&. a 𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥

“I don’t want you to think that I’m proud to say this out loud but I am missing an Ant-Man t-shirt, have you seen it anywhere?” she’d bought it as a gag, mostly to make her brother laugh but the t-shirt was admittedly pretty comfortable and she often slept in it. Regardless of the garment’s comical history, she wanted it back.

She stood to full height and  raised the stick in her hand at that point, showing off a pair of royal blue men’s briefs with some pretty ragged and worn out elastic. Gross. “I can offer these in return. Somebody shoved them into the pockets of one of my hoodies and instead of immediately launching them into the fire, I thought I’d be a good guy and try and find their owner,” she explained, “Can’t shed any light on the current skid-marks situation but all signs point to yes,” she warned, though she was yet to give the undies a proper inspection, admittedly.

“ an ant-man t- shirt. ”   her repetition is followed by a shit-eating grin.    “ of all of the marvel characters ,  you just said fuck you to deadpool and went to ant- man ?  ”   her tone is teasing more than anything , not knowing enough about the film to have a witty insult at-hand.

MAXIMO: but i'm not though ?? u have have to earn more than one laugh for me to get anywhere near attached. but keep trying bud! u'll get there!

MAXIMO: i'd ask what u learned from glee but truthfully this is the longest i've ever had to think about that show and i want this suffering to end.

MAXIMO: u can't swear allegiance to multiple things? thats not how loyalty works!

MAXIMO: it really was. like i'm not a normal house leader, i'm a cool house leader. they should have come to me.

MAXIMO: no thanks.

MAXIMO: ofc. if u do move up, it wont be top 3 or anything but who knows, u could crack the top 10!

CATH: well i actually decided to stop caring.. and i'm not just saying this bc you fucked with my pride.. So now what?

CATH: i'm only on the second season but i can give you an essay by this weekend?

CATH: like fuck i can. having fun and protecting underdogs could be one in the same. you didn't make the rules for what constitutes as being loyal to underdogs. being a good person??? fun in itself.

CATH: no i bet you they would ask someone cooler, someone that looks trustworthy.. like that damian fella.

CATH: you sure?

CATH: oh fuck off.

“Is that true?” Kat was willing to believe it. She didn’t need any form of evidence on Catty’s part, confirmation would do. “Wow,” she took a half a step closer to the beehive, though her arms remained folded tightly to her chest in a defensive manner. She didn’t want to get stung but she did sort of hope she could absorb some of the bee hives good juju, like for love and success or whatever, though she’d never been one hundred percent sure what fidelity actually meant. 

“Am I?” she whipped her head around to Cath, in response, momentarily panicked by the idea rather than actually processing the question herself. “No,” she added a moment later, realizing that she knew for a fact that she was not allergic or at least that she’d never had an allergic reaction to a bee sting before. “You know Drea’s never been stung by a bee before?” she couldn’t remember if that was true but she was pretty sure it was and it was a fun fact to share with the other girl either way. “I’ve seen her punch a moth, I’d be scared of her if I was a bee,” she was a little scared of Drea anyway, on occasion even though she was much bigger than her.  She didn’t want to think of what life would be like in Drea’s presence if you were tiny and she hated you.

she had no idea if it were true or not .   but she shrugs  ,    her lips firmly planted in a frown position  before nodding .   “ yeah  ,  i think so .   i don’t know ,   it’s all about your intentions and like what you want it to mean . ”     the answer is a cop-out  but  ,  again  , one picked up from an article .   cath’s mouth then pulls into a YIKES  expression when she sees kat taking a step closer to the beehive .   she’s certain that if the blond were to irritate the insects  ,   she’s close enough to feel the backlash as well .     “  yeah ,  but i’d leave it alone for ,  you know ,   good luck and shit .   ”      a pause  ,  before       “  give me a week and i can read your palms .  ”     and just in case her theories on the presence of the bees weren’t accurate:    she was very relieved there were no worries when it pertained to kat being allergic .   how ironic would that have been ,  though ?

𝐍𝐎, 𝐇𝐄’𝐒 𝐔𝐒𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐎𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒 — but there is a certain sort of spunk to her glass half-full outlook that puts an entertaining spin to it. Maybe not so much optimism as much as it is a dogged naïveté, but he isn’t going to say that to her face. “Makes perfect sense actually,” he says instead, “because I’m definitely a pessimist.” And Rion isn’t afraid to admit it.

And there it is, the incredulous, dramatic scoff, and his corners of his mouth turn up in amusement. “You know, funnily enough, I’d probably say that I like the The Shining film more than I do the book.” Hell, he liked the book too, re-read it as much as he did with Carrie, but there’s a poetic beauty to the film more than he could ever describe in words. “What can I say, Kubrick has my heart.”

A laugh, a real one, flies out from his lips, and he puts his head down. “I’ll need to remember that one: demonic possessions are the rollercoasters of this school.” Shaking his head, smile still wide on his face. “All right, I’ll give you that one, even with the piss-poor analogy — though, really I’d place you as the Drew Barrymore. Or maybe the Rose McGowan, but hey, you know yourself best. So, Neve Campbell of Broadripple, what’s your real name?”

a pessimist  .     she gives him a once-over  ,   nodding her head knowingly;   she pegged him as such .      “ makes perfect sense. ”    her tone is mocking !    and to be honest , all was fine .   pessimists were fun  ,  as far as cath was concerned  .    “  i’m gonna rub off on you .   you’re going to be shitting daises and singing the spongebob theme song in a fucking month or so .   just watch .  ”    still , in that moment  ,   she had made it a challenge to combat his pessimism .  embracing it would have been far too easy .

“  woah ,  ”    it was exaggerated ,  her eyes widening, lips dropping into an O .         “  so  ,  you’re not even a good pretentious asshole ?     just a regular asshole who goes by his own rules ?    everyone on your stephen king reddit forum is gonna be pissed .  ”     correct  ,   all it took was this simple conversation for her to decide the guy beside her was some stephen king fanatic .      “ you wanna hear something that’s going to just fuck you up ?  ”    a pause , not to wait for his reply but for the dramatics .     “  i haven’t actually seen the shining  ,   i saw doctor sleep and was like what the fuck is going on ‘cause i never saw the shining.  didn’t even know it was a sequel at first .   ”

Babe? Oh, she was one of those girls. Slight roll of her eyes, Emma just shook her head, resigned to moving on to look around some more or ask someone else. But then like most people, this chick opened her mouth… and boy, did she choose some unfortunate set of words to say to someone who was in an almost perpetually unfortunate mood. Emma lifted a brow at… whoever the fuck this bitch was, giving her a once over. She said shit like ‘babe’ so that was the obvious sign that she’d be a bitch; Emma should have known. The Melleray junior was about to make this super uncomfortable. “Well, considering that I’m from there, I do,” she said, wondering what this to-be Karen would say this time.

MAXIMO: i dont kno why but the spin part of that statement sent me. congrats, u got an lolz out of me.

MAXIMO: glee is hardly a show u should learn life lessons from? hasn't half the cast been exposed for 1 thing of another?

MAXIMO: ur allegiance lies with underdogs, my allegiance lies with ppl just tryna have fun. we all have our things to champion. dnt judge mine.

MAXIMO: so much they could have done and yet....they chose this. i'm disappointed truly.

MAXIMO: its not that i cant read big words, just that i dont want to ✌️✌️

MAXIMO: woooow, that's a bold comeback. not sure if that moves u up on my list of favs or keeps u permanently at the bottom :/ ig i'll sleep on it.

CATH: it’s the creativity bit that got you 🤪 also because you’re clearly attached to me.

CATH: i never claimed it was politically correct, i could write an essay on how ryan murphy should get his rights to writing scripts taken away (except for some seasons of AHS) but ... i learned a few things.

CATH: hey now. my allegiance lies with having fun too, don’t insult me

CATH: so selfish of them not to ask you for notes before terrorizing everyone 😖

CATH: i can sum it up for you?

MAXIMO: rob pattz and his unwashed hair are v offended rn that u don't think he's hot. also ig now u learned not all underdogs are worth supporting.

MAXIMO: yea probably but that also sounds like a lot of work ??? i'll leave the kissing up to admins to damian and gwen.

MAXIMO: if i pulled this stunt i would have done more than throw shit around and steal scrunchies.

MAXIMO: i hope u know i didn't read any of that 😇

MAXIMO: aww u have pimples?? must suck not to have natural clear skin.

CATH: rob pattz could sit and spin on this 🖕 glee would say differently.

CATH: more work than... helping someone get an alibi and then pinning it on someone else? i think you just like the bad-assery of it all.

CATH: i wish it was more exciting.. like shaving cream and toilet paper, i don't know.

CATH: this place is amazing. they even give leadership opportunities to people who can't read big words like "projection" 🥺

MAXIMO: i cant believe u were defending it in the first place. this place is a death trap. the ransacking prob made the place look better tbh.

MAXIMO: the only duty i have is to my sparkling reputation cath. and alas, u lot are part of that rep so the trouble u cause is up to me to cover up or to blame on some1 else. ur welcome.

MAXIMO: have u SEEN me? u're def already attached pipsqueak. its okay, most ppl dont believe in love at first sight until they meet me n-e-way.

MAXIMO: too late, the fbi/nsa agent assigned to ur phone already took notes that u're planning to murder some1.

CATH: i am the defender of little people, batman if he were seventeen and hot. when i see something or someone being bullied i have to stick up for it.

CATH: hm. alright, i get it. but wouldn't it make you look better if you sniffed out the culprit and exposed them yourself? OR MAYBE... you have so much pent up angst because of feeling like you need to protect your reputation that you ARE the culprit?

CATH: "Psychological projection is a defense mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others." that's what you're doing right now. it's okay to admit it.

𝐀 𝐒𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓, 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄, but just because in his mind, the word fixer-upper is precisely the word that optimists used to describe absolute dumps. Rion isn’t wealthy by any means; hell, he’d lived in some rough places back with his mom, which didn’t automatically make him the expert of what is considered a dump… but at the same time, he’d flex his authority wherever possible. “If you mean potential for the roof to cave in and kill us all in our sleep? Then yeah, I agree with you.” His sarcasm knew no bounds, though he never delivers it in a deliberately rude way.

Amusement teases his features, and he shrugs, fingers tapping on the cover of the book. “Oh, I don’t know — maybe ‘cause it’s the original?” Christ, is he sounding like some pretentious ass concerned about conserving the sanctity of the original text, but he has to admit, there is something about Stephen King’s Carrie that doesn’t translate into the film.

“Right, you’re bored, so you’d rather get murdered by some demonic presence in the cabins. Sounds like a great way to cure your boredom.” Rion nods, movements large, deliberate. “Wouldn’t exactly call being possessed my idea of fun, especially if it works on some Russian Roulette rules where everyone’s equally susceptible.”

          he wasn’t completely wrong.  she wasn’t planning to admit it,  especially since it’s a fact that she’s still in the midst of convincing herself on.       but cath could never back down from playful banter .     “  maybe i don’t see the point in picking on   already damaged   housing  .   or maybe i’m just a GLASS HALF-FULL kind of girl, huh ?   an optimist.   ”   one who believed that simply adding fairy lights could make a hideous cabin look a lot more attractive.  

          ORIGINAL.     her face crinkles into a manner of disgust  , not completely enough to knock the smile that displayed  but she tried.    “  oh,  fuck off.   the original.  ”      an eye roll as she mimicked him ,  his use of that word making it easier for her to pick on him.     “   so fucking ostentatious ,    it’s carrie. not the  - i don’t know  -   the shining.  ”     and yes, that was the only other stephen king novel she could name off of the top of her head.    “ i could give you the whole story of carrie right now, you want it ?  ” 

MAXIMO: r u implying the school doesn't care about our safety? if so, thats bordering on hearsay ms. hart.

MAXIMO: u wouldn't tell me? even tho it's been established i wouldn't snitch? u...kno wat actually that's probably fair. u're still new. i'm not attached yet so i could turn on u if i needed to 😉

MAXIMO: u should have sent that last part in a voice memo. u've just left a paper trail for them to follow. its like u wanna be caught.

CATH: i'm more-so implying that i was defending the shit out of this place at one point and now i look like a dummy.

CATH: i don't know.. aren't you team leader or some shit? don't you have a duty to snitch? and don't turn this around on me, ok it's because i'm not attached to YOU yet.

CATH: ..shit..

MAXIMO: as ur probably aware, administration is on a hunt for the culprits responsible for the ransacking.

MAXIMO: they r putting pressure on house captains to encourage students involved to step up.

MAXIMO: speak now or forever hold ur peace.

MAXIMO: i'm willing to help any1 who comes to me work out an alibi or reasonable excuse/lie but if u get caught before then, u're on ur own. so choose wisely ig.

CATH: wish they'd spend more time finding a place for us to stay that isn't so easily accessible to everyone but 😜😜 one step at a time.

CATH: lmao max, you're a ride or die but it wasn't me. 'sides the administration here's kind of bad ass so i wouldn't tell you if it was me - do they still slap wrists in school?

“I think there intention was likely closer to giving everyone a headache then being perverts.” It might after all, be someones stupid idea of a joke. stealing items however, was over the line.” Personally I’m missing one of my shoes.” Stealing her shoes was one thing, but stealing someones underwear? that was all kinds of skeevy. Gave her the creeps. Even if she was verbally denying that that would be someones intention.

“Maybe you should check to see what your missing.” Judging from the cry’s of outrage she was hearing, it sounded like many of them were. Or more accurately all of them were. If someone was smart enough to pull this off then they were smart enough to hide one of there own things. 

      “ invading people’s privacy is a perversion in itself.  if they were only trying to give us a headache then they should have ,   i don’t know ,  tp’d our cabins or something. ”    her previous ardor tone had shifted when the girl had mentioned what’s been taken from her.   she didn’t mean to laugh. evident by how her lips pressed together into a thin line to stifle a giggle, with no advail.     “  one of your shoes ?  so they either have a foot-fetish or they’re a one-legged, fucking, yeti ?  ”   it was the mere thought of someone running off with one shoe that did it for catty.

@ba-central​ ; LOCATION: Junior Cabin

You have got to be fucking kidding. It was already a load of horse shit that they had to stay in run-down cabins and now this? Emma had no idea why so many kids at this school believed in God when things like this happened. She was going to kill whoever did this. She’ll go straight to juvie, she didn’t even care. The worst part of it all was that she had to talk to people now. Because whoever did this was fucking thorough. It was like a hurricane blew through the place and everyone’s crap was all mixed up. For the most part, Emma has found most of her things. It wasn’t difficult. If something was black, it was usually hers. And she didn’t have too many things. But she was missing something. Something… dumb but it was important to her so she figured she’d ask around for it.

“Hey, have you seen like, a postcard?” Not like a postcard, a postcard. She was just fucking exhausted. Not to mention through-the-roof irritated. It was Friday. She just finished and submitted a bunch of shit at school. All she wanted to do this weekend was hole-up and watch some movies she downloaded while at the library. Hunting and collecting all of her crap off of the cabin floor was not part of the plan. “It says Portland on it.”

how long can catty stand with her hands on her hips, observing the mess in front of her before she actually decides to start cleaning up?    pretty long.   an inconvenience through and through, it was like she was expecting things to get cleaned up on their own,  a miracle of god - isn’t that what they all rave about?   of course each time she enters her cabin after walking around the clutter outside she’s met with disappointment  but, what’s one more attempt.  

Location: The cabins

Time: 4:15

@ba-central​

Diana was seething. Someone had dared to go through her stuff. When she found out who did this they were going to find life very hard for themselves. And she was sure she wasn’t the only one on the war path. They better hope they never got caught. And after she had spent so much time making sure everything was in it’s place the other night to. Now she had to do it all again.

Most of the student’s were making an even bigger mess trying to see if anything was missing. Idiots. Diana had decided to go about it by starting on cleaning it up. She really didn’t know how they expected to find anything, or not find anything, in an even bigger mess. And it really was a big mess. She had found one of her T-shirts on the other side of the room. The idea of someone not only going through her stuff, but throwing it around to? 

She had to take a deep breath when she finished and realized what exactly was missing. The right shoe of her navy blue boots. And only the right one. Who even dose that. You can’t even wear them if you only have one.  The only thing they would gain is inconveniencing her.  She was tacking up the last of her pictures when a shadow fell across one of them. Turning around  she faced whoever had approached her. 

“This is just awful isn’t it? I don’t see how someone could do something like this.”

catherine’s next postcard is going to go along the lines of:  ‘ dear mom and dad,   thank you so much for sending me to a school that, as elite as it may be, is also at risk for break-ins. ’   while she whined about wanting something exciting to take place,  she was thinking more of spotting a grisly bear in her cabin, a random alien abduction,  not getting her room trashed.  here’s to hoping that her roommate is a clean freak who takes pleasure in organizing other people’s things so she could evade any of that responsibility herself.

@ba-central​

Location: Outside the Junior Cabin

“Hmm,” Katherine hummed aloud in a thoughtful manner as she stared pensively at the roof of her cabin, the one she would be calling home for an undetermined period of time. Tucked discreetly beneath the overhanging soffit, the blonde had managed to spot a buzzing beehive and if it wasn’t so close to where she would be sleeping that night, she might have even considered it charming. “That’s not good,” she uttered, voicing her thoughts to nobody in particular. It wasn’t that Kat was going to do anything about it per se, she figured that mentioning it was reasonably sufficient for satisfying her due diligence and that she could leave it at that. Besides, she had more important things to do; she hadn’t even tried to connect to the Wi-Fi yet.

𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒, brow rising at her use of cute to describe their living arrangements. “Cute, huh? What about living in an old, abandoned cabin in the middle of goddamn nowhere is cute to you?” His tone is far from aggressive; more bemused, if anything, at her naiveté. Rion is no stranger to living in less-than-luxurious conditions, but he’d draw the line at a mystery stench, permeating through the old building. 

It’s only when she points out the novel on his chest that his smile widens, hands moving to the back of his head. “I see you’re not a fan of reading.” He pulls the book from off his chest, losing his place in the process, though he’s read it so many times he hardly cares. “Books and movies can be different, you know.” Swinging his legs to the side, he maneuvers himself up from the chair, staring down at the book in his hands — it’s only when he actually registers what she says that his forehead scrunches up, head turning to meet the other’s eye. “Don’t tell me you actually believe in that bullshit. Right, like someone’s going to be possessed by the ghost of Edith Lynch and kill everyone.” Rion scoffs.

      admittedly,  the presumption she once had about the, assumed pretentious, people she was destined to meet at this school had been proving itself wrong.   still,   her tongue is pushed in front of her teeth, lip protruding slightly in an uncertain manner.  thinking.     head tilted sideways,   catherine nods her head once.   “ okay, so it’s a bit of a fixer-upper,   but i think it has potential.  ”          although it was sounded like a mere admission, it felt more like defeat.   her phone is now placed beside her, the former worry about updating her public school friends sits along with it.