me and my brothers the second we got in her car to do our homework. Then she does this and expects me to do this. My algebra teacher gives out homework everyday,and im already failing her class due to some missing assignments(that i turned in today). I canr keep up and im sure my mom-or my dad-doesnt see this.

I literally had a emotional/mental breakdown yesterday bc i didnt undertand the algebra homework my teacher assigned over the weekend. And then yesterday my mom shows me im failing bc the teach sent out an email to all the parents.

Math is not my best subject and neither is my moms,yet she expects above and beyond for both me and my bros. My bros seem to have no problems even though they dont meet my moms expectations. Meanwhile,im getting yelled at bc im the oldest and have mire expectations. I cant relax. I cant be left alone for more than 2 secs. I want peace to myself but now my moms threatening to take my door off AND the hinges with it bc "its my door,its my house,i pay 300$ for just the electric bill" and im like??? Ok??? Thats kinda ur job as an adult tonpay bills?? and i have the right to some privacy???

Really sorry this was so long but smth told me to let it all out,kinda like earlier. Im feelin a bit better now🙂

[aelin-queen-of-terrasen]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞 | 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤

Rowaelin modern AU ▶ Masterlist

note: hi, this is my first multi chaptered fic so constructive criticism is always welcome. quick shout-out to @pansexualharrypotternerd for the invaluable help! Love you! 💖

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The only thing redeemable about a high school with a bunch of brats who had sticks shoved up their asses was recess. Half a day had passed and Aelin was already swarmed with homework, previous assignments still pending and she needed to prepare for the upcoming Maths test by the end of the week. Recess offered a much needed break.

It would go better if Lorcan stopped being such a hard ass though. "Please?" Aelin whined. "I will fail Math if you don't help me."

The bastard snorted. "You will fail Math either way because you refuse to listen to me when I teach." Lorcan was not wrong but Aelin shot him a glare anyway, picking at the miserable stuff they dared call food in this cafeteria. With the amount of fee the school charged, you would think they would serve quality food here but nope. It tasted worse than it looked which was saying something.

The two of them were the only ones at their usual table today. Fenrys had taken a leave because of catching the flu, Connall was sitting with his teammates today and Aedion and Lysandra were a no show, likely making out in some vacant classroom.

Lorcan had finished his lunch already and was waiting for her. Aelin chewed slowly, more like swallowed (the food was disgusting but she was hungry), eyes flitting from one table to another until they landed on a hooded figure sitting alone by the corner, the scowl on his face visible from a distance.

Rowan Whitethorn.

Lorcan followed her gaze to the corner, then said, "Whatever you are thinking, Ace, drop it. He is trouble."

He certainly looked like trouble with wicked looking tattoos covering half his face and his right ear pierced. The hood was pulled over his face, eyes trained on the empty tray of food. She had never seen him have lunch with someone else. Hell, she had never seen him talk with someone else. Most of the school was convinced Rowan communicated in grunts and nods, not words and that he was either a werewolf, a gang leader or included in some very shady business.

Aelin lifted her shoulders in a shrug, then changed the topic. She did not need Lorcan to go all overprotective brother on her. "You are sure you can't help me?"

"And have to spend extra time with you? Gods, no!" He made a dramatic show of throwing his hands up in the air.

Aelin smacked his shoulder, grateful that Fenrys was not here to join in on the teasing today. She pouted, rising from her seat and apparently, done eating. "I hate you, Salvaterre."

He rolled his eyes, walking beside her with his own tray towards the trash bin. "You love me, admit it."

Aelin scoffed, even though she did love him, rude bastard and all. "Not a chance," she said.

She wasn't sure what happened next or how but she slipped on some wrapper, there was a loud scream (likely her own), strong arms stabling her—probably Lorcan—and her tray of half finished food went flying through the air, the contents spilling on someone's clothes and hair.

Aelin froze when she realised who she had spilled her food on. Rowan had a blank look on his face, lips pressed into a thin line. With the notorious reputation he had, Aelin could not have chosen a worse person to pick a fight with. It took her all of one moment to summon that insufferable swagger that drove others mad, chin lifted and shoulders squared back.

She did not need anyone to know how nervous she was. "I am sorry," she said.

"I am sure you are," he drawled, the deep voice heavily accented. The scowl on his face deepened when she looked again, letting her know she had made a remarkable first impression and quite possibly pissed off the one guy she should not have fucked with.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Lorcan step beside her. He said, "She said sorry already, it was an accident."

"And I said I am sure she is," he stressed.

If the situation were different and her heart wasn't pounding so hard inside her chest, Aelin would have taken a moment to appreciate the lovely voice, the rich accents or the muscular build. Being around fitness freaks like Aedion and Lorcan had her used to towering male hunks but god, it suited him. He was a real package.

Too bad manners weren't included in it because he walked away after sending her a scornful glare.

"What an ass," Lorcan grumbled. "Let's leave before you manage to set off another hulking brute." He was still cackling when they parted ways for their next class.

──────✧❅✦❅✧──────

This was ridiculous. English had always been Aelin's favourite class but now she was trying to find reasons to avoid it because she did not want to run into Rowan. He didn't scare her, of course, but she did not feel like subjecting herself to his insults and temper after the day she had had. She tried to convince herself that they had been in the same class for years now. If he had never bothered anyone before, he wouldn't start now but as luck would have it, she reached the classroom five minutes late to find two unoccupied seats - one beside Rowan and the other beside her ex-boyfriend Chaol who was trying his best to look like he didn't know she was staring at him.

With a sigh, Aelin made her way to the back, sitting down beside Rowan. She turned to him. "I am sorry, you know?"

He had ditched the stained hoodie in favour of a white uniform shirt that outlined his muscles in a flattering way. They were only supposed to wear uniforms on a special occasion, founders day or on inspection days but his shirt was especially tight, sticking to the sculpted chest beneath the fabric.

"If I wanted to hear excuses, I'd have asked." Gods, why were all hot guys assholes?

She frowned. "It was an accident!"

"You stumbled on thin air, managed to right yourself but spilled your food on me and ruined my shirt," he retorted.

Her temper snapped at it's leash. Aelin had to grit her teeth to keep herself from barking out an insult. Why would she ruin his clothes on purpose? Before she could ask as much, Gavriel called the attention of the class towards the front. Her Uncle made a point to look at her in warning as if he had knew she had been fighting someone she shouldn't be fighting minutes ago.

She sneaked a glance at Rowan again, whorls of black ink peeking out from beneath the collar of the white shirt. She would be angry too if someone embarrassed her in front of everyone.

In good spirit, she offered, "Why don't I make it up to you by buying coffee?"

He ignored her.

Aelin didn't know if she was being brave or stupid as she poked him. "I could wash your hoodie or buy you a new one! Please, Rowan?"

He ignored her again, eyes trained on the blackboard. She was about to poke him again when Gavriel called from the front, "Miss Galathynius, will you please pay attention instead of chatting Whitethorn up?"

Some of the students snickered when Aelin rolled her eyes, cheeks flushing with colour. Just like him to draw all attention towards her and embarass her in front of her classmates. In his defense, she did claim her revenge every time by refusing to address him as anything other than 'Uncle Kitty-Cat.' She had a sneaking suspicion he liked it.

Minutes later, Gavriel announced, "You will all be partnering up for the next project. It determines twenty five percent of your grade so work hard."

"Are we allowed to choose partners?" Kaltain asked from the front.

Her Uncle answered, "Partner up with the person sitting beside you."

There were a few audible groans and excited whispers before class was dismissed. She would be partnered up with the guy who was intent on ignoring her. She was about to offer to do the whole project by herself (because that was a much better option than working with Rowan when he hated her guts) when Rowan rose from his seat with lightning fast speed and made his way towards the teacher's desk.

She made it in time to hear his request: "I would like to work alone on the project, sir. I won't want to drag Miss Galathynius' grade down with mine." His tone held enough bite that Aelin knew he knew she was listening in.

Gavriel scoffed. "Non sense! Aelin will be more than happy to assist you, Rowan."

She smiled tightly in confirmation before Gavriel left, the class almost vacant now. Students were filtering out of the door but Rowan stood with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"I have cheer practice next but we should meet up after that," Aelin said. "We can go to the diner nearby?"

Rowan only grunted in confirmation, sent her one last scathing look and turned on his heel, walking out of the door with his usual annoyed expression etched onto his face. Aelin sighed. If Rowan refused to even utter a word, it was going to be a real treat working together on this project, her only consolation being that she hadn't been paired with Chaol. Though maybe that would have been a better option.

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Tags :

@thesirenwashere // @judexcardanxgreenbriar //@fangirltrash74 // @the-dark-swan // @julemmaes // @rowaelinforeverworld // @mymultiversee // @queen-of-glass // @strangely-constructed-soul // @mijaldraws // @http-itsrebecca // @aesthetics-11 // @lord-douglas-the-third // @flowersinvegas // @towhateverend17 // @aelinchocolatelover

Let me know if you'd like to be tagged.

[the-jade-cross]

The Art of Falling in Love - Chapter Two

Chapter 2 - Nurse Professor Marshall... uh oh!

Hey all! This is part two of my Cavillry Writing Challenge Story: The Art of Falling In love. Chances are there will be 5-7 chapters of this story;) Enjoy!

Echo jumped when Professor Marshall’s large, firm hand slammed a piece of paper down on her desk. She mentally swore when she dropped her pencil and had to fumble with it in order to not drop it on the ground. She looked at the paper to see that it was the homework assignment they had been sent home with the day before… 60%. Oh crap.

“I am assuming that the past week of formula and equation work has done nothing to improve your math standards,” Marshall growled.

Echo stared at the paper. She was never one to faint over a bad grade and her mother always told her that failing a test or assignment does not make you a failure. However, staring at the bold letters in bright red marker on the sheet of paper, Marshall breathing down over her petite seated form, she definitely felt like a failure.

Maybe it was the lack of lunch again that was making her brain tone out, but she honestly didn’t know what to do. She felt weak in the legs, her head was spinning, and her stomach hurt. On her way to drop Piper off at school, her younger sister had informed her that she had forgotten her lunch, so Echo provided her with her own lunch, feeling that Piper’s young, growing and energetic body needed the nutrition more than she did.

“Come up to the board Miss McKenna,” Marshall snapped, walking to the front of the classroom without even looking back at Echo. “Solve the problem.”

Echo fumbled with her things and closed her notebook and pencil so they wouldn’t role around and fall on the floor before weakly getting to her feet and walking blindly to the front of the room. She stared up at the problem. Oh crap! This was one of the problems she got wrong! Well, apparently either 3.14 is not pi or something else in Echo’s evaluation had gone wrong… that’s it! Narrow it down till she can figure out where she went wrong.

Grabbing a piece of chalk, she lifted it up and began to write when suddenly she realized something felt off…. Why was it so hard to write? Oh…. How did the chalk end up in her left hand? Her brain must really be gone! Apparently, Professor Marshall noticed this as well for he was considering the girl with a confused look glinting in his eyes. Echo quickly switched hands but as she began to write, the 3’s began to look like 8’s and the 4’s like 1’s…. wait… how can a 4 look like a 1?

Echo went to wipe her eyes, thinking that perhaps it would help but the moment her hand made contact with her face, everything went black. All she could remember was the scraping of chairs as several girls leapt to their feet in shock, screams and gasps running through the room and distinctly she heard Alice cry her name. She felt her legs finally give way and she waited for the contact of the hard floor on her back or even worse, possibly the corner of Professor Marshall’s desk on her head… it never happened.

A pair of warm, thick arms wrapped around her legs and the other cradled her head just before it would have made contact with the table. Warmth… it had been so long since Echo had felt this kind of warmth… the warmth of being engulfed in someone’s arms… now she knew why the twins loved it when she rocked them to sleep. This body heat was amazing, washing over her whole being and encasing her in a safe cocoon. Instinctively she leant into the warmth, realizing that the warmth was soft, large and firm but the arms around her body cushioned her and the warmth she pressed her face into was smooth.

Alice let out a breath of air in relief when Professor Marshall rose to his full height, Echo safely wrapped in his arms. No signs of blood so that meant that he caught her just before her body made contact with anything. The girl couldn’t help the smirk that crept its way onto her face at the way instead of just holding her in his arms, Professor Marshall had her held so close to him that her face was nestled in the crook of his neck.

“Class is dismissed,” Professor Marshall said with a surprisingly calm tone with very little venom in his tone.

The girls didn’t waste a second in leaping to their feet and clearing the room but not before Professor Marshall had strode out of the room with Echo in his arms. All the students walking briskly down the hallways stalled to stare at the tall, burly professor as he held the small girl in his arms, making Echo look like a little elementary girl in comparison to his huge stature.

“Walter!” a familiar, bright voice called, and Professor Marshall swore underneath his breath.

Of all days of the week, why did Professor Shaw decide to take a vacation and request Substitute Professor Brandon to come in? This was not the day that Marshall wanted to listen to Brandon rant about all the beautiful female professors (Which was only a minor 13% of the professors in the university). Not only that, Brandon was the only professor who did not seem to understand that Professor Marshall hated people calling him by his first name. Even Walt was better than his full first name.

Marshall knew though that Principle Cavill would be giving him an earful later if he hurt Brandon’s feelings and did not acknowledge the incredibly friendly, social professor. Professor Marshall turned with Echo still secure in his arms and Professor Brandon froze in his swift strides to stare wide eyed at the small girl in Marshall’s arms. Brandon might be a substitute teacher and only on campus when needed but he knew a thing or two about Professor Marshall the Vice (anything but Marshall’s sensitivity about his first name) and one of them was he knew that Marshall never made physical contact with anyone other than a handshake. Not even a hug, pat on the shoulder… nothing.

Now, seeing the huge bear-like professor holding a small female student in his arms so gently like she was a china doll but also securely like a mother bear with her cub, Professor Charles Brandon did not know what to think.

“Hey, isn’t that Solo’s top art student?” Brandon inquired, taking a step closer and tilting his head in an attempt to get a good look at Echo’s face which was partially hidden by her hair.

Marshall let out a growl which came out sounding like a rumble in his chest, holding Echo instinctively closer and shifting just enough so that her long strawberry blond hair flopped over her face more to hide it from the curious, prying eyes of Professor Brandon.

“She fainted. I’m taking her to the nurse’s office.” Marshall replied.

Brandon’s eyes widened, “Well that is bad timing.”

“Why?” Marshall asked, rather irritated that Brandon was taking up more of his time.

“Mrs. Bryant takes off around this time and does not come back until after lunch. This is around the time that the Nurse Aide workers are in.” Brandon stated, knowing that Marshall trusted people very poorly.

Brandon’s words struck a nerve and Marshall’s eyebrows knitted together. He did not want to put any of his students in anyone’s hands but Mrs. Bryant who had been the head nurse at the university for twenty years. All those NA students who were helping were either slacking or didn’t know the difference between a dislocated elbow and a broken bone… to be honest though, Marshall didn’t know the difference either.

Marshall sighed, knowing that Brandon wouldn’t have brought up Bryant’s absence if he didn’t have an ulterior motive. Marshall lifted Echo in his arms to gently move her limp head so that it was buried further into his neck, hiding her face from Brandon who had reached forward to push her hair aside to get a look at her.

“I’ll take care of it,” Marshall assured Brandon. “Don’t you have to drop by the library before your class?”

At once, Brandon stopped trying to sneak a peek at the mysterious fainted girl that Marshall had wrapped in his arms and a huge grin spread across the professor’s face at the prospect of seeing a certain attractive librarian. “I’ll see you later Walter.”

Despite being called his first name, Marshall allowed a miniscule smile to grace his lips as Brandon turned on his heel and practically sprinted like a fangirl down the hallway toward the library. Marshall glanced down at the girl in his arms and sighed. There was nothing else to do…

When Echo’s eyes slowly cracked open, she did not recognize her environment. A clean navy-blue ceiling and on the walls, very few photos or pictures. The walls were lined with books, but Echo noticed that most of them were spirals. Echo slowly went to sit up, only to spy the tall foreboding figure standing with his back to her, a large folder of homework in his hand and his phone tucked between his shoulder and his ear as he spoke.

“I know it is the student’s responsibility to inform us if they are to miss class but there is no avoiding it when the student is unconscious. Solo, Miss McKenna is out cold, and I do not know when she will wake up so unless she wakes up in the next two minutes and is ready to pay attention in your stupid art class then you are just going to have to deal with me breaking the news instead of her.” Marshall growled into the phone before letting out a string of curses under his breath which seemed to force Professor Solo to comply. “Thank you for being so understanding. Bye.”

Echo resisted the urge to chuckle at the sarcasm in Professor Marshall’s tone but found that her throat was dry, and her stomach still hurt from not eating lunch. Professor Marshall turned and lifted his blue eyes to notice that her big brown doe eyes were watching him.

“You’re awake,” he observed, setting down his work to grab something on his desk and walk over to her. “You were out for about fifteen minutes. Care to explain what happened?”

Echo shook her head, “I was just not feeling well… I apologize for causing you trouble.”

Professor Marshall sighed, “You do not usually pass out cold just because you are not feeling well. It had to have been something bad to make you faint in math class.”

‘It actually is not as hard as you think’ Echo thought to herself, ‘Just taking your class is enough to make one’s brains burst!’

“Why are you taking math anyway?” Marshall insisted, crouching next to the couch so as to be eye level with her. “Math is not a requirement for art students.”

“I am not studying art,” Echo replied.

Marshall frowned before standing up and sitting on the couch next to her, “You are not?”

Echo shook her head, “I am studying to be a certified Nurse Aide. Math was the only subject I had not completed for the diploma.”

Echo went to speak when her stomach had to choose that opportune moment to fight against her and growled loudly. Marshall lifted his eyes to hers, looking at her from beneath his long lashes and he smiled just faintly.

“So that’s it.” he said in a low voice.

Echo blushed crimson as Professor Marshall rose to his feet and grabbed something from his desk before returning to her side and holding out a wrapped sandwich.

“Eat,” he commanded.

“Is not this yours?” Echo inquired.

“I always bring extra for certain math students who find it a normal thing to forget their lunches,” Marshall told her.

Echo half expected him to have said it with sarcasm but there was surprising gentleness in his voice. Also… how did he know that this was not the first time she didn’t bring lunch?

The girl decided to obey and unwrapping the sandwich, began to eat it, only to find herself engrossed in the rich sandwich of leafy greens and meat. No mayo or dressings… interesting.

She jumped slightly when an ice-cold cloth came in contact with her head and she was surprised to hear Professor Marshall speak in a worried, gentle tone.

“I am sorry.”

He quickly retracted and finding that the cloth he had heated for her had gone cold, he got to his feet and went about warming the cloth back up. When he returned to her side, he knelt down and placed the now warm cloth over her forehead and Echo let out a sigh of contentment. Marshall froze in his actions and Echo lifted her head, thinking she had done something wrong only to find Professor Marshall staring at her with a surprised expression on his face which was something she had never seen.

After what seemed like forever, Professor Marshall drew away and returned to his work, keeping his back to Echo. When the girl finished eating, she moved the blankets from her lap only to find Professor Marshall standing over her, holding out his hands. Echo slipped her small hands into his much larger ones only to feel her hands being encased by pure warmth as he drew her to her feet.

Echo went to thank him when she realized how close they were standing. Of course, unlike in the movies their faces were not close but at least a foot apart due to their difference in height but Echo felt her eyes glued on his blue icy orbs. Marshall’s head was tipped toward her, letting several stray curls flop over his forehead and Echo was sure her brain was not the only organ of her body bursting at the sight. Echo found her mouth dry again and her lips instinctively parted which seemed to draw Marshall in, his eyes glued on her plump pink lips that were partially moist from her licking them and he swore in his head when she bit down on her bottom lip in nervousness. He quickly released her hands and took a full step back before turning back to his work. Echo snapped out of her other reality into the real reality and walked toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Marshall inquired sternly, his old self back.

“Professor Solo will be disappointed if I do not show up to class,” Echo told him. “Thank you, professor,… I am sorry I caused you trouble.” Professor Marshall went to tell her that she was no trouble, but the girl had exited and closed the door behind her. The moment she was gone, Marshall approached the door and touched it… why did his heart break when she closed the door on him? Sighing, he pressed his forehead to the door. When she had sighed at the touch of the hot cloth on her face, Marshall had felt his face heat up and his heart had pounded in his chest faster than it ever had before. He wondered what she sounded like if she was cornered by him like a kitten cornered by a dog. Would she mewl or would she hiss? He groaned and slapped the door with his hand, startling poor Professor Kent who had just been about to knock on Marshall’s office door but upon being startled out of his life by the sound, Kent decided it was best to leave the bear to whatever agony he was dealing with.

Marshall turned around and went to sit down at his desk chair when he noticed the pillow and blankets, he had wrapped Echo in, tucking the ends around her like a nest and adjusting the pillow at least four times before he was satisfied that she would not get a neck cramp. Now, the three blankets and pillow were neatly folded and sitting at the end of the sofa in his office.

Sighing, he sunk down on the sofa before picking up one of the blankets and pressing it to his nose. His sharp senses picked up the faint smell of vanilla and nutmeg and he found himself sighing. What was this girl doing to him?

*************

“Legs up ladies!” Coach Sy bellowed, making the earth rumble with his voice.

Professor Marshall had to grip Professor Kent’s shoulder to steady the poor man who had been so engrossed in his homework grading that he was not prepared when the bleachers shook from the coach’s bellow.

“Remind me again how you always convince me to come out here to do evening grading?” Marshall demanded of Professor Kent.

Clark smiled at Marshall and patted him on the shoulder, “Because we are childhood friends Walt, and you know that if I was out here alone, I would end up in the nurse’s office every day.”

“Why pray tell? Because you would pass out from crying so much due to my absence or you would get a football through the face?” Marshall teased sarcastically.

Kent went to reply when a girl’s scream caught their attention immediately. Marshall looked to the field, waiting to see Coach Sy rushing to whichever girl was in trouble… but there was no sign of Syverson. Jumping to his feet, Marshall rushed down to the field and the crowd of girls parted to reveal Coach Sy on the ground, his eyes closed and sweat coating his face.

“He just fell down!” One of the girls cried.

Marshall got to his feet and touched Syverson’s head. It was hot and he was breathing heavily. Grabbing Sy’s warm, he looped it around his neck and lifted the large burly man up with some difficulty before walking toward the building.

“Kent!” he bellowed, shaking the bleachers again. “Get the girls inside. I am taking him to the nurse’s office!” ‘And this time I will not be taking a detour to my office’ he thought to himself.

When Marshall reached the nurse’s office, he was delighted to fight the hallway free of students so he didn’t have to worry about having people throw questions at him but that meant there was no one to open the office door so he attempted to balance Coach Sy with one arm while grabbing the handle but that failed when suddenly the door opened and there stood Echo.

Marshall went to ask her if she was alright, thinking she was there because of another fainting spell, only to catch sight of the navy-blue scrubs she wore, the analog watch in her wrist and her hair pinned back from her face.

“Miss McKenna?” he inquired.

“Coach Sy!” McKenna cried, rushing forward to help Marshall support the burly coach.

Marshall was rather perturbed that Echo did not acknowledge him or answer him but then he remembered his mission when Coach Sy let out a distressed groan as the two laid him down on one of the hospital beds.

“What happened?” Echo asked in a surprisingly calm tone, startling Marshall since she didn’t scream, cry or rush around like any other girl would.

“He just fell down,” Marshall explained as Echo touched Sy’s forehead then lifted his chin back and listened for his breathing.

“It’s heatstroke,” Echo said finally. “He is the fifth today. This heat is hitting everyone really hard. We need to wrap him in ice to cool him down.”

Marshall watched as the girl went to a cabinet and drew out a large human bag. She then turned to Marshall.

“I need your help,” she explained.

Immediately Marshall obeyed and helped her slip Coach Sy into the plastic bag before helping her shovel ice into the pockets of the bag to cool Sy’s body temperature down. When they were done, Echo zipped up the bag and went about attaching an IV drip to coach Sy’s arm to offer him hydration. Marshall watched her constantly as she worked gently and efficiently, always stopping to make sure Sy was comfortable.

When she was done, she took a seat next to the bed where Sy lay and began to administer cool cloths to Sy’s forehead. Marshall never took his eyes off her as she worked steadily. He felt a deep twist in his stomach every time Echo’s hands came in contact with Sy’s forehead. He wanted her so badly to touch him… but why was it that whenever he moved to touch someone he couldn’t? Like he couldn’t cross the bridge? Why was it that whenever he touched her was it always a necessity? Like having to carry her to his office and helping her to her feet? Why couldn’t he bring himself to touch her for no reason at all… just for the sake of touching her?

The reason Marshall could never really directly touch people in general other than a required handshake was because as a child, his mother was single and never held him… never kissed or hugged him… he became cold and whenever he did try to touch someone… they would disappear. He had no assurance that if he touched Echo she would not disappear.

“I did not know that you worked shifts here,” Marshall observed when the two of them fell silent while waiting for Sy to wake.

Echo shrugged, “Luckily the hours I work are not incredibly busy, so I have time to study while I am working.”

Marshall glanced around the room and sure enough, on the nurse’s desk were her math textbooks, notes, spiral and pencils. Marshall suddenly felt a deep pain of guilt, knowing that he hadn’t made it any easier for her by pestering her every day in class.

“Why did you choose to change your major?” Marshall inquired.

“I am not the first student who has changed their major,” Echo observed.

Marshall frowned which made Echo hang her head, embarrassed for talking back.

“I mean, why did you give up your dream major to study nursing?” Marshall insisted.

Echo sighed, “It is not that I do not like nursing… I guess my interests changed.”

Professor Marshall considered the girl steadily. He found her answer very hard to believe. Being friends (By default, not by choice) with all the other professors, Marshall heard about all the prime and favorite students and of course, Professor Solo never failed to rant about his prize student: Miss Echo McKenna. When Marshall learnt that Echo would be in his math class, his first thought was that perhaps she was taking the class because she needed the extra credits but from what Rachel and Solo told him, that was the least of Echo’s worries since she had above required credits every semester.

“But why are you working hours here?” Marshall inquired. “if I remember correctly, your sister was working here. You should be concentrating on your studies.”

Echo had the deep desire to point out that she was concentrating on her studies and that she had no choice but to take Amazon’s shifts but then she remembered that the professor did not know about that and the kindness in his tone indicated that he was just concerned about her… or was he just concerned about her studies? Probably the latter.

“I try professor,” Echo replied in a quiet voice before rising to her feet and going to pour a glass of water.

When she returned, coach Sy had woken up and was blinking around him in confusion.

“You had heat stroke,” Marshall explained. “You are in the nurse’s office.”

Sy nodded but grumbled something about ‘being the worst time to be a sissy and faint’. Marshall smiled softly to himself at Sy’s sarcastic personality. Echo returned and helping Sy sit up, she held the cup of water while he drank. When he finished, Echo touched his forehead to check and smiled.

“You are cooling down. You’ll be ready to go if you stay in the ice for another twenty minutes and then rest for an hour. No outside work for you today,” Echo told him gently.

“You forget Miss McKenna,” Sy grumbled. “it is my job to teach sports.”

“And you forget coach that there is something called an indoor gym,” Echo said, planting her hands on her hips and speaking in a firm, commanding tone. “And as your NA, you have to take your health into consideration.”

Both professor Marshall and coach Sy stared at the girl in shock and Marshall fought the urge to smirk at Echo’s bossy mother tone but then went to scold the girl for speaking rudely to the coach when Sy let out a chuckle.

“Well, I’ll be. Now I know why Bryant wanted you to work here. I’ll work indoors Miss McKenna but only for today,” Sy complied with an amused smile.

Echo smiled and nodded her head, “Fair enough, but if you work outside, be sure to not stay in the bright sun too long and drink plenty of water.”

Coach Sy nodded and leant back to enjoy the cold compress wrapped around his whole body. Marshall stared at the coach in surprise but also felt a jab of annoyance at the smile that Echo had reserved for the stubborn coach.

Just then, the door of the nurse’s office opens and in walks Mrs. Bryant. She takes one look at the coach, professor and Echo before smiling.

“Thank you for taking the shift Echo,” Mrs. Bryant said kindly. “You are free to go now.” Echo smiled before removing her scrubs that topped her jeans and t-shirt before grabbing her backpack and making for the door. “See you tomorrow Mrs. Bryant.”

The girl left but not before smiling and waving to Sy and Marshall, closing the door behind her.

“That girl should not be wasting her life working,” Coach Sy observed. “She has the makings of a mother.”

Marshall smiled but his eyes glared at Sy warningly even though Sy wasn’t even looking his way. Mrs. Bryant chuckled. “I whole heartedly agree but it seems she already has that taken care of.”

Marshall snapped his head in her direction, his heart plummeting, “She is dating?”

Mrs. Bryant shook her head, “Echo has never dated a day in her life. I mean, she was left to raise her younger sister after her parents died and when her sister Amazon gave birth to twins, Echo took up responsibility for the twins when Amazon refused to.”

Coach Sy snorted. “Isn’t Amazon the student that Professor Holmes has been complaining about? Missing all her classes and not even turning half her assignments in?”

Mrs. Bryant nodded, “She has also been skipping work and I called Echo to tell her that Amazon would be fired if she did not attend shifts more regularly, so Echo offered to take Amazon’s place. Honestly, Amazon is spoiled because she has such an innocent, generous sister. She never cares for her own children and the twins are more Echo’s children now than Amazon’s. The girl even drives her little sister to school every day and back home. It is a miracle Echo is not failing her courses.”

Marshall frowned. Maybe that was why it was so hard for Echo to improve in her math. Slowly rising to his feet, he excused himself before stepping out of the nurse’s office. When he was sure there was not a single student or curious professor within earshot, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

It buzzed twice before it was answered, and a bright voice came on. “Hey! Marsh old man! What are you up to? Not bursting any students’ brains are ya? Oh wait… you teach at that all girl’s school, don’t you? Please tell me you haven’t burst any ovaries plus the brains… chances are the girls are too scared of you… so what can I do for you?”

Marshall sighed when his friend finally decided to stop ranting happily. “I need you to look into something for me.”

“Sure thing! Person, place or thing?” the person inquired.

“Person. The name is Amazon McKenna. She is a student at West Bridge University. Early twenties.”

“Okey dokey,” the other voice muttered after a moment. “What exactly do you want me to look into?”

“She has been skipping classes and work and laying all the work on her younger sister. Find out what she is doing. Check her social media, activity, is she into drugs or alcohol, suicidal, anxiety attacks. I want everything that could be a possible answer to her behavior,” Marshall said firmly.

The person on the other side was quiet as he wrote down the information. “Quick question Marsh. Are you curious about the girl because you have a thing for her or is it the younger sister that you have a thing for? Or is this just your detective side shining through?”

“I am a professor. I do not have a detective side,” Marshall huffed.

The other person chuckled. “Sure, sure, whatever. I’ll look into the girl. I will call you if I find anything. Give me a week at the most.”

Marshall nodded, “Thank you. I’ll talk to you later Ethan.”

With that, he hung up.

Tags:

@poledancingdinos

@two-unbeatable-beaters

@oh-for-fic-sake

@geek-eat-repeat​

@littlefreya

@killjoy-assbutt-1112

@lunedelorient

@imneonpanda

[danielcooperrp]

We Two Boys Together Clinging

Halfway through 19th Century American Poetry and Drew has a sensation with which he is all too familiar: eyes boring into the back of head. It doesn't matter how many times he's been gawked at in a restaurant or in the allergy aisle of CVS (hay fever is a bitch), the feeling of the little hairs on the back of his neck standing up never fails to make him want to slink into a hole and die. He tries to ignore it, tries to focus all of his attention on the professor, who is droning on about the difference between various editions of Leaves of Grass, but that only lasts so long. Eventually, he caves, and he turns to look. 

He's not shocked when the dark eyes watching him quickly dart away—people are often abashed when they get caught staring—but it is a surprise when, a few moments later, they return to meet his. The face they belong to is handsome, warm, dark skin, a strong jaw, a slightly crooked nose that suggests some kind of trouble, and—oh. Two rows of perfect white teeth that he sees now because the face is grinning at him, an inviting, dangerous grin, and now Drew's the one looking away, his own cheeks glowing red. His eyes burn holes in his notebook—he hasn't written a word in so long, he'll have to research this edition issue on his own later—and the other guy's eyes burn holes in his skull. 

Why is he looking at him like that? Drew hasn't said a thing all class, not that any of them would be able to get a word in edgewise. His eyes dart down to check his outfit; a little schnerdy, sure, but nothing that stands out in a Harvard classroom. He risks it again; a quick look back, and that smile is still waiting for him, this time a little softer, like he's happy he keeps getting caught. 

By the time class ends, Drew is a sweaty mess. He has no idea what the professor said for the last half of that lecture, but he's not going to stick around to ask. He tosses his notebook and his copy of Whitman into his satchel and slides into the mass exodus from the room. He lets himself be carried toward the building exit by the river of hungry undergrads, hoping that he avoids whatever situation was brewing behind him in class, but the river comes to a screeching halt when everyone notices that it's pouring buckets outside. Those smart enough to plan ahead whip out their umbrellas and leave, and some who don't have any other choice lower their heads and shoulders as though preparing to take a charging bull head on and foray bravely into the downpour. 

Drew doesn't have another class for forty-five minutes, and even though he was planning on getting lunch in the interim, he really doesn't want to get this sweater wet, so he decides to duck into an alcove and wait it out. He pulls out his phone, Googles the information he thinks he missed in class, and is halfway through an Encyclopedia Britannica article when someone clears their throat. He looks up and blinks owlishly. It's the teeth. 

"Hi," the teeth say. "I'm Xander." 

Drew stares. He doesn't know what to do with this information. During the rare instances someone deigns to talk to him, an introduction like "I'm Xander" is almost always followed by a request like "Can I get an picture?" or "Do you know where the bathroom is?", depending on if he's been recognized or not. But this...this is just warm brown eyes and a big shiny smile that he doesn't know what to with. 

"Drew Cooper," he eventually blurts out, remembering that he is in fact a human person with a name. "Um. Hi." 

Xander leans casually against the wall adjacent to Drew, the fabric of his shirt pulling tight over the bulk of his arms as he crosses them over his very muscular chest. "You know, I really liked what you had to say last week about the em dashes in Emily Dickinson's poems. How they're meant to give you space to breath but really end up making you feel breathless. Professor didn't know what do with that, but...I liked it."

What is happening what is happening what is hap— Drew swallows thickly. "Oh. Thanks. I, uh, visited the house in Amherst a lot growing up. School field trips, family weekends...I'm...familiar with her work."

Xander nods toward the corner of Leaves of Grass sticking out of Drew's satchel. "What about Whitman? He a favorite too?"

Drew shrugs. "Sure. Mostly 'Song of Myself' and 'Drum-Taps,' but generally...yeah, his language is...unparalleled." Drew pauses, unsure, and then continues. "Reading Whitman always reminds me that I need to look around more. That everything is beautiful if I let it be."

The smile grows bigger. "I really like the way you talk about poetry, Drew Cooper." Xander reaches into the JanSport he's got slung over one shoulder and pulls out an umbrella. "Want to talk about it over lunch?"

—————

It’s not until their third post-poetry class lunch that Drew finds out something interesting about his new friend. “Wait...you’re on the football team?”

Xander laughs, a loud, warm sound that makes Drew feel like he’s part of the joke instead of the butt of it. “Yeah, yeah, I’m on the football team.” Drew makes a face. “What?”

“Well...don’t take this the wrong way, but...” Drew swirls his spoon in his cup of clam chowder. “...is Harvard’s team any good?”

This earns a longer, louder laugh from Xander, who takes a bite of his grilled chicken when he’s done. “In the grand scheme of things? No. We go up against Auburn or Clemson and we’re getting our asses kicked, no questions asked. But against the teams we actually play? We’re not half-bad.” 

“So what position do you play?”

“Tight end.”

“Oh, I know that one. That’s...an important one.”

Xander suppresses the laugh this time. “It’s okay, Cooper. You don’t have to pretend to like football.”

Drew scrunches his nose. “I’m sorry. I come from a sports family. My dad and my older sister, in particular, they’ll talk for hours about football or baseball or hockey...it all goes over my head.”

With a shrug, Xander says, “Well, you’ve got enough good stuff going on in that head. No need to waste brain space on stuff that doesn’t matter.”

Drew feels himself starting to flush, so he quickly tries to shift the focus. “Well what about you? If football doesn’t matter, why risk CTE for it?”

“Scholarships, Cooper! You think Harvard pays for itself? I got in on test scores, but test scores don’t get you out of loans. Football does.”

And doesn’t that make Drew feel so silly. He knows how unbelievably lucky he is, that he had every semester of higher education he could ever want at whatever university would take him paid for before he was even born. If he had the mind to, he could keep taking classes at Harvard or Yale or Oxford until he died and he’d never have to think about the cost. Xander actually has to work for his education, and Drew feels like a little kid in comparison. 

—————

They’ve been in a little back corner of Lamont Library for a few hours now, bent over their respective texts as they work on assignments for different classes. Drew’s nose-deep in an anthology of Helen Hunt Jackson, while Xander’s scribbling away at equations for one of his insanely complicated math classes. They work in comfortable silence, and every once in a while Drew wonder how strange it is, the easy way they spend their days together. 

At one point, Xander throws down his pencil in disgust. “That’s it. Cooper, I’m dropping out.”

Drew makes a face. “You’re not dropping out, Xander.” 

“I am. No economics degree is worth this.” He gestures vaguely to his chicken-scratch math homework. 

“I mean, you’re not going to hear an argument from me, the guy studying History and Literature.” Drew peeks at the equations. “Would it help if you explained it to me?”

Xander furrows his brows. “What do you mean?”

“I mean...my sisters always head more of a head for the STEM subjects, while I’ve always been better at...” He waves a hand over his poetry book. “...softer stuff. But when I was a kid, my dad, who’s, like, an insane science nerd to the max, would tell me to pretend that I was the science teacher and I had to teach him the homework. It really helped. Explaining out loud, going over each problem piece by piece, helped me understand it better.” He flushes. “It’s just a thought, though. You don’t have to...”

“On one condition.” Xander smirks. “You have to tell me all of your thoughts on Thoreau afterward.”

Drew can’t fight his grin. “Deal.”

—————

Drew’s schedule is light on Tuesdays, so he’s back in the apartment he shares with Aidan, about halfway between Harvard and MIT’s campuses. She’s here, too, ditching a class she claims is “beneath the mathematical sensibilities of a first-grader.” She and some friend Drew is sure he should know the name of are on their little balcony, sipping wine coolers and people-watching while Drew reads for his early Wednesday class. Mostly, really, he’s listening to them gossip.

“See her?” 

“Blond ponytail?”

“No, by the crosswalk, with the dog. Don’t tell her you have a fake ID, she’ll narc on you in a heartbeat.”

“Get out!”

“Dead serious. Freshman down the hall got busted because of her.”

“What a bitch. Over there, those two: dating or siblings?”

“They’re practically identical, so I’m hoping siblings....Oh god, please let me be wrong...”

“Who’s that?”

“Where?” 

“Coming down the sidewalk here.”

“He’s hot, whoever he is.”

“I’ll say.”

“Wait...why does he look familiar....”

“Wasn’t he at that party two weekends ago? The one on Banks Street?”

“Oh my god, that’s it, he’s on the Harvard football team!”

Drew’s head snaps up. 

“Tell you what, he could score a touchdown any day. Look at those arms...Drew?” 

Drew scrambles off of the couch and flings himself onto the balcony. Aidan gives him a wild look. “What the hell?”

Peering over the edge, Drew spies Xander just as he gets to the front door of their building. He doesn’t need to use the buzzer, because someone’s coming out. “Oh.”

“Drew?”

Ignoring his sister, Drew rushes back to the couch, where he grabs all of his books and notebooks and tosses them into his backpack. Then he races into his bedroom to grab shoes. “I, uh, have to go! Study thing!”

Aidan looks down to the street and back to her panicked twin. “Drew...are you friends with a football player?”

“No!” Drew squeaks. “Yes! I mean, yes, we are friends. We have a class together. I have to go!”

Aidan squints in suspicion as Drew charges out the door. When it slams shut behind him, her friend says, “Does he know his sweater is on backward?”

Aidan shrugs. “Not my business.”

—————

“Why do you hang out with me?”

It’s a hazy October afternoon, and Drew and Xander are hanging out in Flagstaff Park, studying. People call out to Xander as they walk by, and Xander gives them a friendly wave or a “Hey man!” but makes no move to get up and socialize. Drew knows he’s quiet, not the best conversationalist in the world, so he wonders. 

“What do you mean?” Xander looks at him like he always does, like Drew is about to say something absolutely revelatory. 

“I mean...shouldn’t you be hanging out with the rest of the football team? Is that what you’re supposed to do?”

Xander seems amused. “Is that what you want me to do?”

“No,” Drew answers too quickly. “I just...I don’t know. I’ve never had someone spend so much time with me who wasn’t a blood relative, that’s all. And it seems like you have a lot of friends so...I don’t know...forget it...” Embarrassed, he turns back to his history textbook. 

A wide hand, fingers splayed, plops down over the pages, and Drew looks up to see Xander rolling his eyes. “I hang out with you so much, Cooper, because I like spending time with you, and also, I’m hoping that if I earn enough goodwill you’ll let me take you out to dinner at some point.” 

Drew freezes. “I—what?”

“I mean, if you’re not into me, that’s fine. I’m a big boy, I can handle it. But the thing is, I think you are into me, which is great, because I’m into you too, but I don’t mind biding my time until you’re ready.”

Every single neuron in Drew’s brain is misfiring. “You’re—into me?”

“Man got himself into Harvard just to outshine the professors and he still can’t read what’s right in front of him.” Xander sighs. “Yes, Cooper, I am into you, and would like to start seeing you socially in a romantic capacity.”

“But...you’re on the football team!” 

“I—what?” Drew just gapes at him. “Cooper...” Xander starts to laugh, slow at first, and then harder.

“Wait, why are you laughing at me?”

“It’s just...really refreshing to talk to someone as woefully out of touch as you are.”

“Hey!”

“Cooper, I dated a guy on the swim team for like two months last year. My being gay is...not news. To anyone.”

“Apparently not my sister,” Drew grumbles. 

“What?”

“Nothing.” Drew shakes his head. Nothing is making sense. “Do you know...who I am?”

“...We’ve met, yeah.”

“No, I mean...my family.”

“Oh.” Xander shrugs. “Yeah. Did some light Googling. I mean, c’mon, a white boy as quiet and smart as you? I had to be sure you weren’t secretly a neo-Nazi or some shit.”

“I’m Jewish,” Drew mumbles, “but that’s not the point. You know...who I’m related to.”

“Yeah. Am I supposed to care?” Xander reaches out and takes Drew’s hand, interlaces their fingers together. Drew’s heart is pounding so hard in his ears he can barely hear Xander speak. “Cooper, I am an economics major. I don’t want to date you because your grandpa was a billionaire. I want to date you in spite of the fact that your grandpa was a billionaire.”

Drew chokes out a laugh. “Fair enough.” 

“I mean, you’re cute and all, but don’t think I won’t eat you for sustenance when the class war starts.”

His laugh is louder this time. “Stop.” 

“So what do you say?” A squeeze of the fingers, and a squeeze to his heart. “Drew Cooper, will you go on a date with me?”

Drew chews on his lip, and then he nods. “Yeah. Yeah I will.” 

Then Xander grins his perfect white grin, and Drew knows he’s a goner.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 14

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: Leo's fear raises its head at the worst possible moment.

A/N: Finally some (slight) drama after I've drowned all of you in fluff in the previous chapters. Also, it was pretty exciting for me to finally get to explore Leo's studying life a bit more in this chapter.

I also want to take this opportunity to advertise a future fic of mine that I /hope/ to finish by the end of this week. The past week I've been working on a post ToN Caleo one-shot which is already over 4000 words long and at this point mainly needs some heavy editing to be posted. So stay tuned for that too if you like this ship!

Big big thanks to Cris for helping me a whole lot with this chapter! I really needed your science knowledge :’)

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! And remember that comments are the only reward I get so they would be much, much appreciated!!

Characters in this ch: Calypso, Leo. Jason, Percy, Annabeth

Words: 3000+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / next chapter / AO3

...

“Mister Valdez? Are you listening?”

Leo snapped out of his daze. He was at his engineering math class and for the past 15 minutes the professor had been explaining to the group a problem that had taken Leo about 2-3 minutes to solve. Usually he did something else while listening to his professors; finish more calculations (sometimes even ones they weren’t assigned to do), doodle blueprints and ideas for future inventions into his notebook, write down a new joke he had come up with, or text Jason that he was bored. Weirdly enough, doing all that other stuff helped him to focus on what was going on in the lecture.

However, this time his mind was elsewhere; it kept showing him images of a girl with shoulder length reddish brown hair, dark brown eyes that seemed a bit harsh at first but softened when she laughed at his joke, a couple of freckles on her light skin… He could also hear her laughter and smell the cinnamon scent that probably came from the shampoo she used in his head. The previous evening had gone so well but he had no idea what to make of it; even if he did like Calypso (which he wasn’t quite ready to admit yet), could anything ever happen? They were flatmates. Things would sure get complicated if they got together and then broke up and would barely stand each other’s company… Besides, who was to say she’d ever like him? Sure, sometimes she seemed amused by his jokes but what other reasons did he give for her to like him? Not much, he felt.

Leo started to get frustrated because he couldn’t get those thoughts out of his head and he might have started to growl to himself if the professor hadn’t called him at that exact moment.

“Yes?” Leo answered unsurely, not having heard what the professor had asked.

“Good. Then you can tell me what the solution to this problem is.” The professor pointed at the long and complicated looking problem on the whiteboard.

Leo sighed of relief on the inside. They were still talking about the same problem that he had solved over 10 minutes ago. He could do this.

“X is 3,65, Y is 5,51 and Z is 7,24,” he said, sounding almost bored.

“That is correct,” the professor said, badly hiding his surprise. He had thought this kid who seemed to be living in his dream world would be utterly confused by his question. He turned his attention back to the rest of the class and continued: “Of course, the easiest way to solve this equation is to divide X with… Yes, Mister Valdez?”

“Actually, I disagree,” Leo said, now completely awake. “Why would you divide it when you can…”

“Which one of us is the professor here, Mister Valdez?” the professor cut him off. “You may think you know how to do this but there are plenty of students here who aren’t quite as advanced and that’s why it’s better to show them one way to do it rather than to confuse them by....”

“Yeah, right, my bad,” Leo said sarcastically. “If these students are so simple minded, then why don’t you give them more practical problems to solve? You know, things we might actually need in the work life instead of… that,” he pointed at the whiteboard.

A couple of people were brave enough to nod and hum in agreement to Leo’s comments but there were also a few that started laughing.

“Alright, that’s it, Mister Valdez. Leave my class.”

Leo obeyed gladly (that class was such a waste of time anyway). He packed his things and headed out of the room, grinning widely as he left to let the professor know he hadn’t won that battle. It was almost lunch time so he decided to already go to the cafeteria to wait for Jason whose class wasn’t too far either.

About 15 minutes later Jason showed up, and to Leo's surprise he also had company. Percy Jackson did occasionally join them for a game night or a sparring session but Leo almost exclusively saw him outside the university. From what he knew Percy was currently focusing on his swimming career and wasn’t studying anything. Now he had however joined Jason for lunch and that made Leo wonder if there was some specific reason for that.

“Hey, man,” Jason greeted. “You’re early today. Are they having enchiladas or something?”

“Nah,” Leo shook his head. “I may have gotten kicked out of the class.”

“What did you do this time?” Jason rolled his eyes.

“Nothing, really!” Leo exclaimed. Jason kept looking at him suspiciously, though, so he had to add eventually: “Fine, I may have disagreed with the professor about some of his methods, but really, that’s all. Didn’t blow up the lab or anything like that.”

“One time when I was in the high school I told the teacher his pants were unzipped and I wasn’t allowed to participate in his classes for a whole week after that. Didn’t miss much, though, he sucked as a teacher,” Percy joined the conversation.

“That’s exactly what I thought about this guy!” Leo said and gave Percy a high five. “Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you’d be in the pool at this hour.”

“Just checking the places,” Percy shrugged. Leo raised his eyebrow questioningly. “Fine, Annabeth thinks that at some point I should start thinking about my career after swimming so Jason said he could show me around today so I’d get an idea what it’s like here. Oh and, he promised me a free lunch.”

“Makes sense,” Leo said while already looking at the menu eagerly. “I’d come here for a free lunch too.”

“You pay for this one, though,” Percy pointed out.

“Back to the actual topic ,” Jason said, looking at Leo a bit worriedly. “You didn’t get into big trouble with that professor, did you?”

“I think he’ll go back to ignoring me again in the next class. “ Leo replied. “So no need to worry.”

“Good. It’s just that, after that last lab incident…” Jason started, referring to an incident that had happened in the previous semester, but Leo stopped him.

“I said no need to worry,” Leo said a bit louder. “I’ve got things sorted, OK? Just… let’s go to get that damn lunch now. Chili con carne, anyone?”

In reality, Leo knew that if he skipped one more lab class, the professors wouldn’t be that understanding. The saddest part about it was that he actually enjoyed the lab classes way more than the boring theory classes because there you got to try things out with your own hands, but… there was one big but. He couldn’t be there when…

“Leo?” he heard Jason’s voice somewhere nearby

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“You were just totally zoned out, I was talking to you like a full minute and I don’t think you heard anything I said,” Jason pointed out.

“Oh, sorry. Lots going on in my mind. So, what did you say?” Leo asked.

“I was asking about when we should meet up on Saturday? I have soccer practice in the morning and Piper has a meeting with her theater group at 1 pm but we’re free after that.”

“I have to ask Cal but I think I can organize my work so I’d be free any time after 4 pm.”

“Alright, sounds fine to me,” Jason said, but Leo could sense that he was still wondering what had been bothering him that much.

“So who’s this Cal person?” Percy asked when the boys made it to the buffet tables.

“My new flatmate,” Leo said simply, currently more interested in filling his plate than elaborating on his living situation.

“OK. I was just wondering because Annabeth mentioned that she’d been at your place, and apparently she’d helped to give this flatmate of yours a makeover.”

“Oh, yeah!” Leo said, remembering that meeting quite vividly. “From what I’ve heard they’ve been hanging out quite a lot lately. That’s good because… well, she’s new here.” Leo was going to say that she doesn’t seem to have a lot of people in her life, but decided that he didn’t want to reveal too much to someone who had never even met her.

“Where is she from then?”

“I think she moved here from New York,” Leo said. “And she’s around your age. Who knows, you might even know her.”

“New York is a pretty big place,” Percy pointed out. “I guess Cal is a nickname? What’s her full name?”

Leo was going to answer when he spotted the chemistry lab professor in the crowd and he quickly hid behind Jason.

“Don’t let him see me,” Leo said hastily. “He’s gonna…”

Leo didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence when he heard the said professor say loudly: “Mister Valdez!”

Leo peeked from behind his friend.

“Hola, professor,” he said awkwardly. “Didn’t see you there.”

“Yes you did, you were just trying to hide from me. I wanted to remind you that today is the test day which is 60% of the mark. And that means that…”

“If I skip that test, I will fail the class,” Leo added, looking down at his feet. He didn’t remain like that long, though. “I’ll be there, professor.” He put up a brave face and saluted him as the professor just ‘hmmph’ed and turned away from me.

“I thought you said you have everything in order.” Jason raised his eyebrow once the boys had paid for their lunches and started to look for a table. “That didn’t seem like it.”

“Take care of your own business, Sparky,” Leo grunted and pointed at one empty table not far from them. “Let’s go there.”

“I’m serious, Leo,” Jason continued once they got seated. “Something is bothering you. We are your friends and we do care. You can trust us on this.”

Leo let Jason’s words sink in. Friends. Care. Trust. Since his mother died, he had always been the oddball, the outsider until he got a family who actually cared about him, Jo, Emmie and Georgie, but he still got a bit overwhelmed every time he realized that he really mattered to someone.

“Thanks, man.” Leo said finally. “I’ll… keep that in my mind. Promise.”

“Good.” Jason smiled at him encouragingly. “You can talk to us whenever you feel like it.”

After that the discussion moved to other things. Percy was hopeful that he was fit enough for a new record in his next competition and he didn’t forget to praise her little sister as well. Jason mentioned having seen his father at the campus but he had barely acknowledged his presence. Leo threw a few sarcastic comments here and there to let the others know he was listening. However, he had lost his appetite after hearing about the test. He had barely tasted his lunch and was now moving the rice back and forth on his plate as it got cooler. If the others noticed that, they didn’t say anything, probably thinking that it was better to let Leo open up on his own accord.

The lunch time flew by too fast for Leo’s liking. After separating from his friends he started heading towards the lab where most of the other students were already getting prepared. Taking a deep breath, he stepped in, hoping for the best.

The lab class started with a brief written test that made sure the students were ready for the practice part. This time would be particularly important, though, because it was testing them about pretty much everything they had learned so far in that class, and would be graded accordingly.

The written test caused no problem to Leo. He’d be able to name the lab tools by heart even in his sleep and the calculations weren’t much harder to him. However, he was already dreading the actual practice part for a very specific reason…

In the practice Leo would have to mix a few compounds together to get a chemical reaction. That was the simple part. But unfortunately for him, these said compounds would have to be heated in order for them to react. And of course you’d need a flame to do that. Now that was the hard part for Leo. He hated the gas burners and it had become a habit for him to skip a lab class when he knew they would be used. Unfortunately for him, that was fairly often because apparently the university’s heating plates were used by some other group at the same time, and that was also why he was about to fail this class. But if he could handle using the burner just this once, maybe he’d be fine… He knew he couldn’t afford to fail it because if he did, it might be a sign that he wouldn’t be able to do the job he was so excited about, and that would be a huge slap in his face. Maybe even bigger than he was ready to admit.

He measured the compounds and was ready to heat them when he noticed that a fellow student nearby had accidentally mistaken two of the compounds with each other, ruining the mixture. That gave him an idea.

“Pssst. I can mix a new one for you if you heat this for me.”

“What?” The other student looked at him with confusion. “Why would I do that?”

“I just told you. I can fix that for you.”

“You just want to flex with your skills, that’s all,” the guy said, knowing Leo’s reputation as the genius who however refused to join lab classes. Probably because he felt he was too good for them. “May I remind you that this is a solo practice!” the professor yelled from the front of the class. “No talking allowed.”

“Yes, professor,” Leo said quietly, but rolled his eyes at him when he turned his back. He read the instructions one more time to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and when he was double convinced that he was in the part that he had dreaded, he breathed sharply and picked up his gas burner and some matches. He felt his heart starting to race and his hands starting to shake as he took one match from the box and tried to light it.

He tried once. Twice. Took a deep breath and tried once more. At this point his hands were shaking so furiously that the match fell from his hand. Realizing that he still couldn’t do it, he made a frustrated groan, dropped the match box on the table and started shakily collecting his things.

“Mister Valdez? Did you finish your task?” The professor raised his gaze from his desk and focused on him. A few others turned to Leo’s direction as well.

“No, sir.”

“And why not?”

“I. can’t.” Leo said with a voice so deep and raw that you rarely got to hear it from him. He left his unfinished product on the professor’s desk. Then he threw his bag over his shoulder and doors banging left the class.

He didn’t make it far when he felt his knees going weak and he had to sit down on the closest chair, burying his face in his hands.

…

“Thanks so much for showing me that place! It feels so good to see some nature even this close to the city,” Calypso exclaimed happily to Annabeth as they were walking towards the dorms. Calypso loved nature and she didn’t really feel at home in the concrete jungle, hoping that one day she could afford to buy a house from the countryside. She had once mentioned that to Annabeth who also enjoyed adventuring in the less crowded areas and had promised to take Calypso to one of her favorite parks nearby. They both had had free time from their classes that afternoon so they had decided to take the advantage of that and go to explore a bit.

The park had been pretty, having a small river running through it and little trails circling the trees. Calypso, who had grown near the sea missed seeing bodies of water so even the river had made her feel a little less homesick. The girls had been there for a few hours, taking pictures and having a small picnic while talking about anything and everything that had come to their minds.

Now, unfortunately, it was time to return back to real life and the assignments that were waiting for them at home.

“No problem,” Annabeth replied to Calypso’s comment. “Honestly, I think this break was much needed. I do love architecture and history and all that but sometimes my ADHD kicks in and I just need to get out of the house.”

“Yeah, it helps to focus again afterwards,” Calypso agreed. “Hey, do you have anything special to do this weekend? Leo, I, Piper and Jason are supposed to have a video game night on Saturday and I thought I’d ask if you want to join. You can ask your boyfriend too if you want, of course! I’m sure Leo wouldn’t mind.”

“What time would it be?” Annabeth asked.

“I haven’t asked Leo yet but he does work on Saturdays so probably not very early. Sometime in the evening. I can inform you when I know more,” Calypso promised.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in my mind. My boyfriend has a swimming practice twice a day so he may not be able to join us but I might!”

“Great!”

The girls had reached the area where Calypso lived so they turned to their own directions.

“I’ll contact you!” Calypso said before Annabeth was too far to hear. She waved at her in response.

Calypso was still smiling when she entered her flat, but the smile soon melted from her face when she saw Leo hunched on the couch, looking utterly lost. Calypso approached him cautiously, asking: “What happened?”

Leo patted on the seat next to him, gesturing to her to join him on the couch. She did, but when he didn’t say anything for a while, though, Calypso decided to be bold and wrap her arm around his shoulder. Leo looked at her with dark eyes, still appreciating the gesture.

“I may have to start making new career plans.”

[fruit-teeth]

Gifted

(All right so...this is new. I wrote a story about Sniper’s biological mother from the comics. You’re probably like “hey Mara, why did you write this?” And honestly? I don’t know!! Your guess is as good as mine, it was a story that had been living rent free in my brain for a while and the only way I can deal when that happens is to write it out. I’m posting this even though it might not get many notes, but that’s all right. I wrote something, that’s what matters. Anyway, enjoy, even if it’s sad.)

A ‘gifted child’. That was what everyone told her she was from the moment she learned to read.

She grew up raised by her genius uncle, a man of unparalleled skill when it came to writing. She did not remember her parents, but she had seen pictures of her mother: a beautiful, warm woman with a big smile and dark hair as long and thick as the grass that grew around the lake nearby.

Lar-Nah knew she would never be her mother.

But why did that matter? Everyone told her she was smart, and she knew it, too. She began reading at the age of three, and at five years old, the math she had begun learning at school quickly became too basic for her. She excelled past many people in her grade, and by ten years old, she’d been placed in several advanced classes already. Her uncle paraded her around his peers, telling them how intelligent she was and how proud he was of her. On the surface, she seemed to enjoy the attention. Internally, however, Lar-Nah was incredibly anxious.

The few times she did get poor grades, her uncle would shame her, instilling a fear of failure into his niece at an early age. She soon became obsessed with pleasing him and with pleasing her teachers, rather than reaching achievement for her own enjoyment. But that was all right, she decided. Once she got to a good college (and she was certain she would), she could live independently and never worry about pleasing anyone again.

She did not account for what would happen in her last year of high school.

Lar-Nah looked to the chalkboard one morning and saw something written there that she had not seen before.

“There’s a writing assignment due in two days?” She looked to her teacher for clarification, feeling a flash of panic. “That wasn’t in the calendar,”

The teacher just nodded from where he sat behind his desk, his eyes fixated on the lesson plan for the day. “I know, it’s a mandated writing assignment. The school just required it for all the writing classes,” he looked back up at Lar-Nah. “I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t handle,”

As he passed out the instruction papers for the assignment, Lar-Nah’s heart sank when she realized just how long this was going to take. Not only that, but she’d meticulously planned out her schedule for the rest of the week — her other classes had a great deal of work due on the same day as this assignment, she realized. Her hands shook as she made the adjustments to her schedule, and she realized with horror that she did not have time to complete everything like she thought she would.

Upon returning home, Lar-Nah headed straight to her uncle’s study and exclaimed, “I have so much work to do! I won’t have time to do all of it! I’m so sorry, something is going to have a zero!”

Her uncle, hunched over his latest piece of writing, grunted back at her, “You are being dramatic.”

“I’m not!” Lar-Nah knelt beside his chair, grabbing his hand. “I need help...can I show you my schedule? There’s so much to do, I don’t know—“

Her uncle stood up, looming over her, his eyes burning straight into her soul. “You’re wasting time!” He barked at her. “Use every moment to work if you have so much, then!”

Lar-Nah’s voice faltered a bit. “E-Every moment?”

“Yes,” he sighed, deep and low. “You will not disappoint me, will you? You will not only complete every bit of work, but you will get the best possible grades on each assignment, won’t you?”

Lar-Nah moved back, standing up slowly. She nodded after a moment. “Yes, Uncle Locke,”

“Good,” he went back to his typewriter, not looking at her. “You are smart, and you are gifted. Gifted people like you can overcome this,”

“...yes,” she murmured, pulling back and heading upstairs to get to work.

The rest of her day was just work. She managed to eat and take a shower, but all the moments in between those activities were spent doing her schoolwork. Lar-Nah did not have many friends anyway, but if any of them came to the door to try and get her attention, she would push them away. She had to focus.

She finished 5 assignments by the time the sun had set. She had six more to go before the dreaded writing assignment, which was now less than 48 hours away from needing to be done. But she decided to go to sleep, despite all the work, as she knew sleeping would give her the energy she needed to keep working.

When she woke up the next morning and went to school, however, her science teacher had an announcement to make.

“My apologies for springing this on you,” he began. “But tomorrow, we have a test,”

Lar-Nah felt like she was going to die on the spot.

“Don’t worry,” the teacher clarified. “It’s a very low-stakes test, but I would advise you study,”

The test was on the same day as the writing assignment, now, and Lar-Nah already had other subjects to do work for. She had never been in this situation before, teachers usually did not assign so much on the same day.

Lar-Nah decided to ask her science teacher about it once class ended. “Um, I hate to ask, but...can the test be moved to a different day?”

Her teacher quirked an eyebrow. “Why?”

“It’s just...I have a lot of work to do,” she explained, scratching the back of her head. “The writing classes have an assignment due tomorrow, too,”

The teacher huffed. “Now, Miss Lar-Nah, I know there’s a writing assignment due. But can you imagine if I arranged every schedule of mine based on how busy the students are? Why, that would be pure chaos!” He laughed, although Lar-Nah could not understand why this was funny. He went on. “Besides, you’re a very gifted student. This is nothing you can’t handle,”

“...yes, sir,” she nodded, feeling her heart pound from anxiety. Still, she gathered her books and headed to her next class, just like she always did.

The afternoon that followed was pure chaos. Lar-Nah barely ate, and she poured all of her energy into finishing the assignments as quickly and as efficiently as possible. By evening, she had only the writing assignment and the studying for the test left, though her hands were shaking and her body was screaming for rest.

“Uncle Locke?” She stood at the top of the stairs, looking down to where he was seated in the living room. “Uncle Locke, when is dinner?”

He looked up at her, watching her expression. “Are you done with your work yet?”

Lar-Nah shifted from foot to foot. “Well...no...”

He sighed. “Have some water and some bread, and then get back to work. That will put much pressure on you, but it will make you want to work harder,”

Lar-Nah felt tears welling in her eyes. “I’m so tired...” she murmured, her fists clenching. “Please, I need...i need to eat or something, I—“

“Bread and water is food!” Her uncle barked again. “And stop being so dramatic! Wipe your eyes and eat some bread, then get back to work.”

Lar-Nah swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing the tears back the best she could. “Yes,”

Once she’d eaten a slice of bread and downed a glass of water, she went straight back to work. Within the next few hours, she hunched over her typewriter and wrote the rest of the writing assignment, following the instructions the best she could.

By the time she was finished with that, it was well into the night and far past her bedtime. She did not know if her uncle was still awake, but she knew that he would want her to keep going, to finish everything. She opened up her science book to study for her exam, and that was the last thing she remembered.

The next thing Lar-Nah knew, her alarm’s shrill cry jolted her awake. She sat up quickly, and then groaned in pain, feeling the stiffness in her neck, back and shoulders, not to mention there was an uncomfortable stickiness on her cheek and chin...

She looked down, realizing that she’d fallen asleep on her science book, still in her daytime clothes. It then dawned on her that she hadn’t studied for the test— she’d fallen asleep instead.

As Lar-Nah tried to clean up the best she could for school, she internally warred with herself over her failure to study. The teacher had said it was a low stakes test, so it didn’t matter what grade she got, right? But at the same time, she had never failed a test before...what if this was the first one she failed? The thought made her feel sick.

Still, she felt a bit of relief as she handed in the writing assignment at school that morning, thankful to have that out of the way. As she turned her back to return to her seat, though, her writing teacher got her attention again.

“Lar-Nah?” He gestured for her to come closer. “Where are your citations?”

Lar-Nah paused, feeling herself go pale. “...citations?” When he nodded, she took a shaky breath in. “The instructions didn’t say we had to cite anything,”

Her teacher held up the instruction sheet again. “It’s right there, see?” He pointed to the very small paragraph towards the bottom that listed the instructions for citing sources. “Did you not read those?”

When Lar-Nah stood like a deer in headlights, staring at the sheet of paper, her teacher let out a long sigh. “I see...go take a seat, Lar-Nah,”

Lar-Nah slowly headed down to her desk, sitting down. She’d gotten something wrong— she’d gotten something wrong and now her teacher was mad. Surely, she was going to fail, and her uncle would find out. All hell would soon break loose, she knew that much.

The science test was a blur. Lar-Nah wrote in whatever answers made sense to her, but her heart pounded the whole time. Once it was over, she was certain she had failed, and to avoid any disappointment from her science teacher, she sprinted out into the hallways, desperate to just get through the day and then go home.

But home would never be the same. Once Lar-Nah got to her uncle’s study, she burst into tears and fell to the floor.

Startled, her uncle stood up and pulled her to her feet. ‘Good lord, child! What’s become of you!? Pull yourself together!”

Lar-Nah sobbed, covering her face. “I missed the citations on the writing assignment and I failed my science test!”

He pulled away from her a bit. “What?”

“I did it all wrong!” Lar-Nah wept, tears rolling down her face like rain. “My teachers are furious with me! But its not my fault, I had so much work!”

“So much work!?” Her uncle repeated, gritting his teeth. “You don’t know the meaning of true work, you silly girl!” He sighed, pacing around, his hands clenched into fists. “I knew it— I knew this would all come crumbling!”

Lar-Nah sniffled, taking a step back. “But...w-what was I supposed to do? Stay up all night and never sleep!?”

“Your problem is you don’t work efficiently!” Her uncle insisted. “You don’t...” he sighed again, turning back on his heel. “Pah! What am I saying? You are a woman! Women are far too dramatic to get on a level with men such as myself!”

When he said that, something broke in Lar-Nah. Something snapped— little sleep, limited food, and constant stress all bubbled to the surface, and she couldn’t stand it anymore. As her uncle had his back turned, she grabbed the heavy, stone ash tray off the shelf and slammed him on the back of the head with it.

He collapsed, falling face first into the type writer and then sliding to the floor with a ‘thump’. Lar-Nah hovered over his lifeless body, before dropping the ash tray and heading upstairs to take a shower.

It wasn’t until she returned from her shower and heard the police outside the door that she realized her uncle had died. A neighbor had seen the interaction from outside the window, and had subsequently called the police when she saw Lar-Nah strike her uncle with the ash tray. Lar-Nah was then arrested and placed on trial, though after a psychiatric examination, she was determined to be unfit for a trial and was instead placed into a mental institution. She was seventeen years old at the time.

Lar-Nah remained at the institution for roughly four years, the same amount of time she would have spent at a college. By the end of the four years, she hardly cared about anything anymore: her emotions had completely numbed. She could not remember the last time she had truly smiled or laughed, and once she left the institution, she met the man who would end up becoming her husband. She married him, although she wasn’t quite sure why. He had money...that was about it.

Lar-Nah became a passenger of her own life. She stopped trying, she stopped searching for true happiness and instead focused on whatever made her feel good in the moment. That was all that mattered to her. Her uncle, the writing assignment, school, grades...it all felt like some distant nightmare. Sometimes she wondered if she had never truly been born, but rather materialized to just to get married.

There came a moment, though, when she was six months pregnant and laying in bed alone, listening to the leaky roof above her, that her mind took her somewhere else. Behind her eyes, she could see herself standing on the shore of the lake, amongst the tall grass, and beside her stood a figure. It was her mother— with her beautiful face and long flowing hair, the pinnacle of perfection...Lar-Nah reached for her, but just like that, she was gone, and Lar-Nah was alone again, alone in the vast void of her own soul, a place she would ultimately end up in when all was said and done.