ur gonna be ok anyway

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, “Somebody photoshopped a photo of me onto a picture of Edgar Winter in the graphic design last year so,” she spoke casually as if the two incidents were on par with one another. “Mmm,” she hummed thoughtfully, trying to decide whether she believed in any of that stuff, or even the possibility of it at all. “I don’t know,” she said again, it was something she was likely to say more than a few times in a conversation this serious about things like bigfoot and giant snakes. “Sister Michael is coming with us. Isn’t that like- aren’t ghosts and stuff afraid of God?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, “Like, praying and everything, that makes it go away or makes it weak or something? I didn’t see all fo the Exorcist but I saw a little bit when I was a kid-,” a younger kid, she was still a kid, “-Priests have powers like that or whatever and we’re going to be praying and singing hymns like every night, so,” she allowed her voice to trail as if she’d made some sort of profound argument to rest her case.

“Yeah, probably,” she nodded her head as she spoke, “Don’t you sometimes just say whatever your friends are saying just because they’re saying it?” that wasn’t exactly the same as making up an entire fictional and macabre history about a place, filled with delicate and gruesome lore but Kat was pretty sure she was onto something anyway. If Andrea said she saw devil worshipers in the cafeteria, all it would take was a single look in Katherine’s direction for Kat to say ‘Hey yeah, me too’ truth be told.

katherine’s face photoshopped onto edgar winter? yeah, that was certainly an image to imagine and she hoped the junior had seriously considered it as a halloween costume since. but that didn’t change that it was a little different to what sofie was talking about. “ some of the photos are pretty old though, like, pre-photoshop. ” she offered in rebuttal. she didn’t, honestly, know if that was true. but the good news was that she highly doubted katherine knew that either. 

that was an interesting take. sure, if sofie was just worried about demons then yeah, she’d feel much better knowing they were in the company of one of god’s brides or ... whatever being a nun meant now.  but she didn’t think ghosts were repelled by god, nor bigfoot. but then kat kept going and going and going and sofie really became aware of how little some people knew about the world of creepy shit. they didn’t spend their free time listening to podcasts and didn’t think reading creepypastas were a fun sleepover activity. “ yeah, i mean, maybe, ” she lifted her shoulders in a shrug, a little at a loss for words. or the right words anyway. “ that’s kind of the whole thing about it, no one knows what works and what doesn’t. not really. ” which was really super cool when she felt safe and protected, and fucking terrifying when she was going to be flung into it without a choice. 

It truly didn’t take much, if anything at all for Katherine Bishop to become distracted. In fact, when she was working on arduous tasks like her latest math homework sheet, she was subconsciously begging for something to snatch her attention away from quadratics.

Though she wouldn’t call her and Sofie friends, per se, she did like the other girl and they had, in her opinion, somewhat of an inherent connection due to their shared house and a mutual understanding of life with foreign parents. What they didn’t share, however, was a taste for the macabre, supernatural and spooky. This sort of thing made Kat’s stomach muscles tighten and she’d never listened to more than a few seconds of a podcast whenever there was a mention of ghouls and ghosts, afraid that God would find it tasteless. 

“Yeah, that’s it,” she agreed, she knew the name Bridgewater, she had no idea where the triangle part came from until her eye wandered the content of the wiki page presented to her. “Mmm,” she hummed in a low tone, clearly unsettled by what she was seeing, “No, I don’t,” she decided curtly, tapping her pencil on the surface of the desk between them with agitated energy, “How come if that stuff exists, we don’t have videos of it and stuff?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, thinking she’d made quite an astute argument in her own favor. “We know the giant squid is a thing, even though it lives so deep in the ocean we can’t even see it when it’s alive- so, how come we can’t take photos and stuff of…giant snakes,” she tapped on the screen where it said ‘giant snake’. “Giants snakes leave slither paths and stuff on the ground and big skins, we would find them if they were real- yeah, I don’t think it’s real,” she hadn’t continued reading after the first couple of lines on the page. She certainly hadn’t reached the truly concerning content, “Are you worried, a bit?”

sofie certainly hadn’t started the conversation with kat with the expectation that she would be almost grounding in her disbelief of the strange and unexplained. but hey, she was here now and after listening to and reading the intense amount of bullshit that appeared to go on in the very area they were supposed to be camping, she would take kat bishop as her grounding voice of reason. she pressed her lips together and nodded, not sure she could convincingly get away with me neither haha!  so instead opting to not say anything at all. until kat continued with a question. one sofie didn’t have an answer to, not really. she lifted her shoulders in a small shrug. “ there is some video, and like photos, recordings and stuff. not of giant snakes– i don’t believe in those either, ” at least not in massachusetts. the tatzelwurms of austria however were an entirely different matter. “ but like, ghosts and bigfoot, ” she felt a little stupid even saying bigfoot but there was a fair amount of evidence that the sasquatch existed. “ i mean, if you believe they’re not staged, anyway, ” she said, leaving it up for discussion whether she believed the videos people claimed were proof of paranormals and cryptids. 

Flick delivered Sofie a look that could only be translated into a blatant ‘what the fuck?’ when she spoke again, “That’s your version of not so bad, is it?” she questioned bluntly. She knew that Sofie was crazy- well, she’d been told by Gwen on numerous occasions that Sofie was crazy but this wa something else. She furrowed her brow, still entirely unconvinced by Sofie’s attempt to remedy the concept of the suicide stone, if that was indeed what she was trying to do, “So, as long as we mean to top ourselves, rather than being convinced to do it by some goblin in a rock, that’s fine?” she questioned, admittedly more facetiously than was necessary. She knew, intellectually, that that wasn’t quite what the Keough house captain had meant.

She shrugged her shoulders at Sofie’s follow up question, “Don’t know, can’t be sure,” sh conceded, though it was a possibility, she suppose. “Either they’re purposely stuffing us in the middle of all this bullshit because yeah- like you say- they believed in all of it or it’s all a load of bollocks but its a good distraction from summat else- whatever that might be,” she reasoned. She was edging dangerously close to a full-blown conspiracy theory rabbit hole but she knew she was in good company with Sofie Bauer on that front. 

“Hmm,” she hummed pensively, shifting her chair once more as she mulled over the alternatives Sofie had come up with during her Google search. “So there’s other places. Places that are more fit, closer, less fucked,” she noted, thinking allowed, “Yet, we’re on our way to Bridgewater by the bus load. It’s not right, that,” 

“ it’s not fine, that’s not what i meant, ” sofie defended herself immediately, bristling as her words were taken out of her mouth and manipulated. she knew it had been a risky thing to say, probably something that needed a proper audience and more thought on how to word it but she’d felt as though flick would understand her rationalisation. stupid of her in hindsight, she was related to gwen after all. “ hopefully no one offs themselves, intent or otherwise. it would be tragic either way, absolutely horrific ” she was probably going a little overboard on making sure flick knew she thought it would be horrible whichever way it was, before she went back into explaining that she had a preference for what the suicide stone entailed. “ but, if the stone doesn’t possess you do it when you don’t want to then yes, that is a marginally better option out of two totally horrible options– sue me, ” she held up her hands, she didn’t think flick could actually sue her for that, but as she was recently reminded she had prescott blood. so honestly, it wouldn’t surprise her if she tried. 

Flick made no effort to disguise the unpleasant expression contorting her features as she pictured the ‘little goblin thing’ Sofie spoke of. No fucking thank you. She already had a little goblin thing in her life, she called it Gwen and it was more than enough for her to deal with on any given day.

“Great,” she chimed dryly, cults, kiddie fiddling- wait, Sof said there was none of that. Whatever. Cults, animal sacrifice, some suicide rock thing. If Disneyland was the happiest place on earth, Bridgewater was the most fucked. Why on God’s sweet Earth it was considered a camping spot, let alone a holiday destination of any kind of was mystery to Flick but she’d grown to expect bad decisions from the Broadripple faculty to some extent, she supposed. “Right here,” she confirmed, shifting the laptop slightly, angling the screen toward her blonde companion.

Flick’s jaw tensed as she pictured her throwing Sofie’s body into the jaws of whatever the fuck a thunder bird was if it came to it. If any sort of life of death situation emerged, she certainly wouldn’t be looking out for anybody but Felicity Phillipa Fortescue, that was for darn sure. Not that Sofie needed to be made aware of that. “Yeah, of course,” she agreed instead, it was better to have the other girl on side than to admit that she would be using the Keough house captain as a meat shield, should the opportunity present itself. 

“Do me a favour, yeah?” she tapped on the blank space next to the touch pad of Sofie’s laptop, “Google ‘best camping spots Massachusettes’ - I want to see how many other options we had before the faculty settled on this place,” she insisted, “There has to be a reason they landed on this and I’m not taking history lessons for an answer, that’s a load of bollocks, I’m sure of it,” 

head tilted a touch as she read the words suicide stone. that was terrifying. was it a stone that compelled people to commit suicide when they may have never contemplated it before? or was it simply a stone where many people had committed suicide? had anyone? god, curse wikipedia. just enough information to intrigue her but no where near enough to answer the seemingly endless questions that stemmed from the information. “ maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds. ” she said suddenly, leaning away from computer screen and straightening up as she did. while this was a discussion of sorts, her statement had been said aloud to convince herself as well. “ like, maybe some sort of conscious mass suicide happened at the stone– and that’s still really bad and tragic and horrible, obviously, ” she cut into her own statement quickly with passionate empathetic tone. “ but it’s not like a people are mysteriously and uncontrollably compelled to kill themselves at this weird stone thing. ” which was honestly where her mind had immediately gone to when flick had first said the phrase. from the sounds of things there was a lot of potential unconcious compelling in the bridgewater triangle, whether it be from ghost or cryptid or something more on their plain of physical existence. 

“The fuck is a pug- puck-” she stumbled on the unfamiliar word, the collection of letters in a strange arrangement getting caught behind her teeth, “Pukwudgie? I’ve no idea how to say that, I’ve never heard of that me whole life,” Flick asked, having abandoned her own laptop in favor of Sofie’s, scooting her chair right beside the blonde’s to observe the screen more directly. “Does it say anything about kiddy fiddling or ritual sacrifice? I think we’ve got summat to worry about if it does,” she spoke a little absently as her eyes wandered the text on the page, searching for keywords to pique her interest. “Suicide stone,” she tapped the tip of her index finger delicately on the surface of the screen, “Bloody brilliant that is, what a proper laugh for a bunch of students on an educational trip into the middle of fuckin’ nowhere,” she rolled her eyes, “That would be right,” she complained dryly, it seemed perfectly on-brand for Broadripple at this point and she wasn’t sure whether it was worth the energy being concerned about any of it.

She leaned back in her seat with arms folded across her chest, “What does this mean for us, then? I’m no wearing a bloody crucifix around me neck and making circles of salt around me tent but I sort of feel like we should do something about all this,”

sofie could only lift her shoulders because she had no idea if that was how you pronounced pukwudgie, and she had no real idea of what the hell they were. no, em had stopped her tale at that point, promising it for next weeks episode. she’d never been so glad she was behind on her regular podcast listening. “ i dunno, some kind of little goblin thing, i think, ” she said, doing her best to skim page on screen to see if any more information would jump out at her “ they try and draw you out into the woods or something, ” she had to leave it there because she had no idea why the pukwudgies did what they apparently did.

“ not specifically, i don’t think, but there’s been like loads of cult ...  ” she trailed off, waving a hand as she tried to think of the word. falling short of activity she went with “ bullshit in fall river. ” she said, trying to find the spot where she’d read about cults in the area. “ it was all in the eighties but that stuff lingers, you know. ” she wasn’t sure on her statement that it was all in the eighties but she was too busy remembering that flick hadn’t answered her question if she believed in all that shit. maybe residual energy would be too crazy a concept and flick would go back to her cousin with stories of how she was definitely nuts. she was distracted from that thought when flick pointed to her screen. “ are you serious? that’s what it’s called? ” she questioned, shifting so she could get a better look at the screen.

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.

it was funny, izzy was one of the people she had once known best, even perhaps still knew a little better than a lot of other people in her life, but she couldn’t even think of what his take might be. all she knew was if he thought she was nuts for believing in all those sorts of things, he’d probably either find some overly polite way to say it or not say anything at all. “ yeah, people say they’ve seen them floating down rivers or like, seen fires in the distance but nothing’s there when they go to investigate. ” she added, far too interested in her discovery to keep herself from interrupting as he read but sensible enough to still keep her voice rather low, as to keep their conversation between them.

demons. not what sofie had been thinking but she supposed in a round about sort of way that was a yes to her question. and she supposed it was possible too, with all the horrors that had reportedly taken place within the bridgewater triangle. “ it would make sense, ” she said after a moment to think on it and after his assurance that demons would do such a thing. she believed him, but it did somehow make everything a whole lot creepier if it was true. “ like, just that no one’s ever managed to really get any hard evidence for any of this stuff, it’s all just hearsay. if they’re demon mind trick, that would explain that. ” 

Mags had never heard of the Bridgewater Triangle, so when they heard that mentioned as the destination for the camping trip they didn’t pay it any mind. They were already fairly preoccupied with adjusting to life at an elite Catholic boarding school, which provided challenges all their own, reworking their schedule to find time to play their guitar, playing video games, exercising, etc. all while balancing their homework. This wasn’t even getting into keeping their head down while listening to some of their more devout classmates saying things that were questionable.

It was nice that Mags had actually gotten involved with a few student organizations, allowing them to become acquainted with a handful of students to, at the very least, sit with during a study hall or while they ate meals. Mags had been sitting with Sofie, a girl they had met in the Jazz/Rock band and an unofficial “Broadripple Unsolved” that was investigating the weird happenings that had befallen the academy. Mags pulled off the headphones they had been wearing when Sofie tried to get their attention. “What’s up?” They instinctively asked before she turned around her laptop. 

Mags’ eyes became transfixed at the page about the place where the camping trip would be taking place. “Wait, this is where the camping trip is going to be?” There was almost a sort of excited glee in their tone and their expression. Cryptids, curses, creatures of mythological origins, cattle mutilations, they were going to be camping in, or at least near, a veritable hotbed of paranormal activity. “Absolutely.” Mags answered after Sofie asked them if they believed in ghosts and cryptids. “Why, you wanna go squatchin’ while we’re there?”

“ yeah, well– unless there’s a lesser known bridgewater, massachusetts where a large portion of king philip’s war also took place. ” however it was clear from sofie’s tone and small grin picking up the corners of her lips that she didn’t actually think that. it seemed pretty the bridgewater camping trip was quickly becoming broadripple’s bridgewater trinagle ghost adventures special. now whether that was something she was excited for or afraid of was still to be decided. however, in the presence of someone like mags, who was seemingly giddy over the idea, it was hard not to lean towards the former.

Alex’s eyes snapped to the hand that touched her — irritation rippling through for just a ‘blink and you miss it’ moment. Admittedly, she had stopped working nearly fifteen minutes ago, awarding herself a break from the not work she had been doing for what felt like the entirety of her life. Still, the disruption startled her all the same. Chewing her lip in an attempt to bite back the flicker of annoyance, Alex leaned forward, examining the site the blonde was presenting. 

She had barely skimmed through the first paragraph when Sofie echoed the headline to her. She let out a breath of laughter, regarding the other skeptically for a moment. “Are you asking me if I think Bigfoot is going to drag us into the forest over a Native American burial ground in the middle of the night?” She asked, brow raised. Though, there was a part of her that didn’t rule out cryptids (even if this was the first time she’d actually heard the word — thank god for context clues), it was a part of her that would stay perfectly quiet for the duration of this conversation. Maybe, once they were in the ‘Bridgewater Triangle’ or whatever, she would engage in conspiracy theory corner. Then, she skimmed through the rest, expression shifting. “This though —” she paused, finger hovering just above to bullet point about Freetown-Fall River State Forest, detailing Satanic cult sacrifices, “this shit I’ll buy.” She said, even though she very much did not. A rogue weirdo roaming the woods was in her scope of possibility, but a congregation of them was too far-fetched for even Alex to buy into. No use in sharing that information, though. Brows furrowing as she continued her act, she looked at the other with light concern etched across her features. “Super weird that they’re dragging us out into that, though. They’ve gotta know about it, right?”

sofie had to chuckle awkwardly at alex’s blunt words. partially because the image was a little funny, mostly because well, yeah, that’d kind of been exactly what she’d been asking. “ no, obviously not, that’s nuts, ” she retorted, pretending to be entirely amused by it. obviously if something that extreme had the potential to happen, there’d be some sort of evidence. “ but just if you like, think bigfoot could be real, and if you think something like a native burial ground could have some sort of effect in the present. ” amused tone continued onto those words, as if she didn’t believe in either thing herself. when really she believed both those things, in one way or another.

When the notice about the upcoming trip was spread, no more additional information was needed for him to become highly excited. School trips were fun, particularly when they were giving him the opportunity to learn something new. Though he had never gone camping, so that magnified his enthusiasm as well as concerns. Already he could tell he would probably spend a little too much time worrying about all the strangeness lurking in the forest and other surprises the nature always had in store.

Instead of letting groundless misgivings devour him, Theo decided to do some thorough reading first. Both the library and the bookstore abundant in plenty of engaging positions about dear Massachusetts. From typical textbook-like historical atlases to a shitload of writings dissecting the Salem witch trials. Looking over the titles, finally it was the Borden murders that captivated him most.

So now there was his laptop in front of him, countless articles about Fall River open and a few publications presenting insights of different authors laying right beside. A survival handbook would’ve been more useful, but would it be half as absorbing? Stoop-shouldered, he squinted at the bright screen and was about to adjust his glasses before his attention was shifted to the Bridgewater Triangle. “Sounds ominous enough,” he remarked with a timid smile. “I wanted to read up on it, but at the moment I’m stuck in this rabbit hole.” Pointing to the gathered resources, he then gazed towards Sofie with a spark of interest. Lizzie Borden could wait. “Uhm… It depends. But I’m certainly not a skeptic.” Play it safe. “Maybe the trip will change my mind. In one way or another,” Theo added in, not wanting to openly declare that his opinion wouldn’t waver a bit. Not until he’d find out what Sofie’s stance was. “Where do you stand on that?” He asked, eyes darting back at the Wikipedia page to quickly focus on the fellow schoolmate again.

when he gestured to his collected books, sofie couldn’t help but glance. she hadn’t noticed them before, far too caught up in the possibility of having to sleep on some of the most supernaturally powerful ground to even start thinking about all the real crime. where was the lizzie borden house again? “ that’s in massachusetts too, isn’t it? the borden house? ” she asked, not quite ready to make the connection that he was stuck in the rabbit hole because they, and the rest of the student body, would be sleeping creepily close to it in a matter of days.

she nodded at his response to her question, ruling out the possibility of bringing up people saying they saw baby sasquatches in the bridgewater woods but not ruling out talking about potential alien activity and weird energies left behind by horrific actions. however, he catches her a little off guard by spinning the question back at her. “ uh, ” she trailed for a second, lifting her shoulders in a shrug before she continued “ i don’t think every single story people tell is true, but you know, when so many people are saying the same thing, there’s got to be some sort of truth in it, right? ” she said, meeting his eyes to watch for reaction. hopefully she wouldn’t need to backtrack, but if she did, she was pretty sure she’d been getting pretty good at it.

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.

           bless her naive, hopeful heart. morgan hoped that after her father’s tuesday evening phone call, in which he was more or less demanding to know how her club activity is going, he would end up… well, not particularly incessant. spoilers: he did. just one hour before this very moment, he rang again, not taking no for an answer. so, what is a girl supposed to go, when she’s been staying as far away as possible from all of these things ( and other forms of optional responsibilities )? LIE, obviously. oh, yeah, dad. actually, i’m switching clubs. my old one sucks. 

           cut to now, as she’s sitting by the edge of a window, feet crossed, a list of pros and cons in one hand and a delicious, delicious shake in her other one. it’s bad enough that he’s starting to check her grades and performance now, let alone the fact that he’s regulating her social life too. SCREW YOU, MALIA. she had to go abroad and fuck everything up for her.

          “ orchestra and band, ” she mumbles to herself, teeth nibbling on the ( ecologically friendly ) straw. “ out. ” a turn of the page. “ it’s almost like i’d need to be talented for this. ” she’s been going back and forth for roughly five hundred hours now. something has to click, right? as her eyes remain glued to a few options she finds slightly viable, there’s a flick of her arm and she tosses the empty shake cup into what she knew for a fact to be a trashcan. and that’s about right. except someone ends up between the projectile and its trajectory right in that very moment. it’s from the corners of the eyes that she glimpses the way the object hits the person’s head. and, dumb as she is, morgan lets her head turn. just enough to make ( uncomfortable ) eye contact.

          shit. did she just assault someone? they’re probably pissed now. “ sup? ” she’ll keep it cool, though. right? right. “ you in any clubs? ”

who on earth just threw empty cups around the halls? that was the question sofie was faced with after she’d tried to swat at the flying garbage. she missed, and the cup bounced lightly off her head. she thinks maybe it’s a boy, maybe from that junior group, messing around and it was an accident. but she’d surely hear them. just a tad bit mortified she ducked down quickly to pick it up. before anyone either accused her of littering or, worse, figured out that she’d just been hit in the head with it. when she stood again, that was when she looked up and mad eye contact with someone. well, shit. 

It had been a good day for Gwen so far, nobody of grand annoyance had crossed her path, she’d received stellar marks on a Chemistry exam earlier that morning, and Flick had bought them tickets that weekend to a movie Gwen had been raving out ever since Instagram had been flashing previews in her face every time she opened her feed. Yes, this week was going well for her, too well in fact, that, of course, God had to go and stick his fat meddling foot into it with some kind of test.

She’d only just broken apart from her cousin in the hallway to go to separate classes after a giant laughing fit over some girl’s poor fashion choice over the weekend on Instagram when something pulled at her attention, making Gwen slow in her tracks. She turned, gracious locks twisting with her as she saw Sofie and wondered what the hell she was up to. They didn’t talk anymore, not after what she’d done to Damian outside the pool that night. So what was it that she could possibly want from Gwen right now in broad daylight?

But then the apology came, and with it, a small box of something Gwen immediately recognized to be her own. The Seton’s eyes flashed, hand shooting out to snatch it from Sofie like it was some prized jewel worth more than anything she’d ever come into contact with. Staring the Keough Captain down now, Gwen looked mighty sharp again. Some may even argue, back to her natural state. “So what, you’re stealing things now?” She hissed defensively at the girl, figuring it was hardly a step up from threatening people with knives.

while she knew it was immature and ridiculous to expect that her conscious would be immediately cleared, that any beef between them would immediately be cleared with one not even kind but just decent gesture, sofie had kind of hoped it would be the case. she let the box be snatched from her hand, breathing in a slow breath through her nose instead of allowing herself to react in any other way. once it was gone, she curled her fingers back in and lowered loose fist back to her side. 

and then the brunette spoke. she wondered if gwen was ever exhausted by how angry she was. sofie would be. when her and louisa had first gotten rid of the knife, she hadn’t been able to sleep at all. consumed by worry, fear that they would be blamed for something. but then after they’d gone to retrieve it and run into the other house captains, she’d slept like the dead she was so exhausted. completely knocked out until her alarm went off. if it hadn’t she could have very easily slept through the day too. she wondered if gwen was like that. she kind of doubted it. but she’d also never guessed gwen would bee on prozac so maybe her perception of her was entirely wrong. “ it was on the ground back there, ” she said, turning a little so she could gesture to the spot behind them. “ i thought i saw it fall out of your bag, ” she explained herself, picking her words so if gwen wanted to say she’d imagind it and that it definitely wasn’t her’s, she had opportunity to. 

@sofiebauers

The best thing about drama class, Jess had deducted, was the unlimited range of freedom the students had during the period to do precisely anything they wanted as long as it didn’t draw too much attention to the fact that they weren’t actually doing anything to do with school work. It was the period of the afternoon in which she got most of her stuff for BAU sorted, she caught up on the group chat, handed out some tasks here and there, but otherwise, caught up on weird lesbian animes that had a cult following of like, four people or started Montage of Heck for like, the 50th time that year. Or sometimes she stalked Jay Adams online, or cropped ugly photos of her friends and sent it to them. The fact was, there was a whole plethora of stuff to do that wasn’t anything to do with actual academia until Gregson came snooping around to check. In which case, Jess whipped out whatever they were meant to be doing and made a whole lot of noise, just in hopes to startle or confuse the teacher until she rolled her eyes and walked off. 

Today wasn’t like that though, today was group work and Jess loved people, don’t get her wrong, she loved working in a team… but what she didn’t like was oversensitive dickweeds who had their own heads so far up their own buttholes, they made everybody else smell the shit for them. In this case, Anthony Mclaughlin, a ginger Brit who kind of looked like a broomstick if you looked at him right, was being the center of fucking attention in their assigned group and demanding they do some overly ordinary Shakespeare in the Park rendition — which — Jess probably wouldn’t have cared about doing if literally anybody else had maybe suggested it. You know… in a normal and nice way.

The more the kid threw a tantrum over being argued against by the others though, the more Jess pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to jump into the leader pants herself. Not everybody could fit in there, she was aware, as much as it went against her instinct to let it all fly. Instead, she looked over at the slender blond beside her. If she’d liked Louisa, then Jess really liked Sofie too. They were the Yin to the apparent Yang of senior house captains, and if Jess had to pick a side to hang around, it was definitely going to be the girls. Forget their soft hair and cherry chapstick lips, they were nice people. Nicer than Greek Statue Damian Fitzgerald and actual Medusa Gwen Prescott, anyway. But then, she had her cryptoid theories about them too that nobody was interested in hearing anymore.

Sharing a look with Sofie as the kid went fully psycho over the drama assignment, Jess moved back to give herself space and also to take a seat next to Sofie. “Can you actually believe this twonk?” She gestured at Anthony, clearly over it. “I bet he even, like, organized his own exit from the womb. You know, a timer, red carpet, whole fucking orchestra ordeal. I mean, do we actually have to sit here and listen to that for the next two weeks? Like, really, or can we just split and do our own thing at this point since it’s clearly the Anthony show as usual?”

sofie rather enjoyed many of her classes at broadripple, incredibly grateful for the large range of classes available that she could pick from, but there was something rather special about drama. something about sitting around and talking about these fantasy worlds and stories built by people and told by others. well, some of the time at least. a lot of the time was taken up by rants and raves from people sofie would call interesting characters. people like anthony. 

she watched on from a distance with nothing better to do, elbows pressed into her thighs and head propped up by fists. she had no ideas of her own that she thought were good enough to bother speaking up, arguing with anthony that shakespeare in the park was overdone. when jess looked in her direction, she returned the look with a quick raise f her brows before her eyes returned to the latest drama class soap. when she moved to be next to her, sofie straightened up, out of habit with the awareness that someone was possibly paying close attention to her. when jess spoke, sofie had to hold back a snort. covering it up as a clearing of her throat.