jay foster.

‘kind of cool’ wasn’t really what drea had been going for. in truth all she’d been thinking of was away from kat, away from anyone who might tell kat they were there before they did. being kind of cool was a bonus. anything more than away from kat and not totally bug infested was a bonus. though they were still yet to see if the boat house met the second requirement on drea’s list. “ yeah, ” she agreed, nodding her head a little. trying to sound positive about it, optimistic. it was easier when she felt jay’s elbow knock into her shoulder. lips pressing into another small smile as she walked along beside him. 

she turned her head to listen to him as he spoke. she almost butt in at mention of damian and kat, wanting to tell jay about the stupid gateway drug analogy kat had made earlier. but instead holding her tongue for a second, and well, kind of regretting it. “ oh, you’re joking, ” she said, mouth making a small ‘o’ shape. she was partially sorry for jay ( and herself a little bit ) but mostly very, very amused. “ that’s tragic, that’s– ” she looked ahead again, raking her brain for some other word that might summarise how she felt about that situation. but she came up blank, instead shaking her head as she conceded “ yeah, that’s really tragic, ” she repeated her previous choice of descriptor, looking back to him again. “ how much have you heard about her mission trip already? are you going on her next one with her? ” she teased, taking a few quick steps forward so she was a fraction ahead of him and turning so she could walk backwards for a second. not the smartest idea, but she wanted to see him, his face, his reaction to a stupid joke. she hadn’t seen any of those in person in ages. “ you know, you might kinda good in a mormon get up, ” she joked, “ white shirt, skinny black tie, way way too much hair gel, and a dumb little badge that says elder foster, ” she continued, her confidence quickly catching up with her. as she spoke her ankle wobbled as she stepped on a bit of particularly uneven bit of ground, causing her to pause a second to catch her balance before she fell on her ass, but laughing a little at her self too.

    “I wish I was,” Jay shook his head in some kind of comedic remorse, lips upturned at the corners and eyebrows high because... well, he really wished he was. Sharing a dorm building with half the sweaty excuses for teenage boys was one thing, but sharing a bunker room with sweaty excuses and girls who prayed because the weather was only so-so that day just felt like a personal Hell to him. Jay tried not to judge, he really did. He liked giving people the benefit of the doubt, and he couldn’t really hold grudges even if he tried. But mild discomfort in his living space was something he was pretty used to by now, something he assumed Drea knew about him too by now, since both of their families seemed to live in pristine idealistic environments and well... they just didn’t quite always fit into that. Jay smiled a little at the thought. Living with Faith was probably going to be a bit like living with his mom. God, the horror at that thought. “Story of my freakin’ life, am I right?” He chuckled at Drea calling it tragic. It was funny how whenever Kat was around, Jay usually was the one copping all the blows from Drea. It was nice to have that one person to gang up on together, lovingly of course, but he didn’t mind being Drea’s punching bag either. He preferred it from anyone else, actually.

    “Man, please don’t. If she gets even the slightest hint that I wanna go, I swear, she’s putting me on a flight all by herself.” He pointed at Drea as they walked, nervous that it might actually happen too, since she’d definitely already suggested it. “I don’t know how, but she’ll manage it. It’s a hard no from me.” 

    Jay threw his head back in laughter at the Mormon get up comment, shaking his head. “Wow, you really got a picture in your head, huh?” He joked, “It’s like you forget I’ve seen you and Kat in those weird Scandy dresses. If anyone’s rocking a traditional look, I think it’s you, D.” He teased her, right in time for Drea to lose her balance. His hand whipped out to catch her, but only knocked her forearm and twisted, grabbing air instead of anything. Grinning at her on the ground, he reached a hand out for her to grab it.

    “So what do you think of this place so far? I give it a day and a half before Kat breaks out in hives or something for trying to give a rat she thinks is a possum refuge or something.”

Astrid wondered how long she would have to stay here before she could make an excuse to sneak away without seaming rude. She twisted her headphones anxiously around her fingers, the sound of her Joni Mitchell’s voice playing softly through the little buds, still audible if you listened very closely. 

She couldn’t help the little snort of a giggle that escaped at his confession. She was relieved to know that she wasn’t the only one who was struggling with their new living arrangements. “I have nothing against boats, I guess I’m just not a bunches of people kind of person.” She shrugged sheepishly, and tried to send what she hoped was a friendly smile his way but probably looked too forced. “I just felt a little um…overwhelmed by everything.”

    The upturn of her lips, even if extremely brief, made Jay relax a little. He understood that sometimes people got anxious, or just weren’t great at talking to others, but he didn’t mind. He could do all the talking if people wanted him to, he was good at that. Still, it was good to see she at least received some of what he was saying well. It filled him with a bit of confidence. “That’s fair. I can get behind that,” He nodded with a grin when actually he couldn’t. Jay was a bunches of people kind of person, he loved people, he liked talking, he loved learning about other people. But anybody who paid a little bit of attention to him already knew that.

    Sighing, he nodded. “I guess it can be kind of like that out here, you know, with the elements and stuff. I’m glad it hasn’t bucketed down or something yet, imagine being stuck in a storm or something.” It was dark, damp and clustered with dirt already he could just imagine everything being swamped in mud at the slightest bit of rainfall. “But you gotta admit, it’s kind of amazing.” He looked around them. “Like, photos can’t even do this place justice.”

“So cool!” Faith agreed, but because she was who she was and apparently this was not Jay’s lucky day that simple agreement didn’t mean he had escaped her excited babbling. “I would love to go back. I mean the kids were so cute and they were just so eager to learn, you know. We made crafts and done bible study. It was wonderful. Technically my Uncle Dave called in some favours to get us on the trip last minute but I’m sure if you wanted to, for after graduation obviously, I could ask him for the phone numbers. It’s such an experience Jayin, I think you’d love it just as much as I did.”

At least now that he had grabbed the crucifix, the weight significantly easier to carry, they were moving. The quicker they got to the entrance and hung the thing up the quicker Faith would go searching for her next task. Although there was always a chance that now he had helped with this she would be dragging him along all day. She did tend to latch on after all.

“Yes we!” She was basically vibrating with cheer, clearly having missed the fact that Jay’s response had been a little more lacklustre than hers. She figured it was just because he was unaware, surprised at the worst. “Didn’t you get the room assignments? We’re both in room two!” There was no doubt that Faith was very happy about this. The rest of the room? Well that remained to be seen. “I think we’ve got a really strong bunch. I mean there’s obviously a few people I might not have picked but there’s me, you, Isobel, Ezra. And we didn’t get Gwynth or Maximo or Lucy so I’d call that a win.” It wasn’t that she disliked the others, it was just that she didn’t want to potentially have the devil summoned in her room. Besides, she’d been roomies with Gwen before and it hadn’t exactly been the easiest roommate dynamic.

    He tried to keep eye contact with the blond as she rambled on, and while he did, it was more difficult to keep his lids beyond half-mast as his brain went elsewhere. He meant no offense to Faith, she’d probably done some really nice stuff while she was over in wherever it was, but Jay didn’t really care. Teenage hormones flaring hard enough to almost earn an eye roll, he instead, hoisted Jesus up a little higher and waited for her to take a breath of air before he asked for some direction in where to put him.

    “...Both in room two.” He repeated, a little short of breath. “Cool. Great,” In Drea’s sarcastic words; love that for me. He thought, not thrilled at all by the news. It wasn’t that he hated Faith, he just didn’t like being around her very much. But while Jay was pretty dumb on some levels, he wasn’t dumb enough to think he was the only one who thought that. “Uh yeah, a definite win.” He huffed, hoping that compliance would hurry the situation along rather than prolong it. “Say, where’s the J-Dog going?” He asked, trying to simultaneously process the fact he had an unforeseeable future of rooming with Faith to look forward to.

easily andrea slipped her leg out the window, followed by the rest of her. distracted for a moment from her beating heart and excited anxiety about sneaking off with jay by the roughness of timber under her fingers. concentrating a little harder than she usually might to slip out a window so she didn’t earn a splinter for her efforts. pulling her other leg through she was a touch surprised when jay’s hands met her waist at the last minute. her own hands instinctively reached for his shoulders to aid her drop, but still landing with a quiet thump. but then they pulled apart, the small moment was over and andrea was left wishing she’d pulled him closer. 

she tried not to think on it. instead tugging her sweater back into place and tucking away curly locks that had fallen in her face before she looked back up at him. her own grin returning when she saw his, a quiet chuckle on her lips as he called out her wording. “ what excuse did you use? ” she asked, her own excuse had been rather boring she wondered what he’d come up with and reasonably how much time it had bought them. before she could comment on where they could go to hopefully stay out of any wandering eyes– because she had been thinking about it, any time she’d spotted somewhere around that might offer her and jay a morsel of privacy she’d made note to remember it– but before she could comment on that, he mentioned the idea of damian or faith finding them. she cringed immediately at the very thought of either of them interrupting dray time, but she did have an answer. “ faith, definitely faith, ” she said, smile returning to her face not because she was excited to talk about faith but just that she was excited to talk to jay. “ like both would be bad, don’t get me wrong, but faith hasn’t seen us in ages. ” hadn’t seen drea in ages, she had no idea about jay’s rooming situation. “ she’ll wanna like catch up, or something. damian is at least starting to figure out that i tolerate him, and barely tolerate him. ” she concluded, not even remembering that supposedly damian had seen them on pizza day. she hardly remembered that kat had seen them.

she sucked in a breath before she continued, trying to ignore the tightness when she breathed. why was this awkward? they were so close now, why did she feel nervous? “ but uh, i was kind of thinking about where we could go, so you know, kat and damian and faith and whoever don’t spot us, ” she looked up at him, seeking some sort of approval that yes, they would sneak off, because she still wasn’t ready for kat to know. or for anyone to know, really. she wanted it to be just something for them, just for a bit longer. “ there’s the river? i mean, it might be nice. there’s the bridge and i heard someone talking about a boat house or shed thing down there? that could be an okay spot. ”

    He gave an elaborate shrug, not really feeling the need to re-tell his bathroom excuse to Drea, especially if he didn’t feel like potentially ruining the mood with it. “Oh, you know. I just made whatever up and said it with enough confidence so she’d believe me. Like she does,” He gestured his hands out in affection towards their best friend, while also simultaneously calling her out for probably one of her worst traits. Sure, Jay had a thought or two about lying to people, but he loved Kat in a way that made it easy to ignore his morals sometimes just for her benefit. 

    “Ew,” He scrunched his nose and chuckled at Drea’s claim that Damian was onto her, hoping that didn’t mean the two of them would have to spend copious amounts of time around the other senior. Jay had to admit, he was being a little slack when it came to support on that one. It wasn’t that he still had it out for Damian, or that he didn’t like the guy even. He just still couldn’t get over the shame of what he’d done at that party, what he’d seen and the following aftermath of it to ever not be awkward between him and Damian anymore. So whenever the tall Fenwick came walking towards them, Jay was normally the first to say he had to go. 

    “Sure, I heard some people talking about a boat shed, it might be kind of cool.” He said, not too sure how he felt about it at this time of night but willing to look tough and agree in front of Drea anyway. So while he would have liked to grab her hand and drag her in any given direction, he instead just nudged her shoulder with his elbow, kept himself at bay, and started to walk. “But hey, do you know what’s really exciting?” He said, trying to sound faux thrilled about his news. “While you get to tolerate Damian for Kat, I, on the other hand, get to share a cabin room with Faith. So basically it looks like we’re both winning.” Sarcasm.

Location: The Creek

Time: Mid-afternoon

Open to: anyone!

Aurora enjoyed the outdoors, most of the time. Her family had always made it their mission to get her and her brother involved with nature in anyway they could. I mean….not only did they live on a farm, but summers were usually spent camping truly ‘roughing’ it. So ultimately?  she was very, very familiar with it. Unlike some of her other fellow peers, she didn’t mind the trees, animals, and even getting a little dirty. 

The brunette found herself craving alone time, which wasn’t unusual for her. God, being around a lot of people for too long just killed her already low social battery. What was an easy way to try and fix it? Finding her new favorite hiding spot with her most beloved past time; reading. She was currently in the middle of a True Crime book that she was completely engrossed in. The case being investigated and spoken about in the text was extremely fascinating to her. Blue orbs were approaching an exciting paragraph when she heard a crunch a few feet from her. Great, who was gonna bother her now?

“Looks like you caught me red handed,” she spoke out in a sarcastic tone. 

    Jay had a very important job to do and that was to somehow fit a 1 litre bottle of vodka into as many sucked dry capri sun packets as he could in one afternoon. He’d figured he’d get to work while the girls were complaining something fierce about the outhouse, an adventure he didn’t really feel super in the need to accompany them on. So, with his tools in his bag, he set off to find a private, sunny spot by the river somewhere and when he happened to come across some company. He couldn’t say he knew much about Aurora, just that he didn’t often see her at being one with the crowd, so who was she going to tell, he thought, plopping down by the bank near her.

    “Stick ‘em up and surrender.” He joked, ditching his bag onto a grassy spot while he took a seat, inviting himself into her quiet little alcove. “What’cha reading?” He asked, making simple conversation before digging into his bag for the packets and scooping them out onto the sandy bank next to him, then next, a flavor tool he’d picked up from town that looked like a giant syringe. 

it had felt like an odd game of cat and mouse all day. she hadn’t been too busy to not notice him, whenever they came close to each other, or spot him across the way as he talked to his new roommates. but she’d been too busy to act on anything she felt when she saw him. or there was someone around that couldn’t know around, or specifically kat was around. she spotted them together at some point. if it had been before they went home she would have just approached, inserted herself into the conversation without a second thought. but she did have a second thought that time. she observed for a second, smiling a little to herself. before she turned and went to do something else. call her selfish, but she didn’t want her first interaction with jay after the break to be with kat too. 

but the moment didn’t come. just more almost’s. more nearly’s. until the sun had set and they were sat around the bonfire, and though there was people between them she couldn’t help her eyes from drifting to him. it made her feel a little less stupid and giddy that his eyes kept meeting hers but each time they did she felt more that she didn’t want to end the day without actually getting to speak to him. it didn’t seem right. they’d spoken every day when they were apart and now that they were together again they hadn’t said a word. well, they had. but not just them. without everyone else. 

if this cursed place had cell reception she would have simply texted him her grand plan. but she couldn’t, she just had to hope he’d know what she was doing. when she announced she was going to go grab a sweater, she tried to hold his eye for a second longer than normal. follow me, but like, in a couple minutes, she tried to tell him with his eyes. who knew if it had worked. once arriving at her own room she stood around awkwardly for a moment, not quite sure what to do to fill the time until jay showed. if he showed, if he figured out drea’s silent message, if he wanted to see her too. he did, right? god, she begged her own thought train to shut the fuck up before it went down that path. she pulled her suitcase out from under her bunk and starting to mill through it, deciding she might as well look for that sweater while she waited. just as she found it, and was pulling it open so she could pull it over herself she head the knock on the window.

head turned and stupid smile warmed her features immediately when she saw him. in a way it was relief to see him but also totally nerve wracking. she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, what he wanted to do– but, he wanted a moment with her as much as she did him. she had that at least. standing from her position beside her suitcase she pulled her dad’s worn out yale sweater over her head as she walked over to him. unable to wipe the grin from her features, and not wanting to either, she unclasped the window and pushed it up. finally she tugged her hair free of sweater collar, letting it fall over her shoulder as he spoke. “ yeah, it’s been a bit, huh, ” she agreed, matching him and leaning over so she could rest her own arms on the window sill against his. the foundation of the cabin made her a little taller than him, and as much as she wanted to just pull him through the window and kiss him until she was out of breath, she held that urge. “ it’s good to see you though, ” she added, pressing lips together in attempt to hide her smile but it failed and it quickly spread into wider grin. she stayed quiet for a beat, lip catching between her teeth, before she pushed herself up from the sill. “ okay, back up. we’ve probably only got a minute before kat bursts in here squeaking about you ditching her, ” she said, playfully teasing their finally absent best friend as she prepared to hop out the window to join him. 

    He was all smiles, or at least that’s what it felt like as he gazed at Drea until she was right in front of him, forearms touching. Sometimes he felt dumb for smiling all the time at things, but he didn’t feel dumb smiling at her, enraptured in the way her hair had gone all fuzzy from the day in the wilderness and her skin looked clear. Besides, this was the closest they’d been since before they’d had to leave campus during the bug storm. It felt like the closest they’d been in months so he leaned into it, all the way up until she told him to move back.

    He did, but not willingly. Stepping back, his heart skipped excitedly when Drea grabbed the window’s edge and slid her thin frame out into the night air, her leg dangling and Jay’s hands itching to grab it. Normally, he would have. Normally he wouldn’t have even thought about it, but he was thinking about it now in ways he’d never thought about it before. It was okay, he had to remind himself. Before he’d had to hope she was okay with a hug or him pinching her side, he’d had to play it off like friendship. Now, he wondered if it was okay to not be just about that, and to be maybe about something else, like just wanting to put his hands on her because it felt good and made him feel electric.

    Casting the anxiety aside, Jay got over himself, or tried to anyway. It was easier to do when Drea’s dangling legs showed a bit of a jump to the ground, making Jay instinctively come forward to take her waist and help her down. She still landed with a thump to the dirt, but for just a moment, he could pause the moment of her in his arms before taking a half step back and grinning down at her. “Right, cause I’m the only one that ditched her.” He teased. “You know, this camp’s only so big. If she doesn’t find us, somebody else probably will. Who’d be worse, you think — Damian? Faith?” He hadn’t told Drea she was his roommate yet, he hadn’t gotten the chance. But he was pretty sure he could predict her reaction when he did.

“Do you think they have a vegetable garden here?” Honey Bea asked to the nearby student as she leaned down to press her hands against the dirt. It was firm, but it had some moisture in it. This wasn’t the worst soil for farming, and the cook could probably grow some great root vegetables. But looking around, she didn’t see anything that resembled a garden which made her start to questions the kinds of food they be preparing for breakfast and dinner. She was not a canned veggies kind of girl, that was for sure. “I don’t think I’ll be able to eat much here.” She said with a sigh, hands coming up to curl around the bill of her baseball hat, a nervous habit she had picked up over the years. “You think the Sisters would look at me weird if I sneak a bunch of food back from campus? Or will I just have to eat a big lunch?”

    Jay wasn’t really a plant person. But it also wasn’t his fault his best friend was a nature freak then freaked out at nature the moment it touched her. He loved Kat Bishop probably more than his own biological sister, but he swore to God, if she kept trying to get him to eat a vegetable he’d have to put hotdogs in her shoes or something. Not to mention, she’d brought her plant Richard with her to camp much to his and Drea’s dismay, so he kind of wished she was here to have this conversation with the other girl instead of him. It would have probably gone a lot further.

    “I doubt it. This place barely has a working outhouse, seriously, have you been yet? It sucks.” Jay snorted, wondering how a vegetable farm was anyone’s priority out here when literally everything else was a big fat question mark. “Nah, they look at everyone that way, trust me.” Granted, Jay gave them a lot of grief to look at him the way they did, but he chose to ignore that intrusive thought. “I sneak dinner back from the hall all the time. Sometimes they catch me and tell me off, other times I eat pie in bed and it’s friggin’ awesome. What are you missing? I’m missing the bacon and eggs, to be honest. Lame, I know, but bacon rocks.” And Kat hated it, so double win.

BROADRIPPLE S3: THE RETREAT

    He was buzzing, he had been all day. Despite the overall appearance of the cabins, Jay wasn’t really fussed by the state of it all. The fact that they were outside school grounds on a school night, with the freedom of total wilderness around them, he thought it was awesome. Creepy, sure, and he was pretty sure he’d seen something in the Church earlier too that’d made his heart skip a beat, but he wasn’t about to freak anybody else out with it, so he just focused on how good of a night around the bonfire it had been. People had cracked jokes ( mostly him at Kat’s expense but still ) it had been a good night for Day One. The only thing that could have made it better though was being able to catch those minutes with Drea he’d been hoping for all day, ever since they’d gotten off the bus and they’d brushed hands. 

    It was weird to think that he’d felt so close to her during the miniature break, yet seeing her again in person was almost like starting from square one. Sure, they’d spent hours rambling about everything and nothing, some nights he’d even almost fallen asleep to her voice because he’d called her high at 3AM even though he knew her parents would kill her if she woke them up. But he could still remember the wind that had been snatched from his throat the second he saw her among the masses at the bus bay that morning, ready to ship the students off to The Retreat. All he’d cared about at that moment was wanting to touch her, grab her hand, or hug her or, just something. Something to solidify that the last few weeks had been real and it hadn’t just been a fever dream.

    Now was his chance, he realized, sitting by the fire with his best friends. Kat was rambling about some new species of plant she was pretty sure she’d just discovered and was trying to come up with a name for it. Drea, on the other hand, he felt like he was catching her gaze every two seconds even when he wasn’t trying to. He wanted to see her. Really see her. Without people around, which sounded weird and creepy actually, but he didn’t mean it like that. He just wanted... Well, he wanted pizza day back. Where it was just them, alone, enjoying each other’s company. No pressure, no prying eyes. 

    No Kat.

    At the announcement that Drea was going to grab a sweater from her cabin, Jay took it upon himself to see that as a signal. Whether it was or not, he supposed he’d awkwardly find out in about two minutes, but he had to take it. If not now, then when? He hadn’t kissed her since before the crazy bug storm and he’d be a liar if he’d said he didn’t want to. All the same, he let Kat ramble a little more before conveniently announcing an outhouse break just as one of the sister’s announced Lights Out in half an hour. He did his best to make it sound urgent and gross so she didn’t feel like accompanying him, and it worked because only moments later he was sneaking around the back of the junior’s cabin, sticking his head in every window until he found the room Drea was milling around in, apparently actually looking for a sweater.

    He knocked on the glass quietly, waiting for it to open before resting his arms on the sill and smiling. “It’s been a while since we met this way, huh?”

There were many faces from around Broadripple that Faith had missed while she was on mission, and unfortunately for Jay his was one of them. Having never quite understood that there friendship - and yes she did refer to them as friends - was almost completely one sided, she was thrilled when he pushed upon the door. So thrilled that she might have jumped up and hugged him had it not been for the massive crucifix weighing her down. Perhaps God did provide some small mercies.

“Jayin!” She squealed happily, large grin on her face and apparently not closer to pronouncing his name than she had been last time they’d seen each other. She was once again oblivious to his alarm, mistaking it for a happy shock that a friend was home. “Oh no silly,” She giggled as she shook her head slightly, she might have been trying to make the best out of a bad situation but glorified camping wasn’t exactly how she’d imagined she’d come back to her beloved school, “We finished up the project we’d been working on, a new wing in the local hospital, and I thought it was time to come home. I had considered staying but I think my work in Malawi is done for now.” One of the kind village elders had been particularly insistent that she leave, he said that she needed to follow her own path…and was pretty clear that the next steps in that journey were far far away from his village.

Her smile only grew at Jay’s offer. “Please,” She said, shifting the heavy weight in her hands as though that would somehow make him relieve her off it quicker. “You know, this could be pretty fun if we let it. I think we’ve got a pretty great room!”

    His shoulders tensed. She really was never going to call him Jay, was she? Even after he’d tried to at least teach her the proper pronunciation of his name, but he supposed sometimes you just had to pick your battles... and as his eyes went back to the big ol’ crucifix on the floor, he had a hunch he was about to get launched into another one at any moment.

    Malawi. Jay mouthed the word back at her in hazy confusion, having no idea if that really was local or in some foreign country somewhere. He knew people went to build houses and schools in Africa and stuff, but he was scared to get Faith to clarify. He did want to make it to dinner this century, after all.

    “Cool.” He opted for the simple route, nodding a bit and glancing down the hallway. He didn’t know which room was his, but he wished he did. Nodding when she accepted his offer, Jay called himself something nasty in his head before feeding both straps of his backpack on and crouched to pick up the holy artifact. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was heavy. Oofing with a twinge in his spine, Jay stood erect and let out a struggled sigh, hoping that wherever she wanted this thing wasn’t any more than ten or twelve steps away. “Wuh-wait, we?” He double-took on Faith, wondering if she meant we’ve got a pretty great room as in she did, her and her friends, or if they did. He and her.

Astrid’s shoulders bunched up around her ears, as if she was preparing to fly away, only she had no wings and there was no where escape to. She pressed her back harder against the decaying beam, hoping that if she pressed hard enough it would just absorb her and she could disappear. She had assumed that everyone would still be at the cabins, she had snuck away to get away from her classmates, not get stuck in a run down church with one of them. 

She looked around the ruins, taking in her surroundings as he talked. It was certainly cool, as he put it, it would have made the perfect hiding spot if he hadn’t discovered it first. “I guess so.” She mumbled, attempting to make conversation. She was more likely to rewatch Seinfeld for the millionth time than watch a show about flesh eating monsters but she got his point. “Why aren’t you at the cabins?” She asked, awkwardly trying to make small talk, something she was woefully unskilled at. 

    Jay watched the blond for a moment after her lackluster reply before he realized maybe that was kind of weird with the whole creepy church environment considered. So after a moment, he looked away politely, instead pretending to be taken with the overhanging ivy and spiderwebs collecting under one of the awnings. He didn’t look at her again until she spoke, figuring that was her paving way for conversation, not considering she might have wanted out of it.

    “Oh, uh... Well, it’s gonna sound kind of dumb but my roommate kinda sucks.” He paused a moment, feeling like maybe that wasn’t such a good thing to say to someone who could very well just go back and tell Faith his exact words used. He hadn’t meant it nastily, just... “I mean she’s fine, she’s just... a lot, y’know? I guess I’m just not used to living with girls.” It wasn’t really a question, just something offhanded that he hoped she could maybe relate to, probably about sharing rooms with boys. He knew what that was like, and he felt sorry for a few of the senior girls who had to room with some of the senior boys he’d shared dormitory walls with. “What about you? I heard a bunch of people were going to go check out the boat shed, not a fan of boats?”

THE FOSTER FAMILY.

“ Dad, can I — ”

                                   “ Ask your mom.”

STATS

Name: Jayin “Jay” Foster

Age: Eighteen

Zodiac: Leo

Grade: Senior

House: Keough

Cabin Room: Senior Cabin: Room 2

How long have they been at Broadripple: Since junior year

Where are they from originally: New York City, NY

Extracurricular: Ex swim team member.

TRAITS

Positive Personality Traits: Creative, Adventurous, Generous.

Negative Personality Traits: Lazy, Aloof, Careless.

FACTS

Most people assume he’s just some broke, dirty Brooklyn hipster, which he kind of is, but never actually lived in Brooklyn and his family isn’t anywhere near broke. They’re pretty wealthy and anyone paying close attention might be able to figure that out, ie: he owns the latest Samsung, has a portable Switch, a graphic tablet, a collection of comics. All things that actually cost a lot of money to own.

He’s been into Drea Pearson ever since he came to Broadripple halfway through his junior year but has only recently had the guts to tell her. They’re dating in secret because they’re afraid of what their mutual best friend Kat might think at being left out.

He used to be on the swim team with Damian until they had a falling out, and Jay punched him at one of Gwen Prescott’s parties. He quit the swim team after that and hasn’t really been able to look Damian in the eye since.

Jay’s got the biggest guilt complex imaginable and is easily manipulated.

HEADCANONS

He’s super artistic but will never talk about it because he’s stupid dumb and doesn’t even know he’s got an eye for it yet. Mostly, he just likes street art and comic books and looking at other people’s art.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is definitely his all-time favorite movie and 100% his aesthetic style.

Smokes a lot of weed when he can, but struggles to get supplies in Nighmore because there’s not a whole lot of options. Otherwise, he’s got a fake ID from back home and often will use it to get his friends alcohol.

LINKS

His pinterest!

His playlist!

His character tag on my blog!

His aesthetics!

His socials!

It didn’t take long for Astrid to unpack her things. Partly because she hadn’t brought much along – just her record collection, clothes, a Yvonne Blanc poster, and a few mementos – and partly because she wanted nothing more than to get out of the cabin as fast as possible. Sharing a dorm room with one person had been bad enough, now she had to share a room with six other people, with no means of escape. She hadn’t said a word to her bunk mates, just kept her head down and unpacked as quickly as she could, before shoving her headphones in her ears and escaping into the woods. She didn’t care how dense they were or that Coach Cobb and Sister Michael had warned them about wandering off alone, she would rather get lost than awkwardly stand around while her classmates reunited after weeks apart. 

She walked with no direction, her music playing loudly, drowning out all other sound. She wasn’t sure how long she had been walking before she came across the ruins of the old church. The ominous ruins both terrified and thrilled her, and she cautiously carried on, entering what had once been holy ground. 

She had expected everyone else to still be at the main campsite, so she was startled when she rounded a corner and came face to face with one of her classmates. “Oh!” She exclaimed, jumping back, hitting her back against one of the deteriorating beams. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think anyone else was here.” She said, pulling her headphones out of her ears.

The best part of school camp, Jay had already decided, was the freedom for exploration. He might have been bad at a lot of things but his geo-compass was actually pretty good. He didn’t get lost much, he was always able to find his way by landmarks, even if the only ones he had around the woods here were weirdly shaped logs and cool rock formations. Probably a city street kid thing, he figured, though told no one because that sounded so fucking dumb.

Still, he was human, so when he heard the cracking of twigs underfoot when he thought he was alone, it gave him goosebumps. Peering his head out of the creepy old church which was definitely a goldmine for getting stoned or finishing a bottle of Johnny Walker for no other reason than to say they did it, he waited a beat until stepping out himself. He was almost even going to call out, but by the time his mouth opened to do so, someone rounded the corner straight into him and his question was answered with two noises of shock from the both of them.

“Hey no problem, I uh,” He laughed awkwardly. “I thought the same. I mean. Obviously until like, just then.” He grinned, feeling kinda dumb about the fact the girl had just scared him enough to yell out a little. “Anyway, cool, huh?” He gestured at the church, impressed and sure she was too. Anyone had to be, it was creepy as hell. “Looks kinda like something out of The Walking Dead.” He admitted, leaning against the church a bit before it groaned in protest, so he quickly moved back and added, “If you uh, you know, watch that stuff, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Kat agreed and that was that. She wasn’t going to do anything about it or even tell anybody that could do something about it, she was just going to point it out to Jay and leave it there for some other poor asshole to run into. All she really wanted was the gratification of Jay’s acknowledgment, as anticlimactic as it had turned out to be, “Who is Barry?” was the only thing she could utter in response, though admittedly she wanted to whine about Jay’s stupid reinvention of her nickname as well.

“Yeah, okay, thank you. I know lying,” she reminded him plainly, rolling her eyes once again. She wasn’t having a bar of any more of his bullshit, at least for an extra couple of seconds or so. “It’s true actually, I can’t wait to show you, we’ll look like twins, probably,” probably not.

She made no effort to disguise it as she outwardly laughed at his misfortune, “Wow, so you’re the lucky one,” she chimed, evidently satisfied that Jay was suffering as well and that she wasn’t alone in loathing her roommates, “Who else?” she asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. “Not because I’m swapping you- just cos I wanna know who else is gonna be up your butt all week,” she explained. “I have a shit room but I’ve got Ella and I’m only a few feet away from Drea too,” she was practically boasting. 

“Barry.” He replied as if that answered anything. He waited, and when Kat still didn’t seem to clue on, waved a hand. “I’ll send you a thing later, and when we get back to campus, I’ll download the movie, you’ll love it.” He thought about the little bee dude raising hell in court over human honey consumption and frowned; actually, Kat would probably like it too much, that was something she’d definitely do as a bee. Oh boy, he couldn’t wait to tell Drea all bout that the next time they got high together.

Jay sighed, thinking about who he’d seen in the cabin versus who he’d read on the listing. “Actually, it’s a pretty mixed crowd, I think. Ezra’s alright, that weird Isobella girl too. I think I could get on board with chilling with them if I had to.” He mentioned though he had little to no intention to when Drea and Kat were so close by. Especially Drea. At the thought and mention of her, Jay’s head perked like a puppy’s. “Oh yeah?” He wished he was only a few feet away. Hell, he’d spent weeks so far away from her that he’d actually been hoping to run into her for most of the day now. He’d be a liar if he said he hadn’t set out to find her when he’d found Kat instead. “Ella’s cool. I like her, she’s cool to talk to.” He disguised his interest in a small misdirect.

“Look,” Kat prompted Jay, pointing at the bees correcting her footing where the light bop to the shoulder had caught her off guard and set her off balance; not a tricky thing to achieve. She clicked her tongue at his physical bullying, cautious about whether or not his next step would be to knock the beehive down or shove her into the wall to disturb it. Either outcome was as likely as the other but as soon as she heard the conspicuous sound identifying the contents of Jay’s bag, her eyes lit up and she was no longer concerned about being stung to death. “Are we studying tonight after the bonfire, do you think?” she questioned, raising a trimmed eyebrow curiously, playing along with Jay’s thematic ruse. 

At the statement that followed, Kat’s posture straightened, her back muscles tightening as she stood a little taller. Nothing good ever came from ‘we need to talk about something serious’ and she found herself holding her breath. If this was about Damian kissing Gwen again, she might just knock the beehive down herself. She listened in silence with an intent gaze until she realized that Jay was fucking with her, then her eyes rolled to the heavens above. Kat clicked her tongue again as Jay revealed that in fact, he was not concerned about Katherine in any genuine capacity, and instead, he was just lining up a painfully elaborate joke at her expense. “Fuck off,” she groaned for a lack of a better comeback to send his way as she knocked him with her hip in a chastising manner. “I thought you were serious about something,” she pointed out the obvious, that had been Jay’s intention, “Hello? My family owns an actual real cabin up North. I’ll have you know that actually, I’m better for outdoors than any of you,” she claimed rather proudly, arrogantly even, “I know all about camping and I tan really good from hiking and outside near water, so,” and there he had it, a flawless argument indeed.

    “I’m looking, I don’t—” Jay wasn’t looking, but when he did, his eyes found the culprit of Kat’s momentary dismay. He stared at the cluster of bee stuff that made up a wonky hive, disappointed it didn’t actually look like some orb-ish cartoon thing out of Pooh Bear or whatever. But all the same, he grimaced too. “Yeah, that’s not ideal.” A pause, then a quick inhale and grin. “Welp. Glad it’s not my cabin.” He preached happily and wholly at Kat’s expense. “Barry isn’t haunting my ass all night, that’s good news for me. Sucks to suck, Bish. Bee Bish. Beesh.” He nudged her with every new invention of her traditional nickname. 

    “Oh, for sure.” He agreed. After the bonfire sounded good. Plus, guiltily, he figured if he kept Kat in high spirits he might be blessed with a half hour or so to sneak off with Drea before curfew. He kept that idea fully to himself though. “Hey, I am serious!” He threw an arm out, words bursting out of him in sheer faux desperation. He wasn’t, and they both knew it, but he still smiling at her in a way that he hoped would make her smile too in a minute, even if she didn’t want to. “Sure. And I can remember literally any of the periodic table,” He matched her soggy lies with his own, pretty sure Kat and “tan good” didn’t belong together.

    “Hey, bees aside, wanna know something super fresh? I saw that Faith’s back. Wanna know how I know that? Turns out, we’re bunking. So any chance at a swapsies and I’d take it, beehive and all.”