#aa-stuck

Nepeta hadn’t really asked to work with the theater kids on their production. She wasn’t all that into theater. There were all these rules about props and what to do and not to do and things to touch and not to touch and where to go when and so on and so forth. Nepeta was not a rules type of person. She was more of a free spirit. She was an artist. There were no rules in art. So how did she end up working with the theater kids? 

It had started with this unofficial contest some kids were having in her art class. Some kids had started it awhile ago and Nepeta loved a challenge. Everyone brought a dollar to class put it in a hat. Then someone would decide something to draw and everyone would draw it and then they would all vote on who’s was the best. Whoever won got the cash. Nepeta almost always won. 

Anyway it was during one of these contests that Nep got into trouble. That weeks drawing theme was fashion show. Nep was on the road once again to victory when the teacher caught them. Of course she couldn’t say they were betting on art. That kind of stuff wasn’t allowed. So Nepeta had just said they were designing Fashion for no reason. She studied Nepeta’s work and asked if she wanted to do an extra credit assignment. Nepeta had instantly agreed. Anything to change the subject. 

And that’s how she ended up designing the costumes for the theater kid’s play. Or not designing. Just drawing. Some other kid would be telling her what to draw from what she understood. She didn’t know. All she knew was that she didn’t like this idea but whether she liked it or not Nepeta still honored her commitment and showed up at the auditorium that first day. 

When she first stepped into the auditorium she was immediately surprised by the hustle and bustle going on around her. She hadn’t expected so much going on. She stepped out of the way of a few kids moving a set piece and was immediately bumped into by a few more kids holding clipboards and checking mics. She tried to find somewhere to be out of the way but couldn’t. 

Nepeta puffed out her cheeks. Some welcome.  Nepeta was dandy with hustle and bustle but this was a little much. She had never been to a play before let alone helped out with one so she didn’t know what all was needed to prepare for one. Was this usual? she felt a little out of place. She brushed a stray black curl from face as she sidestepped two kids talking about lighting and tripped over her own shoes and fell into someone and they both went tumbling to the ground. She looked up at the boy she’d knocked over. She was a little surprised to see the kid had violet hair. 

Nepeta worked at Derse. She loved working at Derse. she loved her coworkers, especially her boss Meenah, she loved the smell of ground coffee beans, and she loved the costumers. Nepeta was a hard worker if she did say so herself, she was a bit of a klutz sometimes but she tried her hardest. She was still working on working all the machines so mostly she just took orders, which was fine with her. Nepeta loved people. 

Nepeta walked to work in the rain, her umbrella was pink and polka dotted. She had put her black choppy hair into low pigtails. Her blue cat hat was pulled onto her head as always. She had put on her a pink blouse and jeans. She walked into the cafe and shook out her umbrella. She pulled off her hat and set it with her stuff. She grabbed her Derse cafe apron over her head and fixed her hair.

It was raining so it was one of those slow days when they didn’t get many customers. She grabbed a seat by the counter and waited, pulling out her phone and started playing crossy-roads. The cafe was pretty much void of life. Sometimes they had slow days like that, which Nepeta didn’t mind.

When the door open with a little chime Nepeta put her phone away. She hoped up, not really paying attention to who had entered. She stood by the counter waiting too take the persons order. She straightened her hair and looked up at the person standing there, giving a little smile.

Nepeta had always been curious. I mean curiosity never killed the cat, am I right? Oh wait was that the other way around? Oh well. Anyway she'd mostly been timid about ignoring the rules for most of her life. Now? pfft, fuck da rules. Nepeta does what she wants when she wants. That was the great thing about being at AA, you were expected to be mature and independent. Take care of yourself with very little supervision. mature? Since when had Nepeta ever been mature? Nope, she was a child and a child does what a child does best: Get into trouble.

Nepeta was does just that at this moment. Big school needed big vents she guessed because Nepeta could just squeeze inside. It had been a trick she'd learned that one time the lights went out and Caliborn had been being a douchebag. She ditched him and into the vents. It had been her favorite mod of transportation even since. Especially since she had a vent in her room to squeeze into, so she could only get caught coming out of the vent and not going into one. Of course she knew how much trouble she'd get into if she was caught. It was pretty dangerous to go crawling through the vents but she was small and light enough that it didn't really matter.

Cronus had only been at the school, what? 3 days? maybe longer. He wasn't really keeping track, but most likely 3 days. he didn’t like not really knowing anyone. Meeting people went bad for him. It usually started with some cheesy pick up line and ended in complete and utter disgust. That was fine though, they were just jealous. Totally. 

He sat on the park bench by his dorms with his guitar. He took his time tuning it and playing the cords until they sounded right and doing a few exercises running his fingers down the fret board and strumming the different strings. He was all good so he started to play wonderwall. He kinda wanted to sing along to it as well but well, people should have to pay for that kinda show right? Of course these were the kinda thing he told himself to hide the fact he was actually too embarrassed to sing out in public.

He finished the song and was surprised to look down and see he was bleeding. It was the kinda thing that happened when you didn’t play with a pic and Cronus’ fingers were all tore up because of it. He hadn't even noticed. He was even more surprised to look up and see someone standing there. He guessed they must have been listening to him play. 

As an art student it was an odd thing that Nepeta found herself In the schools dance studio so often. Well not so much in the dance studio than near it. She just really liked watching the dancers dance. She wasn't exactly sure how it had become such a habit but she knew how it had began. 

She had been In the park sketching but it was one of those foggy gloomy days when no one was really out. She had wandered around for a little while before somehow ending up near the dance studio. She had an idea to try and draw the dancers as they danced. Their forms would be perfect. So Nepeta slipped in unnoticed. 

She’d placed herself out of the way and out of view and watched and started sketching. But the dancers would move from on position to the next too fast, not that that had really mattered anyway. Nepeta had become too wrapped up in watching the dancers preform to actually draw anyway. 

So from then on Nepeta had been coming there every so often to just sorta hide and watch. It wasn't as if she wanted to dance herself. She was hunter and an artist, she wasn't a dancer. She’d never danced before in her life, except once with Caliborn at the valentines day dance. But that was pretty much just swaying. No she wasn't a dancers but she sure did like watching the other dance. They were so graceful and talented. They looked like royalty. 

She wondered briefly what it felt like to preform on a stage. Art was never a preforming art. She’d never been up in front of a crowd of people the way actors or dancers would. Big crowds of people sometimes overwhelmed her. Her ADHD would go into overdrive trying to process everything at once. She wondered how these people did it. 

Nepeta had been in town for awhile after school. The skies had been dark all day but the weather channel had said it wouldn't rain til later tonight so she'd neglected to bring an umbrella. She'd bought some art supplies, a new sketchbook, a rental DVD, and a box of sweets from Derse. She was walking back to the dorms when the first few rain drops hit. She figured she could make it back to the dorms before the rain really hit if she hurried. 

She was wrong. Halfway home the rain hit hard. The kind of rain that comes down in buckets. She to duck into a bus stop for shelter. She was soaked right down the the underwear. Which sucked because she liked this outfit. A short black skirt with a flower pattern matched with a white tank-top and jean jacket. It didn't help that her bra was now see through through the white shirt. She sighed and buttoned up the jean jacket and took a seat wringing out her hair. 

She might as well wait here until the rain let out. She couldn't risk getting her stuff wet. She leaned back of the bus shelter. It was cold and she was wet. Nepeta did not like being wet. Not one bit. The dorms were another half mile down the road. Nepeta folded her arms, unhappily. 

Nepeta had been out for a jog, it was cold and refreshing and nice out and she loved seeing the trails around AA during the winter. She thought maybe after she could go shopping. When she got back to the dorms she looked around the room. It seemed Jade had made herself scarce, again. She grabbed her wallet and was about to head out again to go shopping when she realized something was wrong. Her wallet was light. She peered inside. It was barren. A tumbleweed could have rolled across the place for comedic effect, that was how fucking barren it was.

Nepeta was given a weekly allowance from her mom to get by which she spend carefully. She bought a box of raman to eat and used the rest for school supplies and spending money. So how was she broke? Right…art supplies. Well how was she supposed to know copic markers were so expensive? Actually she did know, she’d just decided that was future Nepeta’s problem. Now she was future Nepeta. Curse you past Nepeta.

Luckily for Nepeta all she had to do was get a job. She’d heard from Equius that a job opened up at derse coffee even. Next to the trails derse coffee was probably neps favorite place around. It was warm and cozy and she pretty much knew everyone who worked there. There was her bestie Equius, obviously. Then there was Caliborn. Nepeta still wasn’t completely sure how she felt about him. But she definitely didn’t hate him. Hell she’d even go as far as to say she kinda liked the guy. He was cool. Even if he was a douchbag. Then there was Meenah, who admittedly was kinda intimidating but she’d been tutoring Nepeta in math and she had turned out to be pretty cool! And really smart!