god's plan;

the ghost of lamps past and a pumpkin stealing cryptid, a seemingly innocent episode title of one of sofie’s favourite podcasts. little did she know that she would be tuning in to em and christine talking about … well, about exactly where her and her classmates were supposed to be going camping. she didn’t notice it at first, happily listening to the hosts catch up with one another as she typed away at an assignment. then they say it: the bridgewater triangle. 

it catches her, but she thinks maybe she heard it wrong, or she was misremembering the name of the place they were supposed to be camping in a week’s time. or maybe bridgewater was where they were going but the bridgewater triangle was an entirely different thing. but then they continue. the corners of the triangle: abington, rehoboth, and freetown. wasn’t freetown one of the places they were going too? with concerned features she minimised microsoft word and opened chrome instead. in one tab a google search from the triangle and in another, her school emails open with the information about camp. there was only one freetown massachusetts, just like there was only one bridgewater massachusetts. both were in this bridgewater triangle, both were locations of philip’s war,  and both were where they were going to be camping. oh boy.

she paused the podcast, removed headphones from her ear, and wondered to herself, was this nuts? it had to be, right? she hated to disturb other people while they were working but if they were going to some crazy supernatural vortex, surely people had to know about it, right? “ hey, sorry, ” she said, reaching out a hand to grab the attention of the other person at the table. “ have you ever heard about this? ” she asked, spinning her laptop around to show the wikipedia page. “ the bridgewater triangle, ” she said, even though her companion could surely read that for themselves. “ i think it’s where we’re going for camp– i mean, do you like, ” she paused a second, lowering her voice a little as she continued “ believe in all that spooky stuff? ghosts, and cryptids and whatever? ” because sofie absolutely did, but she wasn’t in the mood to be completely mocked for it.

Izzy should have been working on an upcoming English assignment, due before they left for camp but instead, he was largely wasting his time by playing a browser game with a little helicopter in it and listening to Post Malone’s new album on repeat. “Hm?” he hummed as Sofie touched his arm, his helicopter tragically crashing into a cliff face after the blonde had stolen his attention for even just a moment.

He tugged one of his AirPods out of his ears to address the Keough house captain, shifting his chair slightly and angling it toward her so that he could get a better look at her laptop screen. “Balls of fire?” he repeated as he scanned the page in front of him, picking up on key terms, most of them completely foreign to him. What the heck was a ThunderBird?

He thought about everything he was reading for a moment or so, considering Sofie’s question at the same time, “I think demons use things like that to trick us,” he decided, “To fool us into giving them power,” he leaned back in his chair a little, feeling exceptionally uncomfortable about the upcoming trip now. Not only would he be without the comforts of his dorm but he had to take the entire duration off of work and he was worried that the anxiety-inducing elements of the whole endeavor might just rattle him. “They do that,” he assured her, just in case she had doubts, “What else does it say?” he asked, scooting his chair forward now and scrolling down on the page. “Animal mutilations,” he couldn’t help but think of the rabbit and then the bear if the bear even really counted. He supposed it was mutilated, sort of but only by its own hand...as far as he was aware, “That’s Satanism,” he stated plainly with certainty, sounding a hell of a lot like his mother. “Devil worshippers,” he spoke with scorn.

there were no words, or at least no words maggie knew, that would really express how touched she was by izzy’s gesture. while he was wishing there was something more he could do, maggie was thinking this was more than she ever could have expected anyone to want to do for her. lips pressed together in sweet smile, utterly lost for words ( which was an absolute feat ) for a moment. but only a moment. “ you’re gonna have to help me get through this, you know, ” she said, returning to picking through the fruits. she thought an absolutely appropriate thanks for the gift, was sharing it with izzy. “ i don’t want a single part of it to go to waste. ” she said, as if without izzy’s help it surely would. in reality, maggie could eat all that fruit on a sunny afternoon and still have a big dinner happily.

taking a photo, maggie hadn’t even thought of that. and while he didn’t actually do it, she was still impressed he’d thought of it. “ that’s smart, i didn’t even think of that. ” she admitted, meaning it as a small compliment. but as he continued, she decided she liked his attitude and nodded in agreement. “ absolutely, it’s an opportunity, ” she said, wondering for a moment if she should have changed her room up at all. even without photograph she’d replicated her dorm set up almost perfectly. everything just had its place, it made it very easy. “ i will, i can’t wait. ” she promised, some time ago she might have thought that someone asking her to come to their dorm and look at how they organised it would be some sort of joke. but she didn’t think that with izzy. she didn’t think she could offer any sort of critique or advice but she was excited at the prospect of seeing how he’d set things up, especially since he seemed to be proud of it. she nodded when he asked about the posters, of course she’d seen them. she had one in her bedroom back in nighmore, a gift she’d received at a service one time. “ i’d love to, i’m sure you could put them up, ” she was certain she’d seen a lot worse on the walls of broadripple dorms. “ i think they’re nice, ” in a way she couldn’t explain they were reassuring to her, she’d love to see them in broadripple even if it was only in izzy’s dorm. “ and i think other people would like them too. ” unintentionally she let that sit for a moment while she thought. other people would like them too, was it selfish of them to keep something so comforting to themselves? “ do you think we’d be allowed to put one up on like, a notice board or something? i think they would really brighten some people’s days. ”

He chuckled sweetly at her words. While he was absolutely certain she could get through it all on her own in time, he was flattered by her desire to share it with him and admittedly, it did look good, particularly on an empty stomach, “If you insist,” he agreed coyly, denying his enthusiasm. He nodded his head in utter agreement, not a single piece deserved to end up in the trash, he was confident in that much if nothing else.

despite his words, maggie’s eyes followed him and the collection of things in his arms carefully. ready to jump in and catch anything should it slip from his grip. but it didn’t so she didn’t need to, instead following after him, leaving door open behind her as per the school rules. then for the second time she was surprised by izzy, this time by the hug. she returned it, of course, but when he spoke again she couldn’t help but hug him a little tighter. pulling away with a smile that was holding back an even larger one. struggling to find any words to respond a chuckle fell from her lips “ i didn’t– ” she laughed again, trailing off for a moment before she managed to reign her thoughts and find a response that made sense “ you put in the work, you earned it, you deserve it. ” she said, and she meant that. all she had done was an introduction and some encouragement on each side. izzy was the one that had opened his heart to their community, the one who had blossomed within it. she couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of happiness than her friend.

when he redirected her attention back to the gifts, she was touched, now that she knew they were gifts. delighted surprise becoming apparent on her features as she looked at them. “ are you serious? ” she asked, looking back to him for a moment because she wasn’t totally sure. “ that’s so nice, thank you. you didn’t have to get me anything. ” she said, but even as she said that she was lifting flowers to sniff them. closing her eyes with a relaxed smile on her features as she enjoyed their sweet scent, before she looked to izzy again to thank him again “ they’re beautiful, thank you. ” she said, holding his eye for a moment but looking back to the gifts after that moment, this time to the collection of fruits. 

“ yeah, well, i think. ” she nodded, glancing up to admire the small room. “ i’m sure i’ll find something in my book bag in a week that was supposed to be somewhere else, and my pencil case on my shelf when it’s supposed to be in my book bag. ” she joked, though if her room was any evidence she was incredibly organised. and living so close to broadripple meant that her dorm was bare bones a lot of the time. just what she needed each day. then she nodded enthusiastically when he mentioned her new roommate. “ yeah, i’m excited to be rooming with her. it’ll be good to share the space with someone, you know, more like me ” she didn’t want to say anything bad about rooming with flick, but the two certainly weren’t alike. she imagined quite similar to how izzy had felt sharing a room with jay foster “ yeah, of course. ” she said first, assuring izzy that she understood what he meant and that wasn’t that she thought he was speaking ill of his old roommate “ it must be nice, though i think after a while i’d end up talking to myself. ” she chuckled, though she already did speak to herself a little already. “ but i’m sure they’ll find you a roommate before you go crazy or whatever. ” she joked, a laugh remaining on her lips.

“You’re too humble,” he insisted, it was like a battle of politeness between the pair, each of them verbally knocking the ball back over the net whenever the other one tried to give them too much credit for something. It was a sickly sweet dynamic but it was unlikely to change at any point, they were both too submissive for their own good sometimes. “-which I admire about you, of course,” he added, just in case the word ‘too’ had made it seemed excessive, as if it was a bad thing.

He waved a dismissive hand in the air, waving away any shred of doubt that Maggie had about whether or not she’d earned the relatively simple gifts from Izzy. He wished he could have done more, in honesty, “I wanted to,” he insisted, there was surely no way she could argue that point and it was true, he had wanted to do something nice for her. In fact, he’d wanted to do something much, much nicer for her but this was the best he could manage within the confines of his budget and logistical limitations.

community was everything to maggie. since starting at broadripple she’d felt more distant from her community than ever. even though they were only a few minute away in nighmore and she went home nearly every weekend, along with the occasional visit during her free time, she felt so separated sometimes. she struggled to relate to a large portion of her classmates, and she knew they struggled to relate to her too. when she spoke to her community about these feelings they assured her it was a trial, a test of her strength and faith. however, that was changing. she wasn’t alone anymore. she didn’t ever think that would be the result of introducing izzy to the store owners she’d known all her life after her parents said they’d been looking for some extra help, but she was so glad. she felt blessed to finally feel the link between her community and her friends at school, even if it was only one of her friends. it was enough, it was more than she ever could have asked for, and it had her dreaming of how much other people in the school could benefit from such a supportive group of people. she’d have to be blind to not see the change in izzy, even in such a short amount of time.

a voice from the other side of her door drew her attention away from the shelf she was trying to decorate. she’d really liked the way she had it set up in her old room, the way the sun had hit each sentimental thing one at a time in the morning. but she was struggling to remember exactly how she had it, which left her adjusting it tiny bit by tiny bit every time she glanced over at it. smile quickly spread as she recognised the voice, abandoning project so she could rush over to the door. pulling it open she was not surprised to see izzy, she had figured that much out, but was surprised to see everything he was carrying. pleasantly confused even. “ hi! ” she greeted happily, pushing door back so izzy had room to enter if he wished. “ how are you? what is all this? do you need a hand? ” she asked, listing off her string of questions with a light laugh falling from her lips, and her arms held out to catch anything should it fall. she was trying to be better at not pounding people with questions when she spoke, but it was difficult when she was a) caught off guard and b) with someone she felt so comfortable with.

“No, no, I got it,” Izzy insisted, whether he actually did have it or not was irrelevant, Maggie had done more than enough to assist him over the last couple of weeks and it was his turn to give something back. A little off balance but still managing, he wandered into the dormitory past Maggie and set the array of gifts down on her desk before pulling her into a hug, “I’ve never felt better and it’s all because of you,” and the warehouse and the people there and God but mostly, at that very moment, it was down to Magdalene Monroe, exclusively. 

For most teenagers, the idea of spending their weekend on the inside of a warehouse, opening boxes, arranging the stock and stacking shelves might have sounded like a punishment. For Izzy, however, it was the most fulfilling thing he had ever participated in. Sure, the thrill of hitting a home run came close but his time spent at the local food service warehouse was special, he felt useful, he felt appreciated, he felt like he was contributing something to his community and he was learning. 

He was the youngest employee by at least a decade, he was pretty sure but his co-workers treated him as an equal. When he made mistakes, they didn’t scold him, they helped him and showed him how to better himself. When he had ideas, they listened and acted and awarded him the credit he deserved for his efforts. They spoke for hours and hours on end for anything and everything that crossed their minds, they prayed together, they sang songs of praise together, they bonded. There was no denying that he missed how close he had once been to his friends but he couldn’t help but feel as if the people at the warehouse had already filled that gaping void, providing him not only with a group of new friends but family as well. It warmed his heart and every time he put on the uniform, which was increasingly often these days, he felt as if he was wearing a badge of honor. He was not only helping the Nighmore community, supplying food to the Academy or earning some pocket money, but he was also bettering himself and strengthening his relationship with God in new ways that made him feel superior to his classmates for the very first time since he had enrolled.

He had Maggie to thank for all of this, of course. She had been the one who had helped him acquire the job, she’d introduced him to the people she knew in Nighmore, the ones who ran this and that around town and knew how to get things done. He couldn’t have been more grateful and in a small, somewhat meager attempt to express his immense appreciation, he decided to bring her some flowers and a fruit basket he’d arranged with permission from the warehouse. 

kit took izzy dropping the subject as a victory, though he’d have to keep as close an eye on him that night as he could. he knew he couldn’t trust the other student not to snitch on him. knowing izzy, he’d probably confide in the priest during confessional, which was one of the more bizarre catholic traditions kit still hadn’t quite wrapped his head around. it seemed pretty culty. then again all of catholicism seemed pretty culty, so that checked out. 

he took izzy’s advice, sipping slowly instead of chugging. kit was kind of known to neglect his bodily needs to the point of discomfort, so he had had his fair share of chugging-related upset stomach incidents. he frowned at izzy, pulling the bottle away from his mouth, “el? who’s that?” the first people that came to mind were eleven from stranger things, and then L from death note. kit didn’t know a single person at this school who went by el. 

he took another sip as he listened to izzy talk about fortnite. the last time he’d played it was, like, a year ago; kit prefered more story-based, single-player games. still, he got the appeal. “sounds like fun,” he allowed, smiling. “i didn’t know you were much of a gamer.” kit didn’t know a whole lot about izzy, honestly, nor had he ever much bothered to ask. his smile faltered when he realized why that was; fundamentalist catholicism and aggravated assault. 

kit tsked to himself, capping his water bottle back up. “i was watching youtube videos in bed.” it was an eight-part docuseries investigating the murder of jonbenet ramsay, but izzy didn’t need to know that. kit got the sense it would just freak him out even more. “it sucks that the power went out in the middle of your game, though. hope you didn’t piss the rest of your team off.”

“Eliza,” he expressed, though he wasn’t sure if that clarified things any further, so he took another shot at it, “Eliza Fitzgerald, Damian’s little sister,” he added, stopping there before he provided Kit with her height, weight and blood type as well, just in case he was still struggling to identify her. He often forgot that people like he and Eliza were fairly invisible to the majority of the student body unless they were attached to Damian or Faith at any given time. Izzy didn’t mind it, it was safe, it was easier than attempting to forge his own identity independent of his ‘incident’ the previous semester.

“Uhh,” he hesitated, trying to come up with a decent response to Kit’s suggestion, “Sort of- not really,” he admitted, though he wished perhaps he could call himself an anything, a gamer, an athlete, a ladies man, a bookworm. He didn’t think there was anything particularly remarkable about him that was worth labeling, he had enough trouble even coming up with a bio for his Instagram profile. “I just play on my laptop sometimes,” most nights was what he meant by sometimes but he didn’t want Kit to think he was obsessive...unless Kit thought that was cool, of course. “Do you play?” he asked with an eyebrow raised, it would have to be the first thing he found in common with the other boy, of that he was certain.

ah, fuck, of course izzy was gonna be a narc about it. “you don’t have to tell anybody,” kit insisted, a little too quickly. honestly, the only thing more terrifying to kit than demons was the prospect of the school calling his father. “i mean, i’m pretty sure half the student body is completely wasted right now. everyone already knows.” not his most compelling argument, but then again, he was shit at arguing in the first place. if worse came to worse, kit could just beg. he’d been told he could be quite pitiful if he tried. 

kit blinked back in surprise. maybe he was being pitiful enough already. “yeah,” kit assured. “just- y’know, maybe a little dehydrated.” he hadn’t opened his water bottle yet, in fact. that was actually a good idea. it was as he was drinking his water that he realized that he hadn’t seen izzy at the party at all, and, unfortunately, kit had seen everybody. so, in an attempt to change the subject, he asked, “what were you up to tonight, if you weren’t at the barn party?” 

When Kit mentioned the intoxicated state of their classmates, Izzy took a moment or so to survey their surroundings. It was possible that Damian, just like the last barn party, was a little...under the weather...as well. If he was dobbing Kit in, did that mean he was risking dobbing Damian in as well? No, it wasn’t fair and Izzy was blatantly holding the pair to different standards but it was enough to cool him off for the time being. He decided to shut up after that. 

“If you’re thirsty, it’s already too late,” he advised, motioning at the water bottle, “You should drink- but sip, don’t chug, otherwise it might upset your stomach and do more harm than good,” he reasoned, surprisingly good at sounding like somebody’s mom for a teenaged boy. “El said she was planning on going to the party with a friend so I thought I’d stay up and see if they needed a ride,” he explained. He didn’t have a car of his own but he’d driven Eliza’s once or twice and worst case scenario; he was more than happy to walk anybody home through the woods and maybe even offer a piggyback. He’d done it before. “- and there’s this new thing on Fortnite,” he explained, a little more chirpy now that he was talking about something he liked, “You play in a group and it’s like a horde mode thing,” he looked over at Kit, unsure if the guy was familiar with the concept, “Basically you have to survive bigger and tougher waves of zombies while completing challenges and trying to keep your teammates alive and score points and stuff,” he tucked his hands into his pockets, hoping he hadn’t bothered the other male with too many words all at once. It wasn’t often that Izzy spoke for lengths, with one sentence following another and then another but when he did, sometimes it was difficult for him to know when to stop, “It’s fun,” he tacked onto to the end of his explanation as if it required justifying.

It was then that he reminded himself that there were more important matters at hand, “- then the power went out and so did the internet,” he explained with a shrug of one shoulder. “Where were you when it went dark?” 

kit snatched his hand away as soon as he realized who it was. there were probably worst options to cling to while he was nearly pissing himself in fear, but izzy definitely wasn’t the best option. he seemed gentle enough, but kit, just like everyone at the academy, knew about izzy’s little incident. he could be a violent psychopath for all kit knew. plus, the guy was friends with damian fitzgerald and faith mckay, and based off what kit had overheard in class, he was just as much of a jesus freak as the other two. he didn’t want to needlessly spook him, because izzy might just believe there’s a demon out there. 

on some level, kit rolled his eyes at the self-censoring. on the physical level, though, kit was still trying to catch his breath. “it’s nothing,” kit lied. “it’s… probably nothing.” he glanced back to izzy, hoping he didn’t look as frightened as he felt, before he marched away to catch up with the rest of the keough-melleray boys. he needed to message the bau, like, yesterday. hopefully, with that fearless crew around him, kit would be able to investigate. izzy probably wouldn’t be satisfied with his dismissive answer, though, so kit added the first thing he could think of. “i’m high.” kit grimaced at himself. wow, that was almost worse than telling a member of the god squad that there were demons. but kit stuck to it. “it’s, uh, it’s probably a hallucination or, or something.” kit just hoped izzy wouldn’t beat the shit out of him on principal for smoking the devil’s lettuce. or, worse, drag him to one of his chastity club meetings for some purification or whatever. 

“You’re-?” he questioned with a marked inability to actually finish off his sentence with his mind racing, the moment Kit mentioned that he was high. At school. Sure, Izzy was aware that there had been a party but not for a second did he consider the idea that his classmates intoxicated themselves off campus and then, God forbid, brought it back to the sanctity of the campus. Disgusting. “I have to tell-” he stumbled again, looking around at the available options. Among the Melleray/Keough can, nobody really stood out as a go-to. Did that mean that it was up to Izzy to be the student leader for the evening? Please God no.

“Are you feeling okay?” that’s what Damian would have said, right? or even Louisa? Oh no, these shoes were far too big for him to fill and he was feeling the weight of it already. “Maybe you just need something to eat,” food always helped, that’s what his mother had always said, “-or drink, have you opened your water bottle yet?”

as darkness descended upon the aloysius wing, kit felt a wave of cold dread wash over him. the wrongness that had been plaguing the academy since winter break, that had only been ratcheting up since then, had just been turned up another notch. it was like white noise, slowly turning up and up and up until it was all kit could hear. 

once he’d gotten a hold of himself, kit had dashed towards his bottom drawer, nearly tripping over his own two feet. there, underneath his sweatpants, lay his witchier paraphernalia. his hands were already shaking, he wasn’t sure if it was because of his inhalers or because of the horror slowly settling into the pit of his stomach, creeping up his chest and tightening around his ribs, like vines. he pulled his protection sigils out of his grimoire, copying them onto his arms in black sharpie. he grabbed a hoodie that was lying under his bed and pulled it over himself, just in time for a knock at the door, for kit to be, essentially, evacuated. he didn’t think to grab anything else besides the sharpie, which he shoved into the front pocket of his hoodie. and his phone, of course. in such close quarters, anything else kit might use to protect himself would be too suspicious. 

it was on their way out of the dorm that kit saw it out of the corner of his eye. he turned for a proper look, and suddenly it was like the noise was cranked to eleven. it was a shadow, like solid darkness, walking- no, no, it was floating- away from them, into the forest. kit’s breath hitched in his throat, pure terror choking him out, and he clung to the person nearest him. “holy shit,” he managed, voice breathy and barely there. “holy shit.” he turned to the person, and turned back to the woods, and the figure was gone. 

Izzy wasn’t particularly disturbed by the blackout, nor by having to pack a small bag for the night and traipse over to the dining hall to camp out with his roommate and a bunch of other guys in Keough. Mostly, he was bummed out about losing the progress he’d made towards his daily challenges in Fortnite when his internet connection suddenly dropped out and his laptop booted him from the match he had been in. As a result, he’d thrown his controller at the wall and rage-guzzled the rest of his energy drink in protest.

Now, he was wandering through the shadowy school grounds with the rest of the boys, some tired, some drunk, some just pissed off but not Kit...he seemed scared. When he grabbed at Izzy, it startled the Melleray senior too and he gasped, “What the-” he stopped himself short before he cursed in his fright, “H-E-double hockey sticks are you doing, Kit? What’s your problem?” he asked the other boy, one he didn’t know particularly well but was just a little unsettled by, admittedly. He knew enough about Kit to know that he was into some fairly taboo stuff, Googling creepy images with his buddies in the yearbook room and talking about things that made Izzy’s stomach twist into knots. Now Kit was grabbing Isacco too, he didn’t like that much either.

@izzydesantis

to say sofie’s life had become messy as of late, would be an understatement. she stood by everything she did, they were all efforts to do the right thing, protect people. but that didn’t mean she was proud of them. it didn’t make her feel like herself. she prayed the women of broadripple dinner would bring back the girl that won keough house captain. no, that earned it. 

if you asked her, she would say she just wanted to catch up with izzy. it had been a while, they didn’t exactly have a whole heap of friends in common and well, sofie had been busy trying to avoid a life in prison. and louisa was going to be busy hosting at the dinner, she didn’t want to be alone all night. so with a ‘sign’ that was really just one a4 piece of paper that she scribbled words and a couple flowers on in blue pen, she approached izzy’s dorm. 

knocking politely twice she was very glad when she was lucky enough to have izzy open the door, and not his roommate. while she liked jay, and thought he was a decent person, couldn’t face that energy right now. “ hey! ” she greeted warmly with wide smile. doing her very best to be bubbly and bright eyed, like she was known for. “ uh, ” she stalled for a split second, looking down at the sign in her hand before she looked up and continued. “ i know it’s last minute but uh, ” she held up the sign that read ‘wob dinner?’ in her best bubble writing, goofy grin spreading on her features “ wanna go to the dinner with me? maybe? ” she asked “ if you’re not going with your friends or like someone, obviously. ”

Ever since Damian had appeared at Isacco’s dorm room door in the middle of the night, wired and covered in dirt and claiming to have just drowned one of their classmates, life for Isacco De Santis had been increasingly difficult to predict. The wild events that had transpired since that fateful evening, including but not limited to the second beating and the subsequent break up of their friendship group, Izzy was a little worn down by life at Broadripple Academy, spending an increasing amount of time on his own and avoiding his peers. This didn’t mean, however, that he wouldn’t answer his door when somebody came knocking.

He closed his laptop and climbed off of his mattress to see who was at the door, not bothering to call out for them to identify themselves, deciding that no matter who it was on the other side of the wooden frame, it couldn’t be all that bad. When the Keough house captain appeared in front of him, however, he was sort of glad he hadn’t identified them first. He liked surprises and this was the best kind of surprise in his humble opinion. “Hey,” he greeted with the same enthusiasm, smile faltering slightly when the blonde hesitated, stumbling on her words briefly.

Izzy’s face lit up immediately, his eyes widening at the sign held up in front of him, he felt like one of the giddy girls in the teen Netflix shows he watched in secret when his roommate was out and nobody else was around to bother him. “Wow, Sofie,” he chimed, thrilled by the whole affair, “Like a promposal- of course, I’d love to,” he was going to be in attendance no matter what but now he actually had a reason to go and a reason to be as enthusiastic as Damian was about what the boys would be wearing that evening. He’d appreciated Damian’s input, of course, but he hadn’t really been too invested in his own attire but that was before he’d had a date to impress. If that’s what this was, of course. Now he was questioning himself. Shoving his doubt aside for the moment, he smiled again, “I’m just going with Damian,” he explained, “-but that’s different,” obviously that was different, “I really would love to go with you,” had he made that abundantly clear yet? He wasn’t sure. “-Do you want to come in?” he asked, realizing he’d been an awfully rude host when Sofie had arrived with such a nice gesture for him. “-and do you think I can keep the sign?” he’d have liked to put it on his wall if that was alright with her. Right next to his Tupac poster, in fact.

@izzydesantis​

while a moron, maggie was observant. especially so since louisa and sofie dug up that bone at agriculture club, that had been crazy. she was a little worried people would point fingers at her. she wasn’t as popular as the house captains, and she had yelled at them. anyway. no one had, yet! so she just had to be ready for if/when anyone did! while being observant, she had to notice things within what she would call her own friend group. things like izzy seemingly avoiding damian and faith, so in turn, avoiding everyone. so when maggie spotted him by himself in the common room, she simply had to approach. she didn’t think izzy would be one to stray from the light, having already faced worse trials and tribulations, but people still needed community. people still deserved community.

“ hey! ” she chimed from a few feet away, friendly smile spreading on her features as she approached. “ i haven’t seen you in a little while, ” she said, trying to be sly but maggie wasn’t particularly subtle when it came to her friends. and just like, talking to people in general. “ what have you been up to? are you going to the dinner? ” she asked, in quick succession. it was her way, she never really thought about leaving people time to answer her questions. she just needed to get them all out before she didn’t get a chance to ask them. eyes drifted to his computer screen, a little confused by what she was seeing. “ are you getting a car? ” she asked, hadn’t someone else recently done that? she couldn’t remember.

While avoiding pretty much everybody he considered a member of his inner circle and trying to wean himself off of playing a concerning number of Fortnite matches in a row, Izzy had taken to the common room to aimlessly daydream and listen to 90s West Coast rap while his classmates watched teen dramas and gossiped around him, they were a part of a world he couldn’t understand and speaking a language he hardly knew. On this particular occasion, he was on Google images, gawking wide-eyed at cars he’d never be able to afford but fantasized about having lined up in a pristine parking garage owned exclusively by him and him alone. Even the opportunity to take an afternoon cruise in one of the remarkable designs that filled his screen would have been more than enough to excite him for the rest of his life but for now, he was reduced to Googling and daydreaming, like any teenager with an internet connection he supposed.

He smiled when he saw Maggie but didn’t expect her to approach, assuming she was busy with her own affairs until she stopped at his desk and started speaking, surprisingly well paced for Maggie, he thought. “Hey,” he greeted in return, taking his AirPods™ out of his ears and tucking them neatly into their case, one that he had customized with monogrammed leather in an attempt to impress Damian quite recently. “Yeah, for sure- isn’t everybody?” well most of the BBC boys weren’t to Izzy’s knowledge and a lot of the girls weren’t either but Damian certainly was and Faith was organizing it, so that basically meant everybody, right? “You’re going right?” he hoped so, the more people between Damian and the rest of the world the better, even if was just Izzy, Eliza and Maggie holding down the fort for now.

Izzy glanced at his screen, a bashful smile twisting his features as he moved a hand, tempted to shut his laptop but deciding not to, it wasn’t as if he was looking up anything pornographic, not really. “I wish,” he confessed, “Just pretending,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, “Damian’s new car is...” he took a deep breath in, as if he was describing a miracle, “It’s incredible, I’m so-” jealous...but envy was sinful, “-happy for him. I’m trying to get a job so I can save up for one of my own. My parents will pitch in the rest if I make a good start on my savings,” he explained a little more hopefully.

“I know a lot about a wide variety of topics.” She responded, rolling her eyes slightly. “I’m sure the tour guide knows enough to get the job done, which for his career is enough.” Rachel then raised an eyebrow slightly at his question, not wanting to get into the topic of squirrel wax. “I am giving you the opportunity to rescind the question, because it goes against multiple school rules for me to explain it to you.” Judging from the religious dialogue, she could not imagine him risking anything purely for the sake of knowledge. Rachel turned her attention to other areas of the candle area, and went back to examining the candles. She realized that rhetoric spewing boy or not, she needed to form connections with other people to advance her own career, so she turned around, and instead of the edge in her voice, her tone was rather devoid and bored. “What is your career choice?”

“I rescind,” he announced with a swipe of his hand in the air to reiterate as much. If it was going against the school rules, let alone multiple school rules, he wanted no hand in it. He could Google it later if he was feeling particularly scandalous by the time they returned to campus.

“Construction- and business,” he only really tacked on the last part to make it sound more impressive than it was. He assumed his older brother Rocco would be in charge of the business side of things once it was up to the boys to take the lead. “My Dad and my Uncle own a home building business. Designing and building homes for people,” he probably didn’t need to explain what a home building business was to somebody like Rachel Valance but he felt obligated either way, perhaps as a result of his discomfort. “-or my other uncle owns a fresh produce store and continental deli, fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese, oils and things like that. I could work there,” 

       “Demon’s aren’t invited.” Tamsin stated flatly, like she had any clue in the matter at all. Clearly this was one of those religious superstitions that she liked to make fun of. Even World Religions lectures couldn’t deviate her from thinking it was all bullshit. That and she really did stop paying attention somewhere along Freshman year…it was all the same…God says this. God says that. Whatever version that might be. You were either a shit person, or you were a shit person with regret.  “Let alone by candles.” She added, so called ‘demons’ those existed within already—those were just resting. Picking up the same Lavender scent he was looking at, sniffing like it would be her next purchase; she’d forgotten about Izzy, it wasn’t more than a year since she saw him last and he looked the same, broader shoulders maybe? Eyebrow arch-work?  “If you want the candles, get the candles.”

Izzy decided to bite his tongue and not comment on the irony of the fact that Tamsin was making a comment like that on a day that Gwen Prescott decided to stay at home while the other students enjoyed an outing. The demon was invited, one of them just decided not to attend on this particular occasion while her partner in crime stood before Izzy with a dull tone of voice and an arguably condescending look on her face. “Not that one,” he decided, shaking his head gently as Tamsin took a sniff of the lavender candle. “Try this one?” he offered, picking up a candle named ‘a Calm and Quiet Place’ and handing it to Tamsin, thinking it might be a nice one to return to Broadripple which was anything but a calm and quiet place. “Gentle jasmine,” he repeated the words he’d read from the label before the blonde had joined him.

“Welcome home, by the way,” he added, realizing he hadn’t had the opportunity to say it since his classmate’s return to the Broadripple campus, or Massachusettes in general for that matter. It was hard with Gwen lurking around though he liked to think that he and the Seton house captain were on relatively good terms at the minute. Relatively being the operative word when it came to Gwen. “How was your trip?” trip didn’t sound quite right for somebody who had been absent for so long but alas, it was good enough, he thought.

Due to Kat and him clearly being the superior classmates of the century, Jay was currently on a five-foot ban from the junior for the rest of the afternoon. To be fair, he’d earned her a time out and barely walked away with a scratch, so he supposed he could deal with it. For now. Drea had been in the bathroom so at least, for the remainder of the day, he could hang out with one of them without getting immediate detention.

Sharing Drea wasn’t out of the ordinary, so while he waited for her to spread herself between the two of them, Jay wandered aimlessly and touched everything. It wasn’t until he’d heard a familiar voice that he turned around and saw Izzy being… well, Izzy. Before Gwen’s party, before he’d decked Damian in the nose, he hadn’t minded the guy. With a very select few things in common, he’d made it work, just like he made it work with everybody. But now? Now, things were all kinds of fucking weird. Especially starting with the fact Jay hadn’t known just how bizarre Izzy was until they’d had to sleep next to each other every night.

“Demons? For real?” He asked, but didn’t really want to know either. “I guess your mom thinks demons created The Simpsons and stuffed crust pizza too, huh?”

“I was never allowed to watch those sorts of cartoons growing up, my parents think they rot the mind- I don’t think that’s about demons though,” they also thought that video games would rot Izzy’s mind but it was his one, teeny tiny vice and if it kept him out of other sorts of trouble, shouldn’t his parents be glad for it? That was Izzy’s justification anyway and it wasn’t like he didn’t pray for forgiveness for deceiving his parents, if it could be called that, at any given opportunity. He chuckled at the mention of stuffed crust pizza, however, “- stuffed crust pizza isn’t a sin against Christ either, probably against Italy though- they’d have some pretty stern words about that. Ma runs a very traditional kitchen at home, she won’t buy into any American stuff, no stuffed crust pizza, no pineapple pizza, no gluten-free pasta or mac n cheese under her roof, no way, no how,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. He had never felt cheated by the fact, he could lose a couple of goofy American foods in exchange for rich, delicious Italian food cooked with only the finest traditional ingredients the De Santis way. 

The Yankee Candle store trip had been a necessity. Just that. Nothing more than the next course of action. The young woman needed to get a candle, preferably one her favorite scent of the ocean breeze. It was not for aesthetic nor personal reasons, Rachel needed the candle. It was much easier to work with a candle around her, for some reason. She attributed it to the fact that for years people across cultures and countries had tuned their lives to candles, followed by kerosene, and then to the electric light. It was a natural hardwire. It impended any progress she might make, so the woman decided to purchase the ocean scented candle before she got too wrapped in some light reading of The Art of War. The store was overbearing in its scents, and it made her nose crinkle, a slight and involuntary deviation from her normal stoic face. She quickly found the area of ocean themed candles, brushing off a sales associate who tried to touch her shoulder with a glare, she went about her business, not without smoothing her blonde hair of course. As she was trying to figure out which particular candle would be best, she heard what was perhaps some of the most unfounded rhetoric she had ever heard. Rachel rolled her eyes in annoyance. Gideon was catholic, as was her mother, so naturally it made sense using the staff’s wisdom to send her to a catholic boarding school, never acknowledging the fact that she was atheist. Too much blind trust in the unknown and less tangible fact than she liked. Rachel tried to ignore the other student, focusing on her shopping, whenever he felt the need to continue. Her stony face twitched slightly, hearing all the incorrect facts made her want to bang her head up against the wall. It was like a twitch she couldn’t contain. Setting the two candles she had been debating over down, the young girl recalled all she knew about the history of scented candles.

“That is entirely incorrect.” Rachel started off, her voice even yet with no underlying sense of emotion. “The first use of candles was in Ancient Egypt, whenever people would use them for welcoming travelers or for lighting their homes. It wouldn’t be smart to bring a full sized torched within a highly flammable area. Furthermore, candles also had a place in early China, where people used them as clocks as well as getting by with their daily means. Candles with scents originally were not even made on purpose, but rather from the materials of that time such as whale fat in China and squirrel wax in Japan. Cities banned the manufacturing candles due to their scents. However, incense sticks were used by a variety of cultures to provide present smells for their candles, and the first purposefully scented candles came from India, starting true scented candles. Candle cultured died out among common non-religious people when lamps were invented by the Polish-Armenian pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz, until people wanted a way to make their poor lives more relaxing and luxurious.” Any normal person would think that this was enough, but once Rachel got going she never stopped. Without changing her tone, she continued on with her unwarranted history lesson. “Candles for religious reasons were not used until the later 165 BC, which are commonly used by the Jewish festival of lights. Candles are also used several times in the Christian bible, and it can be deduced from the time period the New Testament takes place that they uses aromas to bring pleasant scents. Wasn’t one of the gifts the Wise Men from the East presented Jesus of Nazareth, myrrh? It is an aromatic used for incense which, wouldn’t you guess it, was used to make candles smell better!” Rachel finally finished her rant, before turning around, her blonde hair falling like a sheet behind her. “Open up a history book.”

Izzy’s eyebrows raised immediately at the sound of the junior piping up and more specifically, informing him that he, or his mother at the very least, was wrong. He swallowed, feeling a little put on the spot by Rachel’s berating as she went into an entire spiel about the history of candles or something like it anyway, admittedly his attention to the details was fading in and out as he tried to establish whether she was condescending him, threatening or educating him or perhaps a portion of each to some degree.

He scratched his cheek absently as she droned on and on, sounding more like an audiobook than a teenager, at least not any teenager he’d ever known before. “I-” he started before he realized that he really didn’t have much to say in response. “It’s just something my Ma says,” he put the lavender candle back, tucking his hands into his pockets to keep them occupied, deciding not to pick up another candle for a little while, at least until Rachel had busied herself elsewhere, lest he received another history lesson about whichever scent he just so happened to lay a hand on next. “How do you know so much about candles?” he had been on the same tour as Rachel had as far as he knew and nothing that she had said had been mentioned by the Yankee guide. “Maybe you should have given us the tour- I bet the Yankee guy didn’t know half of that stuff,” he suggested, trying not to be awkward though he hardly had anything profound to say after Rachel had proved herself to be the expert between them. “What’s squirrel wax?” he asked a moment later, his mind slowly catching up with almost everything Rachel had expressed to him, including the mention of whale fat which really spoke for itself and squirrel wax which was a little less obvious to the senior and required some explanation.