Katherine felt the world at her fingertips and no longer crushing her shoulders beneath its weight, now that she had an ample amount of MDMA in her system. She wanted to hug everybody in the room, which she had actually attempted a couple of times, wrapping her arms around classmates she hadn’t spoken a word to all year before drifting wordlessly to the next person to do the same thing. There was one person she wanted to hug more than anybody in the world, however, even more than Justin Bieber, in fact. She wanted to hug Andrea Pearson.

She looked to the pool, hoping to catch an eyeful of Drea on the shoulders of one of the BBC boys as she had done earlier, even though at that point in the night, it had just made Kat angry and sad. Kat cocked her head when she realized, after a good twenty seconds of staring rather blankly at the pool that Drea, her boob poppin’ bikini and her consistent trash-talking of the senior boys was absent from the water. Just in case she was mistaken, she stepped closer to the edge of the pool but distracted by the ebb and flow of the water and the rippling caused by the drop of a red solo cup, she forgot what she was doing.

Kat closed her eyes for a moment and imagined herself as the red solo cup, bobbing peacefully in the water but it wasn’t a pool, it was the ocean just off the coast of Mallorca, a stunning Spanish island where Kat the red solo cup would be happy. Realizing she’d been standing there for a handful of minutes, she opened her eyes and considered getting into the pool but soon reminded herself that she didn’t have a bathing suit and forgotten her own ability to remove her clothes. Bummer.

Instead of standing there daydreaming about Mallorca, she decided to make her very own Mallorca. She could make another paper boat like she had done before and she could plug up the drains and flood the bathroom to create her own private pool. What a genius she was! She complimented herself in her thoughts with a dopey smile on her face before retreating to the locker room to enact her grand scheme.

“Got you a Pepsi,” it was supposed to be a kind gesture, an effort to help Andrea Pearson maintain her blood sugar level since he was possibly one of the only students at the school that knew that it was something she even had to think about. What he didn’t know, however, was that Pepsi Max was sugar-free. He’d been under the impression that it was maximum caffeine because that sounded fucking rad but he was sorely mistaken as it turned out. Still, when he saw Drea with her books out, he was pretty she could use a little caffeine hit and was definitely sure he needed a little company and conversation.

He set the can down on the desk and cracked open his own as he sank into the seat opposite Drea, “Can I ask you something?” he was going to anyway, it really didn’t matter whether he was provided with permission or not. “You’re in Melleray, right?” he knew that as well, “Do you know Maria de Oliveira that well?” he asked curiously, an eyebrow raised as he took a sip from his drink, “Is she a lesbo?” 

Dorm reassignments are the worst Emma’s come to find. She went from having the world’s mousiest roommate to the world’s most obnoxious one because of them. And now yet again, she finds another notice of the same fashion on her desk and she’s sure it’s to inform her that she’s being uprooted once more. At this point, she knows not to be worried and actually looks forward to whoever it is she’s being sent to. Nothing can be worse than being roomed with Maddy Crawford. She takes her clothes from out of her closet, unsticks her photography from the wall, and stuffs them all into her luggage or a box. She’s not a cluttered person so it’s a relatively fast process. (And maybe she just can’t get away from this horrid place and its bad memories fast enough.)

It’s weird to think she’s not even in the same wing as when she’s started at this point. Not that Emma is particularly attached to Dot Wing or whatever, but it’s just strange to be heading to the other side. She wonders what the hitch is with this wing. The last wing was Maddy and her inconsiderately loud music, what does Cass Wing have?

“Take it you’re Andrea Pearson?” Emma says once she’s standing under the doorway, looking into the room and taking in the empty bed on one side which she assumes is hers. She moves further inside before she gets an answer, setting her box of knick knacks on the bed and pushing the handle of her suitcase down until its hidden.

“Emma.” Because that’s an informative introduction.

Katherine was sitting at a picnic table on the school grounds with books spread across its surface, accompanied by a plate of neatly cut fruit, an open-faced sandwich and of course, the blonde’s beloved plants; Solveig and Richard. She’d texted Andrea to join her, despite her intentions to get her essay finished that afternoon and didn’t expect to be waiting long for her roommate.

She grinned at the sight of the other girl, straightening her spine and reaching out to her with an extended arm, perhaps wanting to hug her, hold her hand or just touch her, it was unclear. “Hello,” she chimed sweetly, shifting Richard slightly to allow for more seating space, “You can sit with us,” duh, she’d literally invited Drea to meet her, though Kat still thought the invitation was nice. 

“I think we have to kill Gwen Prescott now,” she expressed, closing her textbook with a highlighter shoved between it to mark the page she was up to. “She told Damian I called her a bitch- like, why? Why would you just go to somebody and say that? It’s that she has nothing better to do than fuck with me,” probably because Kat had called her a bitch but she didn’t think that part was important, really.

Katherine was half asleep when she heard it. At first, the sound was foreign and unfamiliar, enough so that it didn’t bother her enough to stir for a good few minutes. Then it clicked. Her violin instructor had been nagging her to have her violin restrung for almost two weeks now and she kept forgetting, so in an effort to remind herself she’d left her case open and her instrument exposed on the top of her desk, certain that as soon as she saw it the following morning she’d remember and take it to Greenfield for restringing. A simple alarm on her phone or a calendar reminder would have done the trick but she hadn’t thought of that, apparently.

Kat clumsily shouldered the door of her dorm room open while still holding Solveig’s planter tenderly in her arms. “Hello? I asked you to open the door for me, am I supposed to be Superman?” she asked as she thrust her body inside, almost knocking over a week old mug on her desk in the process. “Oh- okay, you can’t hear me, that’s fine,” she relented as she turned around again, facing Drea now and realizing she was wearing headphones and hadn’t heard Kat at the door...or at the very least was pretending she hadn’t.

“Hi,” she squeaked in a high pitch, waving a hand in front of her best friend to attract her attention for no reason at all since she had absolutely nothing important to say to the girl, she just wanted to be acknowledged. She put Solveig on the window sill next to Richard and cooed at them both for a moment before she started to undress, ready for bed.

“Do you think I could ever learn to use a Samsung phone? I like the colors but it looks very complicated,” she announced as she folded her jeans and hung them up neatly in her closet, sitting on the edge of her mattress and pulling her hair into a bun a moment later, “Oh my God- I saw the funniest thing I’ve seen in my entire life today- I was shoveling snow outside and Bergmann came running down the path for like- I have no idea why, he was like sprinting and he slipped and it was like a TikTok it was so funny, I wish I had my phone out,”

- what your muse’s name is in mine’s phone

Andrea Pearson ( V boring I know )                  

- what your muse’s picture is in mine’s phone           

- what your muse’s ringtone is in mine’s phone                            

Nice To Have a Friend by Taylor Swift 

- my muse’s last text to your muse

[ 2:45 ] I know it’s been awhile since we’ve talked but someone gave me some bio notes to give to you [ 2: 46 ] I think they thought I was Kat [ 2:46 ] Figured you might need them for class [ 2: 46 ] I put them on your bunk 

- what your muse’s name is in mine’s phone

Connor ( The Guy Who Saved You ) Roberts

- what your muse’s picture is in mine’s phone 

- what your muse’s ringtone is in mine’s phone                          

Listen To Your Friend by Declan McKenna

- my muse’s last text to your muse

[ 12:39 pm ] So I know you made me promise that I would let you know if I went out again and I don’t know if you actually care or not but I’m at this bar called in The Round Up a few towns over 

[ 12:45 pm ] They have a mechanical bull 

[ 12:55 pm ] That seemed like relevant information at the time