Having returned to campus a couple of days after the supposed party of the year, Tomi, like Mason was also without an after school punishment regime and he was pretty pleased about that, in fact. Even if he had been at school, it was unlikely he’d have attended the party, admittedly, though there might have been a chance since Maria had been there. He supposed he’d never know the outcome of the alternative timeline where he’d been on campus during the pool party but he also supposed that didn’t matter now.

He pulled his wired headphones out of his ears when Mason’s hand flew out in front of him, a little obnoxious, Tomi thought, until he realized the guy was just trying to give him a friendly warning. “Is there supposed to be a place on campus where somebody isn’t having a petty fight or causing shit in some other way?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. There were few spots on campus, in Tomi’s opinion, where somebody could enjoy genuine peace and quiet. That was kind of just a side effect of living with a bunch of other kids and that that bunch of other kids happened to vastly outnumber the adults there.

“What’s the fight about? Anything interesting?” he judged by the word ‘petty’ that it probably wasn’t anything particularly entertaining but then again, BBC boys had a pretty warped view of other students if you asked Tomi.

Mason shrugged, “There’s an answer you want to hear and the answer that is the truth.” He pulled out his phone, already surprised at the number of people talking about the argument in the group chat. “Where’s the fun in peace and quiet, right?” Mason replied, smiling at Tomi who had recently returned. Most people that attend Boarding Schools don’t realize just how dramatic it can get from a community of people who are constantly around one another, and unlike most people Mason loved it.

“To be honest, I wasn’t listening. You know I love drama but this is just some roommate bullshit that won’t go anywhere.” Mason peered back at the roommates, catching a few of their words before turning back to Tomi. “Nothing exciting is going to happen. But...” He really did want to go to a quieter place, and he didn’t mind the company because he hated being alone. “If you need a quiet place, the yearbook room is always unlocked and pretty empty during the day. The offer stands, and you can catch me up on your freedom from Broadripple for the past few years.” He wasn’t going to admit he didn’t want to be in a room alone so he made his tone of voice pretty nonchalant sounding. 

Once they got over the initial disappointment of spending less time with the few people at Broadripple they could tolerate ,Amari was getting used to having extra free time while the rest of the pool party guests paid for their sins.It gave them more time to work on assignments without being disturbed.They enjoyed scrolling through the BAU groupchat but it was nice to have a break from memes about sleep paralysis demons when Conny was (unfairly) on community service.The knowledge that they managed to out-smart the faculty made their free time even more satisfying.

When they started to spot more and more familiar faces of students that were at the party Amari decided that they needed to get better at timing when they left their dorm. But they refused to turn around and head back to their dorm.They weren’t going to change their plans for anyone , especially not for dumbass shitheads that only had their selves to blame for their punishments. 

They had almost managed to make it to the common room without being hassled or anybody ignoring the ‘Please don’t talk to be or I’ll make you regret it’ energy they were radiating.That was until Mason decided to warn them about the latest Real Douchebags of Broadripple drama currently going down.Not that they minded too much.He was the least obnoxious member of the BBC but that wasn’t saying much.That was like being voted the friendliest member of the Face Eating Leopards party. “Is that supposed to be a threat or an endorsement?”,they inquired.The smirk on their face screamed ‘Hello I’m a messy bitch that lives for drama as long as I’m not directly involved’.”It’s like an up close and personal nature documentary.Here’s how douchenozzles act in the wild.”

Mason admired others who were on par with his love of drama and not being afraid to be brutally honest in conversation. He smiled at them, moving out of the way to give them a full-view of the argument. “Exactly the same with me,but I am known to get into some feuds with many k pop stans and beauty gurus on Twitter.” Surprisingly there weren’t a ton of people turning their attention to the arguing, most likely people wanting to lay low if they were in trouble from the pool party.

“Also, I’ve heard the word douchenozzle more when I joined the Boys Club than ever before.” He was different in a way that a lot of the other boys, but made it for it in others. Joining the BBC helped him on his journey to popularity, and it was definitely an experience unlike any other. “If these boys were hot this would be a lot more interesting to me but this all seems like it’s not going to be anything other than a shouting match.” He quickly pulled out his phone, already getting several snapchat notifications that were from the same room he was in. “There are people filming this right now and not realizing I’m in the same room.” 

Mason looked towards Amari, trying to see if they were enjoying what was going on and also if they were finding Mason to be annoying. “You’re not entertained by this, right? This is almost as disappointing and anti-climatic as the ending of Breaking Dawn part 2.” 

“Whoa-” Sebastian uttered as Mason’s hand flew out in front of him, immediately cutting off his path. He was more interested in securing the coffee cup in his hand, making sure it didn’t spill onto his shirt or that of the other boy than he was interested in what Mason was dramatizing at that particular moment.

“If I wanted to listen to a couple of bitches squealing at each other all afternoon, I’d park myself in the girl’s dorm building and wait for the juniors to inevitably start freaking out about something,” he’d heard it plenty of times before, spending any significant time around the junior girls in their natural habitat was a one-way ticket to a headache, guaranteed, he’d learned that the hard way. 

He sniffed back and wiped his nose on the back of his arm, his coffee in one hand, the other hooked onto the strap of his backpack, “Where are you going now? I’ll follow you,” he suggested, it was his almost polite way of asking if Mason wanted to hang out this afternoon, though he didn’t leave his classmate with much of a choice when it came to responding.

“Do we really need to call women ‘bitches,’ Sebastian?” He responded back in a disappointed tone knowing that it inevitably wouldn’t matter. Mason was known to not shy away from saying how he feels or what he’s feeling. Truly he felt that Sebastian wasn’t never being intentionally ill will so there’s never been too much nagging on his end.

He clutched his leather bag, dusted off the bottom of his uniform, and stood in silence while he thought about his next move. “To be honest I’m torn between doing homework, getting food, or somehow getting some alcohol.” Mason said bluntly as he was free for the rest of the day and had no obligations until much later in the evening. “Unless you can think of something else, which I’m down for as long as it doesn’t involve looking for Jerry Springer moments outside of the girl’s dorm.”

He walked to the nearest vending machine, putting his Academy Card in and pressed the buttons for two bags of chips, using the next vending machine for a soda. “Want anything?” He asked while he thought about what they could do, waiting on the opinion of Sebastian.

“A show with my meal? I’ll take it,” was Johnnie’s immediate response when stopped at the doorway. He craned his neck to look past Mason and into the common room, hankering to watch his peers throw down as long as it had nothing to do with him. Sadistic? Not really, but boys were boys and Johnnie didn’t have a problem contributing to the chaos if it meant Doheny was one step closer to getting a hernia. Besides, their arguing was as good of a distraction as any.

Johnnie bullied the guy back into the room until there was enough room for him to squeeze around him and to the student fridge. It smelled like a goldmine (horrible).

None of the food was his, but Johnnie looked at home fixing himself a crappy sandwich with whatever he could find. Bread, baloney, some weird picked chunks of unidentifiable protein that smelled as awful as it looked. He hummed, completely at home with the soundtrack of two roomies bickering as he continued to stack his creation with ‘borrowed’ ingredients.

“I’m with Pee Wee Herman. I don’t even know what a lee-chee is but I’m pretty sure the other dude’s sayin’ it wrong,” he said, casting a look back at Mason while he went to fetch the mustard. He squirted a generous amount onto his sandwich with a wicked grin when the nozzle made a rude noise.

Mason should have seen it coming that Johnnie would completely ignore his warning. “I don’t know why I bother-” It was apparently just an afternoon of surprises  as Mason didn’t expect to be moved back inside the room. 

“Most people would say ‘excuse me’ and I would have even taken a 'get the fuck out of my way’ because it’s better than potentially leaving a spot on my uniform.” He said in an annoyed tone while watching the boy walked towards the fridge.

Mason avoided the communal fridges in any of the public rooms because of the horror stories he’s heard from others. People stealing food, expired food rotting away, chunks of someone’s food being taken, and other stories that made Mason only use his own mini-fridge. He put his hand over his mouth at the realization that Johnnie was eating food from that fridge. “Please. For the love of everything that is holy tell me that you own that food and that you’re doing some science project and not eating that.”

Charlie had been on his way to the common room after Bible study in Nighmore, fully prepared to chill out and watch something really stupid on his laptop to get all the God out of his head. When a hand pushed into his chest, he stopped abruptly, blinking at Mason like he’d only just realized he was there.

“Huh?” He leaned to the side, trying to peer into the room to witness the argument. “Dude, why wouldn’t I wanna hear a fight? We should egg ‘em on. Take sides. I’ll bring the popcorn if you bring those little opera glasses that let you see everything all close up and personal.” 

Mason turned around to face the common room, shaking his head that Charlie not only ignored his warning but wanted to add fuel to the fire. “I’ve never needed those glasses because my parents normally get front row seats.” Most people wouldn’t need to say that, but that’s who Mason was. The argument got louder than before and people walking past the common room started to notice. 

Mason looked toward Charlie, “And do you really want to egg on something that’s going to have an adult here in a matter of minutes? You know I love drama but not when it’s small bullshit like this.” Most people couldn’t tell if Charlie or Mason were friends because of their bantering, and to be honest, he didn’t exactly know what to define their relationship because it went back and forth. “Do you know how people will talk if they find out I got involved in this? I have a reputation to-” He had no idea if Charlie had been listening or not but stopped talking to find out. “Please tell me you’re not ignoring me.”

Katherine groaned at the warning, slumping her shoulders and making a show of the fact that she was irritated by the revelation. Ironically, the junior had just wanted somewhere quiet to occupy so that she could finish off her English paper in peace and without distraction. The ironic part, of course, was that on any other occasion, Katherine Bishop would have been the biggest distracted and disruptor to the peace in any common area. She was known to be obnoxiously loud, particularly when joined by Andrea Pearson. Together the pair went about monopolizing space, causing a commotion with their perpetual TikTok filming and general antics. 

That afternoon, however, Kat was without her roommate and was at least somewhat dedicated to completing her homework assignment. “What are they fighting about?” she asked, peeking curiously over the boy’s shoulder without entering the room, heeding his warning. 

She rolled her eyes, “Why do boys fight all the time?” she asked, though it could be said that girls bickered just as much. “Always trying to be bigger than each other, it’s so annoying,” she noted but really, she was just bothered about the boys in her own life fighting with one another, namely Charlie and Johnnie who had got into a tiff over her and for no good reason as far as she could tell.

“From what I gathered, some petty roommate problem that needed to happen in one of the nicer Common Rooms.” Mason softly massaged his own temples while the sound continued to get louder. He looked over his shoulder to get another look, and now the two were getting in one another’s faces. At this point he thought someone would step in, which could have been Mason, but he always preferred to be a bystander unless he was really needed.

Mason shrugged, “Because of the adrenaline rush and some concept of masculinity that I don’t understand.” He completely turned around, standing next to Kat while the argument was only getting louder. The worst thing about this situation was that the two boys occupied the same living space and more than likely won’t get whatever issue they have solved. 

“Anyways, do you want to go to another Common Room or somewhere else? I was watching a YouTube drama channel video but now the mood is killed by the unnecessary drama happening.” He  knew he should be working on the Yearbook but his own interests were more important to him right now. 

Scotty just wanted to see if the packet of Pop Rocks he accidentally left in the common room were still there. But apparently, the public space was a no-go zone if Mason O’Daniel’s raised palm was anything to go by. Like a well-trained puppy, he stopped in his tracks, shoulders slumping as he sighed.

“Is the fight about a pack of Pop Rocks? Because that’s mine actually. I forgot it.” It seemed like a silly thing to care about but he was really craving a snack and he’d just run out of pork rinds. His Academy Card wasn’t looking too good on the Convenience Points front either after getting liberal with it over Valentine’s Day. He wanted to give his BAU buddies a goodie and a card. And while cards were free and Scotty-made, goodies costed. Even if they were just vending machine goodies.

“Are you sure I can’t step in for a second? I mean, what are they even fighting about?” Hopefully, not Pop Rocks. Those were his.

“No Scotty, they aren’t arguing over Pop Rocks.” Mason replied, folding his arms as he gave his classmate a confusing look. “Anyone that would break into a shouting match over candy should probably be knocked down to elementary school.” He folded his arms, turning his attention back towards the roommates who were only getting louder by the second.  “I only managed to get 8 minutes of viewing time of the new TeaSpill Youtube video before I was interrupted by their petty arguing.” Mason made references that he assumed people would never understand, so he would mention them anyways and leave their interpretations up to them.

“Oh, I’m stopping you at all. Just trying to be nice and save you from unnecessary drama.” He shrugged, only knowing they were roommates based off a few words. “Not sure and normally I’m all about drama but this doesn’t seem worth it. And why do you care about these Pop Rocks so much? If you’re that hungry....” Mason reached into his pocket and pulled out his Academy Card, holding it out in front of him for Scotty to see. “My treat since I potentially took too many seconds out of your Pop Rock search. But feel free to walk in there and not find them, because I doubt they are in there. Get whatever you want.” He was also in the mood to hang out with someone who didn’t annoy him, and Scotty was far from that.

Mason had been sitting in one of the common rooms, watching a YouTube drama channel video about some argument between two very problematic influencers when he could hear yelling through his Air Pods. His pulled one of the pods from his ear, fully able to understand the shouting match going on between the two. The two boys had been yelling at each other and that’s when Mason realized they occupied the same dorm room. “And they were roommates...” Mason he said before gathering his things and deciding to move to another space.

Immediately Mason put his leather bag around his shoulder and carefully navigated out of the room. Another student was about to walk in the common room, Mason put out his hand in front of him to get their attention. “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you unless you want to hear a petty and very audible fight..” He said, pointing to the boys who were still arguing.” 

info; 

Name: Mason O’Daniel Age: Eighteen Gender: Cismale Sexual Orientation: Homosexual Hometown: Jamestown, Rhode Island

past;

tw: death

Mason O’Daniel comes from an American-Irish family. Both of his grandparents and parents were born in Ireland, moving to the United States to expand the family hotel business. The expansion ended up paying off and now are scattered in nearly every state in the US and a few different locations across the world. Mason’s extended family consisted of his 4 older brothers, his mother and father, and his grandparents all living in one house until his brothers started going off to college and moving out. Being the youngest meant that Mason was the most spoiled, and he’ll proudly admit it. Mason was always told that he stood out in his family. He dressed with a very urban style, was very invested in pop culture and fashion, and did his best to always look presentable. While Mason’s family members were arguing about sports he was always the quietest in the room. 

Mason grew up with his mother and father constantly traveling to their hotel locations, meaning they’d be out of the house for up to two weeks at a time. His grandfather and grandmother were always home, so he became a lot closer to them because of it.  The both of them were retired and enjoyed being able to co-parent of the sorts. Mason has been all over with them, and when he came out of the closet there wasn’t any issues. His grandfather has been in many arguments with people at the church his family attended when it got out that Mason was gay. He came out during his middle school years, and suffered a big damage to his mental health because of the bullying. Mason thought the world would be different seeing as how it’s a lot more widely accepted to be gay but the bullying got to the point of Mason being home-schooled for 2 years until coming to Broadripple. Mason’s eighth grade year was one of his worse. His grandmother caught a bad case of the flu, and what normally would have been a few weeks for the average person led up to her death. The house became a lot quieter, and with all of his siblings out of the house Mason would be in the family house with just his grandfather. It had only been two months when Mason’s dad found his grandfather dead in his sleep. No one was surprised, but now Mason felt like he lost a big part of himself. His grandparents died a few shorts months before Mason came to Broadripple, and he still wears the watch that they purchased for him when he got confirmed.

Mason started his own YouTube channel days after his grandfather passed away, mostly using footage from his phone of the places they explored around the world. He didn’t consider it much of a travel channel and mostly wanted a place to store his videos. For the hell of it, he also used a wix-site to write a blog that talked more about his experiences than his videos provided. Mason made a post on twitter about one of his videos that got retweeted by a well-known travel blogger and ended up going viral. His videos were getting thousands of views enough to where he has a steady following. To this day he still uploads videos but has switched to a channel mostly to discuss popular trends. He doesn’t currently monetize off his videos because he doesn’t need to, but he may change that one of these days.

present;

Mason’s attendance at Broadripple allowed him to have a fresh start, and he immediately took that chance. He also didn’t hide who he was, and knowing that he always has his family keeps him going. Mason became a socialite, immediately dispelling the rumors that home-schooled children lacked social skills. Mason was a person who knew how to talk to people, and his urge to always be around people stems from the many days he would only have his siblings and grandparents at home. Mason always makes sure that his uniform is always perfectly tucked, his clothing going with crises, and his room being unnecessarily clean. He hates imperfection, and he will be the last to arrive to a meeting or class because his hair wasn’t on par with his standards. He knows he’s being extra, because he’s extra.