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💙 grace 💙 @graceling • 4m 

@noabatflanagan you can if you want!!! i’m just concerned the ground is too far away for you though 🙇🏻😚

Noah Flanagan @noabatflanagan  • 3m

@graceling an emoji queen? how regal. should i bow next time i see you?

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          there were similarities between grace’s hometown of williamsburg and many of the larger towns in lake county. the largest town, clearlake, had the biggest similarities: roughly the same population, the same size... and yet, everything felt so different. the winters were milder, and it rarely ever snowed; the summers, while not as hot as she initially expected, were almost always a touch too sticky and uncomfortable, unlike the ones she’d endured back home. there was more of a relaxed vibe in clearlake that williamsburg didn’t seem to have, and everything was either too bright, too blue, or not green enough. grace always felt like she was in some sort of twilight zone.

and that was when she was in a somewhat familiar environment. all grace really knew about alaska was that it was cold and that it snowed a lot. the culture shock would’ve been even worse for tegan. forget twilight zone; the whole world must’ve felt like it was flipped on its axis. grace’s momentary homesickness felt silly in comparison. 

she wanted to look at tegan again, but she was afraid she was giving away her thoughts in her expression. tegan wasn’t the type who wanted pity.

[sent 4:38 pm] lmao my parents don’t speak it either 😂😂 they’re not korean!!!

[sent 4:38 pm] spent my first few years in an orphanage in korea though, and it’s not like i learnt english until i got here. the problem is i really don’t remember much 😓😓😂

[sent 4:39 pm] honey. oh, honey!!!! this room is going to be SO special you’re not going to recognise it and we’re going to get the best grades. all generated by our beautiful, inspiring room 🙏💙👑👍

         It had been yet another thing that had separated her from her roommate the year before. The other girl had often went home for the weekend without telling Tegan, leaving her by herself for the entirety of the weekend. Long weekends and holidays were things that the blonde lived for now that she was in the continental United States. It was the only time she got to go home for her family and some days it was all that kept her motivated to get up and go to class. California was different from Alaska in almost every way imaginable. From the climate to the people, it was like entering another world every time she stepped off a plane. Her mother, however, was never anything less than encouraging. Always telling her that the opportunities that would come from attending Angelwood were well worth the distance for the majority of the year. “Right…It doesn’t sound familiar to me at all. I guess that just comes from not meeting anyone who’s ever spoken it up in Alaska.” Tegan couldn’t help but grin at her roommate before nodding her head. “Our room looking good will make for a way better work environment too, you know! But my room back home was nothing special…”

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vyrl update ♡ 151223 (i / ii)

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vyrl update ♡ 151223 (i / ii / iii)

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          grace took a deep breath and exhaled, nodding slowly. she remembered tegan mentioning she was from alaska when she first moved in. and as far away as virginia was, alaska had to be further. it was attached to canada, wasn’t it---the other side of canada? she wasn’t totally sure, she wasn’t super great at geography. all she knew was that, like grace, it didn’t mean weekend trips meant you could go visit home. it was too far.

although, grace had to admit, it didn’t make total sense to send your child to boarding school if they weren’t going to go at least into another state. granted, california was quite big---much bigger than virginia---and east coast kids were notorious for being in boarding schools, but even fletch would be going to their father’s old school in connecticut, which was a reasonable distance away. she guessed there were kids that were troublesome or their parents wanted them were clingy, but still. there were prestigious day schools. and military academies.

[sent 4:35 pm] it sounds familiar to me but then when you get all technical it’s just 😅😅

[sent 4:35 pm] but thank you! helping me means having a better looking room 😄

[sent 4:36 pm] i will show you the picture and your mind will be blown. my room back home looks so good 😭😭😭

          Tegan gave her roommate a sympathetic look. “You know…it’s ok to be sad about being here. I feel that way too sometimes, i mean my whole family’s up in Alaska. You know how far that is from here?” It was something that Tegan hadn’t talked about with her other roommate. She doubted the other girl even knew where she was from until halfway through the semester when she went home for Thanksgiving. Grace was just one of those people, few and far between, that was easy for her to relate to. One of the guidelines she’d set up on their first day of being roommates was how she sometimes stayed up late to write. She was planning to start a journalism or writing club if she could get permission sometime. It was the one thing she was passionate about and something that connected her to her mother even when they were states apart. She’d gotten more used to having Grace as her roommate, though, and found herself going to sleep earlier than usual to accommodate the other girl and her schedule. The blonde let out a snort of laughter at the next text message. The other girl’s use of emojis was something that she thought would always be amusing to her. “Korean might be too much today. We’ll have to see after we put up the fairy lights. I would totally love to see a picture of your room, though!”

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♡ grace ♡ @graceling • 2m

@noabatflanagan i love memes 😌😌 also i am an emoji queen 👑

♡ grace ♡ @graceling • 4m

@noabatflanagan well OF COURSE! 😛

Noah Flanagan @noabatflanagan  • 3m

@graceling​ your emojis mean you’re perfect for the meme army!  😂

[xgraces-blog]

          she couldn’t help but smile back at her roommate, grateful for the fact she hadn’t been too awkward about her bout of homesickness or her decorative requests. grace really liked having tegan as a roommate. she couldn’t say that her other roommate was bad; they’d reached an understanding by the end of the year, but they were so drastically different that it always felt awkward. tegan wasn’t like that. they weren’t very similar, but she understood. 

tegan was a journalist---or, at the very least, an aspiring one. grace hadn’t actually read any of her material, but she knew that tegan wrote. a lot. grace could even remember times when the laptop’s dim light and the sound of her clacking away at the keyboard had stirred her out of sleep. now that she was used to it, she thought it was kind of calming, but it had taken a few nights to get used to. grace thought it was kind of cute. 

grace tilted her head when she saw tegan yawning, reaching for her phone again as she heard the other girl talked. it would give her a head start on replying.

[sent 4:33 pm] you’re tired. korean too much for you today? z_____z

[sent 4:33 pm] i like to decorate!!! i’ll totally show you pictures of my room back home later.

[sent 4:34 pm] i’ll keep that in mind roomie. i’m lucky to have you 😘😘😘 you’re great!!

       Tegan smiled at Grace, an attempt to be reassuring, before she went about opening another box of fairy lights. She would have to go out to town sometime and buy some of her own sometime. It had been another thing she’d never thought of bringing and it seemed like a great idea. Tegan wasn’t usually one to openly compliment other people but she thought her roommate had great artistic vision. Maybe that’s why she’d asked her to be her roommate in the first place. Who better to be your roommate in a strange place than a fellow artistic spirit? Sure, they used different medias to communicate but it was the thought that counted. The fact that the other girl couldn’t talk didn’t seem to matter that much when it came down to the greater scheme of things since she found her own ways to communicate. In fact, Tegan was willing to bet that she’d had longer conversations with her than she did the whole previous year with her last roommate. Grabbing the phone off the bed next to her, she stifled a yawn as she opened the new text messages. Nodding her head as she read them, she set the phone down again and continued unraveling the lights in silence for a moment. “You really thought a lot about this whole decorating thing. More than I did, anyway. Good for you.”  She smiled at the other girl before giving her a thumbs up. “Yeah, get out your sketchbook. I wouldn’t mind checking out your design for our room to see if we can actually accomplish it.” The blonde looked around the room, “If it’s stuff close to the ceiling, though, one of us might need to stand on a chair.” She couldn’t stop herself from laughing, “Maybe that’s why we get along so well. We’re both overachievers!” 

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          it was very clear that tegan was not comfortable with the idea of a weeping roommate. even if grace was totally not weeping (and she wouldn’t, ever, unless something really bad happened or it was the weeks leading up to her final art assignment). grace wanted to let her know she wasn’t actually crying, but it was hard to when her communication skills relied on people looking at her.

when the other girl looked up, grace gave her a smile, taking the box of fairy lights from her. she opened it quickly, deftly untangling and unwinding the lights inside. she sniffed a few more times, but was glad when she found she didn’t need to do so anymore.

please, let her think i have allergies.

after all, it wasn’t like she wasn’t glad that she was at boarding school. angelwood was definitely an experience. not everyone was super nice, but everyone was reasonable and grace hadn’t found it difficult to fit in. no one had questioned why she couldn’t talk; they’d just accepted it. it got to the point where her roommate totally forgot she didn’t. not to mention everyone was all sort of a little weird, most of them with their own passions. it wasn’t like her old school, where everyone just wanted to be rich or enter the upper class, or whatever.

[sent 4:40 pm] okay this is what we have to do

[sent 4:40 pm] i have some command hooks in my drawer so i’ll get them. i have a design i wanted in my sketchbook so we should check it out to see if they’re doable?

[sent: 4:41 pm] when it comes to decorating and art, you must know that i’m an overachiever. #doitfortheart

         Tegan had gotten used to being isolated from people due to living in Alaska her whole life. The closest family member, besides her grandmother and mother, had lived a 2 hour plane ride away. She missed her mother a lot, probably less than most students missed their own parents, but it wasn’t something a weekly Skype session couldn’t fix. Growing up, she’d always wanted the freedom to do things on her own so living in a dorm as an independent was a breathe of fresh air. It was easy to see that her roommate probably didn’t feel the same way about her own family. Knowing she wasn’t the most tactful of people, Tegan avoided the subject of family whenever she was able to. God forbid she say something that would offend someone’s parents. Then she’d have to hear about it for minutes and who would want that. Sniffling on the other side of the room snapped her out of her thoughts. The blonde got up off her bed and made her way over to the box that Grace had pointed at, careful to avoid eye contact in case the other girl was crying. “Okay, you wanna help me untangle these if I need it? Or at least unpack it?” Tegan turned around and handed one of the boxes of fairy lights to the shorter girl with a sympathetic look on her face.

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          after she’d been adopted, grace had been very lucky. her mom and dad were extremely well off, and they had everything they wanted---except for a child. and although grace didn’t know what she’d done to charm them, she was so grateful she had, because they had given her everything she had ever needed since. clothes, art classes, boarding schools... she’d never taken them for granted, and she was known in her family as being the thrifty one. her father loved it, saying she would’ve been good as a banker or something. ew.

thinking about her family while she was at school often lead to sharp pangs of homesickness in her chest. she tried to put them out of her mind while she was at school, but they always found a way to sneak back in. she wondered what they were doing now---maybe fletcher, her younger brother, was coming back from lacrosse practice. her dad would still be at work and her mom would probably get takeout on the way home---

okay. no more thinking about her family. grace sniffled.

remembering she wasn’t alone in the room, she looked up at tegan, hoping her eyes weren’t watery or anything lame like that. she ended up turning to the wall that the other girl had motioned to. it would be a good place for fairy lights. then, she pointed to the boxes of fairy lights and posters and photo frames on her bed.

                       Tegan hasn’t grown up ‘poor’, exactly, but the past few years had proven to be more financially successful for her mother than she was used to. That meant more clothes. Admittedly, her wardrobe wasn’t as fancy as some of her classmates, but it was more than the blonde was used to when she was younger. Not having any family members attending the school before her left her with big expectations.  Looking up the school on a whim after hearing about it on the internet had turned out as one of Tegan’s better ‘get-out-of-Alaska-quick’ schemes. The staff and most of her fellow classmates had been as nice and accommodating as she’d expected. The few exceptions, however, had succeeded in making her freshman year a near living hell. In fact, there had been a few nights where she’d taken her blankets and slept on one of the couches in the common area.  Sophomore year was already shaping up to be better than the year before. She was finding time to write article to send home to her mother for proofreading. Tegan was deadset on finding out if there was a journalism club on campus and if there wasn’t already, she would try to start one.  One of the only problems Tegan noticed with her new roommate was the fact that she found herself forgetting she couldn’t actually talk back. Sometimes the only thing that would stop the blonde in the midst of her rambling was her phone buzzing. She would have to ask her to teach her some sign language one day. It had always been something that had piqued her interest, anyway. Tegan picked up her phone and scanned the messages from the shorter girl before looking up at her. “Ok what do you need help with.” She squinted a little at the girl as she stared at her with puppy dog eyes after the messages were sent. “Seems easy enough. Besides, I like fairy lights. Do you have them unpacked yet?” She motioned to the spot on the wall where she thought the lights would look the best after she’d read the texts.

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idols in mv’s: luna red light - for anon

[xgraces-blog]

♡ grace ♡ @graceling • 4m

@noabatflanagan well OF COURSE! 😛

Noah Flanagan @noabatflanagan  • 3m

@graceling​ any certain tiny blue haired warriors willing to defeat the huns?

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♡ grace ♡ @graceling • 2m

@noabatflanagan aw i’d knew you’d appreciate them 😘😘😘

Noah Flanagan @noabatflanagan  • 3m

@graceling​ those are my favorite kinds of daughters! you shouldn’t have

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♡ grace ♡ @graceling • 4m

@noahbatflanagan i’ll send you daughters that’ll kick your butt :))))))))))

Noah Flanagan @noabatflanagan  • 1m 

@graceling would it be possible for me to not defeat the huns? will you send me daughters when i ask for sons?

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♡ grace ♡ @graceling • 1m

@noabatflanagan the real question is whether or not you’ll defeat the huns   【・ヘ・?】

Noah Flanagan @noabatflanagan  • 2m

can’t a grown man sing I’ll Make A Man Out of You in the showers without being judged. When will you find your  ❄️

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          grace was very much an overpacker. she’d been told off for it on multiple occasions, but she couldn’t help it. she just never knew what she needed half the time, and even if she packed everything besides the kitchen sink, she still forgot something important. it was a lose-lose situation.

having parents that had been to boarding schools before, however, had curbed some of her nervousness. they told her that the student and their parents’ comfort was their priority---and that was particularly true of angelwood more so than the schools her parents had attended. grace knew now that if she had forgotten anything, the staff of angelwood would make sure she wouldn’t be without for too long, as long as it wasn’t contraband. they catered to her every need, even more so than other kids because they did consider her to have special needs.

in any case, freshman year had been a learning curve for her, and she’d learnt very quickly what she did and didn’t need for school. grace had somehow arrived at angelwood with half the stuff she’d brought the year before, but she’d found she’d brought everything she’d needed. the only thing she hadn’t gotten around to yet was decorating; she’d been so caught up doing actual school things and running her blog that it had been further down her to-do list than she would’ve liked.

but decorating didn’t come easy to her. plus, she was super short.

grace’s new roommate tegan was someone she’d only known in passing, but she was really nice to live with. apparently she had had a bad experience with her old roommate, and grace was glad she was enjoying rooming with her instead. the only thing was that tegan liked to talk sometimes, and grace had to often locate her phone in order to send the girl messages because it wasn’t like she understood asl yet. 

[sent 4:35 pm] oh, me too u__u you’re not alone, sister!!!

[sent 4:35 pm] and done deal, as long as you promise to help me with one thing???

grace made sure her puppy eyes were activated as she sent her final message.

[sent 4:36 pm] can you help me with my decorations??? i can’t hang my fairy lights EVEN WHEN I’M STANDING ON THE BED.

[sent 4:36 pm] so pleaaaase help me tegan, i’m really too small to do this on my own :( 

             It was surprising how much Tegan didn’t think of once she was accepted into Angelwood. As someone who could almost be considered ‘hyper-prepared’ on an everyday basis, it was a near shock to her system once she realized how unprepared she actually was. The excitement of being accepted into such a good boarding school that she had no family attachments to was a big thing for the Alaskan. Whatever God there was coming down himself and saying ‘Tegan move your ass’ could not have made her pack faster and that had been her first problem. At least being unprepared her freshman year had prepared the blonde with what to expect in her sophomore year. She’d been more prepared with clothes and decorations for her side of her room after being embarrassed and sending home for more clothes last year. Still, she was more minimal in her decorative style than anything. The girl she was rooming with this year, Grace, was someone she got along with at least. It was more than she could say about her roommate from the previous year, who she’d fought with more than anything, so it was a pleasant change. The course work, too, was something that promised to make Tegan’s year even better than the last  The blonde was standing on her bed talking over her shoulder at her roommate as she attempted to hang a poster on the wall above her bed. “I have homework in pretty much all of my classes this weekend. I could cry.” Tegan turned around and faced her friend before sitting down on her bed, finally satisfied with the placement of her poster. “Would you wanna help me study for Korean later, by the way?”

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xgraceling oh, that’s fair enough!!!! i protect my phone quite a bit because it’s how i communicate with people ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ it’s not exactly a journal but i can’t really whisper and tell people my secrets that way!!!  [4:39:04]

xgraceling well.... unless they understand asl. then i can just sign it [4:39:35]

She sent her messages in rapid succession, shaking her hands as she prepared to send another one. Grace knew that her texting speeds scared other people, but it was just because she was used to it. She was also really fast at typing, but nothing bet her speed on her cellphone. 

xgraceling they really are small, aren’t they? ╥﹏╥ it would be better if they were bigger so your mom could get more recognition for what she was doing, you know??? [4:41:23]

xgraceling so you aspire to be just as successful as her, right? (¬‿¬) or do you have a different interest in journalism??? [4:42:11]

Grace looked up from her phone as she heard the other girl speak again, and smiled. The anonymous gossip column was one of her favourite parts of the entire school paper--she nodded, tilting her head as she did so. Her whole demeanour changed completely when the novice reporter basically admitted it was her; Grace’s jaw dropped and she pointed back at her, trying not to be too enthusiastic, before returning to her phone. 

xgraceling: you mean to say you wRITE THE ANONYMOUS GOSSIP COLUMN [4:44:20]

Tegan pointed at her phone, “I’m an open book. Nothing to hide so no lock screen, you know? Not that people with a lock screen have anything to hide. Plus maybe I’m just a little bit lazy, you know?” She watched with a sort of shocked appreciate as the girl clicked through her phone so easily. Honestly, Tegan couldn’t even type that fast on her phone. She worked much better on a computer and even an old type writer that her mother had gotten her for her previous birthday.  “Oh that’s ok, you know. Most people don’t even know people by name when they read things in magazines. Their names aren’t exactly in the biggest print in the word. But yeah I’d like the think my mom is quite a good writer!” She was a little surprised at how quick the girl was typing out her replies but it was as easy as having a normal spoken conversation. ”Oh thank you so much! You’re too kind. Actually…you know the ‘anonymous’ gossip column?” She looked around to make sure no one was looking in her general direction before pointing at herself and smiling proudly.