no disguises;

That’s really cool of you to do, Dean Lex. I can write home and see if my mom might be willing to donate something. Even if it isn’t money, I know we have a bunch of theatre stuff just lying around the house. 

Theatre stuff would help tremendously for any musicals we might be putting on, or even just an open mic of sorts. 

Yeah, I kind of miss those meetings, I hope the Kink Club comes back, Dean Stovall. It was a good way to guide us and would appreciate the discussion on new kinks. As for the ideas… well, I don’t really know what could I do exactly, but I’d be up for anything.

I wasn’t aware anyone really enjoyed them as much as I did. Thank you, Brody. Would it be terrible of me to ask you to do some heavy lifting once we have a concrete idea? 

Master will donate, Dean Stovall.  $15,000.

Are you certain, sweetheart? 

I absolutely would love to rejoin the kink club, Sir, but I’ll understand if we have to wait a little longer for that. I can talk to my dads about funding but so far my only concrete idea is selling the flowers we grow on our gardening club. At least try to make it self-sufficient. But if you need anything else from me, I’d absolutely love to help, no matter what.

I think Kink Club will be up and at ‘em in no time. Selling flowers is something we could work on incorporating into a sort of art fair. Would you be able to help in setting that up? 

Hi Dean Stovall, I’m Madison McCarthy. I just arrived here yesterday. I would absolutely be interested in joining Kink Club. And if there is anything else that can I do to help assist fundraising for the school, I’m more than happy to help. Maybe a bake sale of sorts. I really do enjoy baking and not many people deny their love for baked goods. Also recycling. It’s good for the Earth and there are a lot of companies that actually pay back for whatever recycled pieces you give them.

I do think a bake sale would be good, we could even have a dinner of sorts. Recycling could be another thing to implement. I know that.. when I was younger my parents had to raise money for the church. One of our big things was selling plates of food. Spaghetti, chicken and rice, and I believe we have barbeque dinners at one time, too. Do you think that would be something we implement? 

My family made some pretty generous donations in the past, and I’m sure they’d be happy to do it again. I’ll talk to them about it and find out what they want to contribute. 

A concession stand would.. actually help a lot, but since we might have to cut a few of our teams, that might not be the best. If there’s a way to sell any sort of baked good that doesn’t cost much to make then maybe we could go for that. Are you close with any culinary arts majors? Even making our candy could work. 

My dad sent me to a school that’s broke as fuck. Great, might as well stop unpacking then. 

Your father was probably smart to wait until now. 

Well, Dean, if I can say – if what I saw during the demonstration earlier this week was any indication, we have a veritable wealth of talent at this school. I had hoped that we could show everyone that all our students, regardless of mark, are capable and intelligent and innovative, and I believe that’s exactly what we did, so – if you’ll pardon the business speak – perhaps we could leverage all of that into an art fair. It wouldn’t necessarily be like the festival that we already held, but might perhaps be more … ah, abbreviated? But we could display artwork and photography from our visual arts students and hobbyists, which could be for sale if the artist so desired, and show performances throughout the day – I myself would be happy to host a poetry slam – and I know we have immense musical talent among the student population, both within the major and without. 

An art fair would actually be a really good idea, a cover fee plus a chance to buy artwork - whatever people are interested in and opening it up to the town. I.. that’s a wonderful idea, Phoebe. 

Whatever your family decides, thank you for thinking to ask them. 

I’d have to talk to my family first, but I’ll see what can I do.

I know not everyone can help, and that’s perfectly okay, Brody. Don’t try to force it. 

PM: Hey, Allie. How.. how are you doing?

PM: I know it’s crazy, like kinda a huge step but I really care about her a lot, and I just… I wanna take her of her as long as she’ll let me.

PM: That’s wonderful, Allie. 

PM: How're you feeling today, Maxim?

PM: Hilarious. Come on you know you’re nothing like them. 

PM: Mm.

Amira knew that the second she spoke, that things would break. Whatever small calm that they had managed to put together would shatter, and she didn’t want that. But it happened anyways. Lex’s hand pressed against her stomach, warm and solid. She could feel something change between them, the shift palpable and it was exactly what she was hoping to avoid. “I know you wouldn’t.” It felt foolish now, to be thinking about what happened. She felt like a teenager, throwing an unnecessary temper tantrum because she didn’t get her way.

There was a sharp inhale as soon as Amira started to speak, but she blinked and reigned herself in to listen to what she was going to say. Pretty much everything she had assumed was true, but it still stung a little to hear it. Her hand curled a little at her stomach, rubbing with her knuckles - unable to keep still, but when could she ever around Amira? - and then flattening against her stomach again. Looking up to the TV, she saw some commercials playing and nosed into her neck again, trying to comfort her through until she was done. 

Amira relaxed a little more wen Lex said that the show she picked was fine. Though she probably could have picked a trashy reality television show and Lex would’ve gone with it. Blinking twice, she shivered as soft fingers slipped under her shirt, and confusion washed over her. Only an hour ago, she had been pushing Amira away, and now…? After a slight pause and hesitation, she let out a quiet breath. “Green.” Her voice sounded strange in her own ears, and she could barely focus on the screen in front of her with Lex touching her like that. Though she supposed that was the point, especially when she heard her question.

With the few moments of silence, Lex’s fingers kept swirling over her skin and maintained a slow, steady pace until Amira spoke again. Her fingers stilled, but she didn’t remove her hand and instead pressed her palm flat against her stomach, only continuing to rub with her thumb. It was nice to feel connected. At the very least physically. It still sort of felt like they were worlds away from one another, and Lex kept biting into the tip of her tongue to try and reign herself in. There were things that didn’t need to be said right now, even if it would help her. Or maybe she would view it as pity. Her mind swam with the conflicting emotions, the sickness starting to swirl in her veins again. That self-loathing like bile burned at her throat.

Amira didn’t have to wait long before Lex was moving towards her again, slim arms wrapping around her shorter body until she was pressed up against her Dominant. She sank into the embrace as the vice grip in her chest loosened a little. Lex could still touch her. She still wanted to. Amira dropped her forehead against Lex’s collarbone and nodded. “I know.” Her voice was muffled into Lex’s skin. She did know. It was Lex with her tonight, and not Sir, and Amira hated herself because for a brief moment, she wished that it was Sir. Sir wouldn’t have stopped, wouldn’t have cared about the scars on her body. But that wasn’t fair, and at the end of the day, she wanted Lex, not Sir.

As they settled together, Lex closed her eyes and let herself just breathe, pushing away all thoughts of before and what she’d done to her just a few weeks ago. The channels changing motivated her to open her eyes again and look up from where she’d been nuzzling into Amira’s neck. A quick glance told her that the channel was exactly what she expected it to be and she let out a soft chuckle, lips pressed to her neck. “This is okay.” Her arms tightened a little about the smaller woman, and she relaxed back into the headboard. “What color are you?”