#cherryhelpsrph

Marley looked around at the small circle of people she’d gathered for this intervention -- just her, Sam, and Mike, but apparently that seemed to be enough. She stood up and wrapped her arms around Tina, entirely too excited about her promise to stay out of trouble and turn over a new leaf.

A part of Marley had nearly given up on Tina when she’d found out she was in the Uprising, but that wasn’t her style. Especially when Tina had finally forgiven her for dating Mike, she just hadn’t been in a hurry to throw away that friendship again. She’d already lost Ryder over it -- even if that was mostly him being an idiot for not trying to stop Jake -- and she didn’t want to lose Tina to it, too.

Giving up would have made her a hypocrite, and a coward, and that just wasn’t something she wanted to be. Marley Rose was the type of girl who persevered, who tried to make things better. And this time... this time it had worked.

“We all love you, Tee. We’ll make sure things are okay, and that you always have a place where you feel welcome.” Marley smiled as she let go of Tina and let Sam move on to hug her instead, trying to stifle a giggle when she heard Tina’s boyfriend murmur into her ear “We’re way cooler than a buncha terrorists anyway.”

Ryder looked around the Room of Requirement, his eyes wide in confusion. In front of him were three Ravenclaw seventh years – Lucy and Tina, who had dragged him here against his will, and Lydia, who was now telling him it was all her idea. But why? He didn’t understand what was going on, and he sat there with his jaw dropped in shock as they explained.

“You guys are giving me an intervention?” he asked in disbelief. Merlin, how he wished he could tell them that his relationship with Gracie all summer had been fake, but that wouldn’t just mess things up for him, but for Gracie, too. This was a complete and total disaster – these three girls had him tied to a chair, and looked like they weren’t letting him leave anytime soon.

If Ryder had just left his stupid mask on at the Halloween ball, then he never would have had to know he was kissing Marley. No one else would have known that he had kissed Marley, either, which seemed to be the reason he was in this mess in the first place. 

Which one had even seen him? Tina? Lydia? Lucy? And why did they bloody care? He just wished people would let him make his own decisions for once and not bother him so much… especially Lucy, who was one of the only people in school who even knew his relationship with Gracie had been to get people to leave them alone and not because of real feelings.

Tina was close to Marley, right? And Lydia to Gracie, and Lucy to Lily? Ryder would have buried his head in his hands if he could have, but they were strapped to the chair, and all he could do was numbly listen as they warned him he should be glad they were the ones talking to him, before Kitty could give him a piece of her mind instead.

“I’m sorry, okay! I’m not mad, I’m just – this is crazy, you guys! I’m not some bad guy going around trying to hurt people on purpose, okay? I’m not, all three of you know me better than that. Can you just tell me why I’m here so I can go? I can smell the bacon from the kitchens already, I don’t want to miss supper…”

If Tina had asked him to trust her yesterday, it would have been the easiest thing in the world. Trusting her implicitly was just an automatic reflex. Sam had fallen in love with her -- or at least with the idea of her -- before he’d ever really gotten to know her, and in his eyes, the real thing, the real girl, was even more perfect than he ever could have imagined. 

Until, one day, she wasn’t.

He wanted to think Marley was lying, and that there was no way in the world that Tina could be part of some crappy terrorist organization that hurt humans and ruined all chances of equality. His girl wouldn’t do that, would she?

But it made sense. The mysterious disappearances, how she’d managed to fall in with a douche like Jake Puckerman in the first place, why she was so tight with Santana when that chick usually hurled insults everyone’s way... It made too much sense.

Sam hated the way his stomach twisted into knots when Tina asked him to believe her, to trust her. He hated the way that, no matter how much he loved her, no matter how much it broke his heart  to not be on her side, that he couldn’t just take her word for it.

But he wouldn’t walk away -- not when there was still hope for her, not when there was a chance he could get her away from those dudes and get her protection with the equality movement. He could change her mind and save her, couldn’t he?

Sam reached out and squeezed Tina’s hands, smiling up at her sadly. “I’m sorry, Tee. I love you, but I don’t... when it comes to this uprising stuff, I don’t believe you.” Sam swallowed the lump in his throat, praying she wouldn’t hit him, or walk away, or yell at him or whatever it was girls did when they were mad at their boyfriends. He’d never really done anything to earn Tina’s wrath so far, but he’d seen it in the way she’d treated Marley and Mike, and it scared the shit out of him.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m not still in your corner... God, Tina, please don’t go. We can get through this together, okay? Ma always said no one’s perfect, I guess this -- this Uprising stuff -- that’s your not perfect thing. But I’m gonna help you, okay? I’m gonna help you get uninvolved and clear of the FBI, and... and stuff’s gonna be better, okay? I know I just said I don’t trust you so I kinda have no right to ask this, but -- can you trust me? Can you trust me to help save you from these guys and all the trouble they’re about to get into?”

Marley bristled at Tina’s words; she’d just gotten her friend back, and she knew she should be happy about it... but in all her fighting with Ryder, he’d slipped up and given her names of other people in the Uprising, other people that she wasn’t holding to the same “ridiculous” standards that she was holding him to.

People like Tina.

Marley forced a smile, but there were a million questions racing through her head. How long had Tina been in the Uprising? Was she still in it now? Why? Had she just been in it because of stupid freaking Jake Puckerman, too, or were there other reasons, ones that Marley couldn’t and wouldn’t understand?

“You too, Tee,” she finally said, hoping her voice sounded sincere. She’d talk to Mike first, see what he thought they should do... then maybe she’d confront Tina about it. But she didn’t want to be too hasty, when it could all just be a big misunderstanding. At least, she prayed that it was a misunderstanding. Marley hated that she really couldn’t be sure, and that her arms were just a little bit looser as she hugged Tina back than they would normally be.

“It’s not stealing, it’s borrowing,” Rachel snapped, shooting a withering glare at Tobias in the passenger seat before turning her eyes back toward the road. She didn’t know where they were going, but she wanted to go somewhere. Somewhere far away from here.

Rachel had joked that she was completely okay with the idea of either of her parents getting remarried, but after the war, they’d both been around so much as support for Rachel that she’d...maybe started to get her hopes up again. Having her family around was one of the few things that made her feel normal again, and they’d been feeling more and more like a real one.

Until the night her dad showed up for dinner and announced he was getting married. To someone else.

Rachel had asked to be excused and instead of morphing eagle or elephant or grizzly or even just cat as an escape, she’d grabbed her dad’s keys off the counter and driven off into the night. She’d ignored about 13 different calls on her cell phone by now, and she’d nearly wrecked the thing trying to get as close to Tobias’s meadow as she could. She knew she could find him there, when he wasn’t at Loren’s... some things just never changed.

Finally, Rachel pulled to a stop at the edge of another park, leaning back in her chair and looking at Tobias. She’d been trying to keep from letting her emotions show, but he obviously knew something was wrong... he always knew when something was wrong with her. 

“You know I love you, right?” Rachel asked quietly, even though it was a ridiculous question. Of course he knew she loved him; boys didn’t just  jump onto spaceships to save girls that didn’t feel the same way about them that they felt about her. But still, her heart felt heavy when as she tried to find a way to explain herself to him.

“But... but sometimes I just wish I could have something normal in my life. My boyfriend’s a bird, my dad’s getting married to some news anchor from Nebraska, and everywhere I go, I feel like I’m always going to stand out because of the war. I just.... I want to feel like a normal teenage girl for one night. Is that so much to ask for?”

I’ve missed you too especially with this reply omg it’s perfect Sirius so would

i’ve missed these two dorks! sirius is such a goof.

Challenge accepted

“Anything But Ordinary” by Avril Lavigne“Last Name” by Carrie Underwood“Excuse Me Mr.” by No Doubt“Johnny Can’t Decide” from Tick, Tick...BOOM!“Avalanches” by A Fine Frenzy“No Homo” by The Lonely Island“Dammit Janet” from Rocky Horror Picture Show“Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash“Ain’t No Other Man” by Christina Aguilera

STOP BEING SO CUTE?!?!?