the devil's in the details

“I don’t even know who the other acts for Battle of the Bands are, but just know that I’m pulling for your band. Mostly because I’m like, obsessed with your look and wish I could pull it off,” Katie chuckled, walking beside Ashley in the hallway. 

Ugh. Degrassi TV, aka the newspaper’s arch nemesis. Getting news out into the halls used to be the newspaper’s job, and then this thing came along. Now she felt like she had to fight for stories and relevance among Degrassi. “Hey,” Katie approached Imogen, the head of DTV, trying to remain cordial. “With the musical coming up and prom and all of the end-of-year stuff, we’re gonna need to work out who’s reporting on what. Because the last thing this school needs is to be bored to tears by the same stories.” 

“So...” Katie began with a sigh as she approached Drew. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. “There’s an editorial going in the paper this month all about teen alcohol abuse and its consequences.” She gestured to the remnants of the boy’s injuries. “Simpson’s idea. Care to...comment? Make a statement? It’ll be totally anonymous.” She didn’t support this article, but when the principal tells you to put something in the paper you don’t ask questions. 

“Hey!” Katie called after the boy, whose paper had fallen from his sketchbook as he walked in the hallway. “You dropped this!” Catching up with him, she held out the drawing. “If you drew this, you’re pretty talented. You should submit some art pieces to the newspaper. We could always go for a new comic strip or something.” 

“I can’t do this. I have writer’s block,” Katie rubbed her tired eyes, swiveling around in her bedroom computer chair to face Marisol. She had an article due for the paper in two days, and that was including second and final drafts. But nothing was coming to her. “Unblock me. Think of something,” she nearly begged her friend. 

katie: i saw a chocolate labrador tonight and crIDE

katie: *crEID

katie: CRIED

katie: I'm drnk im sorry but the point I was trying to mke was that it kindaa looked like you. thats not why i cried but yano

jake pulled his hands out of the fertilizer. it certainly hadn’t been the best smelling place to make his confession, but it had become their place as the two had built the garden up from scratch. he dusted what was still on his hands back into the box before he turned around and leaned beside the girl, “and why is that a big deal?” he asked her, “like you said, we’re teenagers. not everything has to be serious, you know?” he pointed out, “eyes wander. it’s biology or chemistry or one of those sciences. but i don’t mind if yours wander if you don’t mind if mine do,” he gave a little shrug, knowing he wanted his eyes to be able to wander back towards her without it being weird or creepy. “thanks,” he grinned, “i think the fertilizer really helps my look,” he held up his hands that hadn’t come completely clean just from brushing them into the plants.

Katie gave a shrug, feigning nonchalance. “I never said it was a big deal.” Though literally everything about her would give off a different impression. But he was right -- he vocalized exactly what she’d been trying to embody for the last few weeks. Why not play the field a little? Show everyone that girls can do it too, and do it better. Summer was coming up anyway, and she’d be damned if she spent it pining after someone instead of making memories. “But you’re right. Why should I mind? It’s just biology...just like these plants, it’s natural.” Katie smirked, holding up her own dirty palms to compare to his. “I don’t think this is what they meant by getting ‘down and dirty’, but I’ll take it.” 

All of you guys with opinions on my love life like this makes me think I’d do great on The Bachelorette. 

Drew had had a very rough few days, the wreck had managed to do quite the number on him. From the broken ribs, to the fractured bones in his leg and hand, he’d been miserable with the pain. The worse of all though was his head injury, the doctors had been telling him things that honestly scared him more than he really wanted to admit and when he’d actually been able to focus on what they were saying, all he heard was negatives. So the sound of the others voice was absolutely the kind of positive he’d been needing. “Hey!” he said, sitting up in his bed with a wince, his face obviously brightening at the sight of her. “I was hoping you’d come!” he said with a grin. “Be honest, how handsome do I look right now?” he asked playfully, trying hard not to show just how nervous he’d been the past few days.

Katie couldn’t help the relieved sigh that ripped through her. He was the same old Drew, maybe with a few broken bones here and there, but the scariness of the accident hadn’t embedded itself within him, and she was grateful for that. “I’d give you like, an 8 out of 10. I’m not really into the hospital gown look,” she teased, setting the Get Well Soon balloon down at the foot of his bed, where she perched herself as well. “How’s your head?” Katie asked gently, examining the wound with her own eyes. 

Katie had been putting on this front. After the stunt that Drew pulled at his party that nearly got him killed, she wanted to distance herself from it...from him. But she wasn’t heartless, she still cared. She’d ridden in the back of Eli’s hearse, willing him awake through tears while they rode to the ER that night. It was glaringly obvious how much she cared. So in secret, for the few days following the accident, she’d checked in with the hospital to see when she could see him...And today was finally the day. She held a little ‘Get Well Soon’ mylar balloon by its stick and slowly opened the door to Drew’s hospital room. “Hey,” she said, her voice nearly a whisper as she took in how he looked laying up in a hospital bed. God, it was too real. 

@jakenbaked, it looks like we have a fanclub. 

I’m not sure! I think he’s cute and he seems to reciprocate, but I’m trying to not throw all my eggs in one basket that’s just gonna disappoint me, you know? So I’m trying to take a more casual approach to guys for the foreseeable future. 

Hey, don’t you follow my Hastygram? I kiss girls now too. It doesn’t have to be all guys. But let’s just say Jake Martin and anyone else who wouldn’t revel in giving me a heart attack on their birthday. 

After watching someone I like crash a tricked-out Barbie Jeep and almost die? I’d say pretty well. Trying to delve into schoolwork, newspaper, and the garden to get my mind off of things. It’s helping a little bit.