Cazzy!!

<Brave>

<God willing>

<Tough love>

"oh ryland. only you would cry over a bunch of rocks."

When I turned 17, we ordered a cake at the grocery store for my party, as we’d done many times before. If you wanted something written on the cake you’d write it into a section of the order form. We requested, very simply, “Happy Birthday Courtney”. When we went to pick it up the day of the party, this is what we got.

The bakery employees had absolutely no explanation for this. The order form, attached to the box, very clearly did not contain any of those extra names. Whomever had done the writing was no longer in, so there was no one to ask how this had happened. The fact that the name ‘Juan’ is misspelled bewilders me to this day. (I’ve never seen ‘Miley’ without the E, either, but it’s believable that someone might spell it that way.) Did this cake slip in from an alternate universe where I’m one quarter of a set of Hispanic quadruplets? Dyslexic Hispanic quadruplets, maybe?

This cake became the focal point of my party. At least two of my friends regularly called me ‘Courtney Mily Jaun Pablo’ for years to come. My siblings and I still reference it sometimes, eleven years later. It is probably the funniest thing ever to occur at any birthday celebration of my life, and may well remain so for the rest of my days.

No One Like You

now, it took us a while to realise it meant "(there is) no one like you". at first, we all parsed it as a botched "no one like(s) you"

but i have never in my life seen a post saying to support masculine trans girls and trans women or trans girls and trans women who like traditionally masculine things and its really important to understand that showing support for trans women in any form is just as important as showing support for trans men so please, please reblog this.

but, due to the fog of the amnesia, then the urgency of the mission plus Rocky's appearance, Grace doesn't fully look through every box until they're on their way to Erid. and that's when Rocky wakes up from sleep to see Grace sobbing over a bunch of letters. students telling him how much they enjoyed his class, actually made learning fun and interesting. got them through tough days. made them feel seen and appreciated. quite a few cite his class as being the spark that got them interested in science as a career. and even those that didn't still consider him the best teacher they ever had. fellow teachers admiring his classroom management and lesson planning, and even so his kindness to every student who walked into his room.

one letter is from the principal. when Dr. Grace's involvement in the Hail Mary Project became public knowledge, there was a push from the community to rename the school after him. after discussions with the school board, there had been a secret agreement to do so, even had a new sign made. they were just waiting for him to be released from the project and return to San Fransisco to surprise him. but, with the recent news of his "noble sacrifice", they'd gone ahead and done it. attached the press release with a picture of the new sign, a bunch of his former students standing around it, beaming. a local artist has been commissioned to add a mural to the front entrance over the summer break. and a final note: "Do your work knowing that it will allow the Dr. Ryland Grace Middle School to continue to educate and inspire students for generations."

Part of socializing and having friends is being a good listener even when you don't actually give a shit about the subject.

Your are hurting other people's feelings when you bluntly respond with "Anyway..." and then change the topic.

It can not always be about your preferred topic.

Grace comparing his feelings about his ex-girlfriend Linda to his comparatively much more comfortable and fun platonic relationship with Marissa 

Grace feeling anxious about whether Marissa might have feelings for him (man is terrified he has been taken OUT of the friendzone)

Grace being relieved when Marissa honestly tells him she has no romantic or sexual interest in him but likes being around him anyway

Grace having a hard time articulating to other people why he and Marissa aren’t attracted to each other

Grace being part of the reason Marissa and his roommate broke up because his friendship made her have higher standards for men overall 

Grace attempting to date post-Linda and every woman he meets being intimidated by his friendship with Marissa, which he finds hard to understand.

Grace realizing Marissa is also dealing with people she dates not liking how much time she spends with him.

Marissa choosing Grace’s friendship over her boyfriends every time 

Grace and Marissa getting older and coworkers being confused why they aren’t married 

I like headcanoning Marissa as a scientist working to develop solar powered tech for the DOE and so Grace sometimes invites her to talk to his class about renewable energy. Imagine students asking if there’s something between them.

People dismissing Marissa’s significance in Grace’s life because he calls her his “friend,” and not anything else. Asking him to cancel on his Thursday dinner date with her, or implying that he must find her unattractive, or even implying that she has a crush on him and he’s leading her on (or vice versa) 

Grace and Marissa needing to fake being in a relationship for some sort of accidental situation they find themselves in and both being like “ok that was really weird” afterwards

Someone suggesting Marissa is like a sister figure to Grace and he doesn’t think that’s accurate either

Marissa is probably the only existing human character who Grace was close enough to plausibly share some degree of actual physical affection with. He’s not hugging Stratt, that’s for sure. 

No seriously I need more fics where they hug.