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#926 Old 10th Dec 2010 at 7:24 PM Last edited by AtropaMandragora : 10th Dec 2010 at 9:24 PM.
Default Rio with Lauren and Lilith - English Lit class


Wasn't it funny, how one single person's actions could turn practically a whole school upside-down? In just a matter of seconds, but lasting for days and possibly even weeks or months? Having gone to quite a few schools over the years, Rio knew that every one of them had that one guy or girl who seemed to have everyone else that "mattered", and then some, in the palm of their hand, and whose approval was always sought by everyone who wanted to be somebody. They started trends, they were voted Homecoming King or Queen, and were more often than not subjects of rumours and gossiping, although never really of the damaging sort. All schools had them, and yet it never ceased to amaze Rio just the level of impact they and their actions really had. Two days had passed since Matt Sidle had revealed that he and Josh Brennan had had a thing going behind everyone's back, and one could still hear the endless buzzing about it from pretty much everyone around. People seemed to have been talking about it non-stop since it had happened - Rio himself had had a couple of friends call him up in order to talk about it, with someone who had been targeted by some of Sidle's homophobic remarks and thus had more reason than anyone else to feel he was a complete hypocrite - and yet they still apparently had plenty left to say. It was amazing, how many people felt that something that ultimately was none of their business, had such a big impact on their lives, that they couldn't stop talking about it. It was everywhere. Kyle Matherson's attack on Rio stemmed from it, at least partially. Of that, Rio was certain. The captain of the jocks' precious football team having turned out to be attracted to boys was guaranteed to be a tough blow to the rest of the team's inflated egos, and with neither Josh nor Matt on site for them to use to make an example of, they used whatever substitute they could find. Heck, even Lilith, who had never struck Rio as someone who paid attention the lives and times of the preps, seemed to have something to say about it:

"Oh yeah?", she said after a momentary pause following Rio's explanation how he and Lauren had met, and he saw her eyes turn to slits of mild scrutiny. "Then you must've been there for the Great Outing of 2010; did either of you see that one coming, coz I sure didn't."

Well, to be fair, he couldn't really blame her for turning the topic onto the whole Sidle debacle; it was him who had brought up the dance in the first place, and it was the most memorable event of the evening. Plus, considering Lilith's... colorful personality and rather verbal crowd, he could just imagine that she might be among the few people with an actual reason to dislike Sidle and his peers. Now granted, Rio himself couldn't exactly claim total disinterest either, but in his case, it had more to do with the fact that firstly, what he'd witnessed had been totally hot in his book, and secondly, because he had a personal interest in seeing what would happen now, seeing as how Matt Sidle, the very king of Brooklake, had turned out to be gay, or at the very least bisexual. It would be most interesting to see what impact that would have on the LBGT tolerance in Brooklake, as well as who the rest of the preps and jocks would flock around now, when their Great Leader had just jumped off a social cliff.

"Yeah...", he started slowly as he slid himself into the seat at the table the three of them had chosen as their spot during English Lit. "Neither did I. Neither of those would have been my first guess, even if I'd known there were two guys in the popular crowd getting it on."

With a bit of an ironic smirk, he then plopped his backpack down on the table, and added;

"So much for people like me having "gaydars", huh? Or maybe mine's just broken, cuz-..."

He never finished his last sentence. While he spoke, his attention was drawn towards a girl that came hurrying right across the classroom, towards the table just behind Rio and the girls, occupied by three other students, her face alight with horrified excitement, and sensation-seeking.

"Did you guys hear?", came her voice dramatically as she joined her friends, hushed yet not nearly low enough to be a whisper. "Matt Sidle's in the hospital!"

For a split second, silence fell like a curtain among the other girls, as well as the nearby tables, before a cacophony of wheezing "What?!", "How?!" and "Are you serious?!" burst forth from their lips.

"Yeah," the first girl eagerly continued. "Apparently Mandy Stevenson called his house this morning, and their housekeeper said he tried to kill himself!"

Around the table where sat Rio, Lilith and Lauren, the young man's widened eyes shifted away from the gossiping quartet, to meet the gaze of his two companions.

"Christ...", he mumbled.


(((ooc: WLK - Sorry, I know it was your turn, but since you seem to have a hectic time, I figured I'd take the pressure off by posting. Hope you don't mind too much. Plus, I also needed to get the news out there right around now.)))

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
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#927 Old 12th Dec 2010 at 5:54 PM
Default Tyler and Brilee - English Lit class


On his way to his locker to get his things for class, Tyler mused silently to himself, momentarily questioning why exactly he should attend English Lit this morning. He wasn't particularly tempted to kick off his Monday morning with the works of some poet or bard or whatnot, who'd been dead for centuries and had a way of expressing him- or herself that would render you totally cluess as to what the h*ll they were really on about. Plus, Tyler figured, Professor Rubelein was going to flunk him anyway, and so whether or not he attended class this morning really wouldn't make a speck of difference. For some reason, the man had decided to take Tyler's lack of interest personally, and thus seemed to hold this massive grudge that the few times Tyler was in class, he ended up wishing he wasn't. How was that for pedagogy?

Though in the end, despite the thought of Professor Rubelein and his charming ways, Tyler decided to go. He didn't feel like running into some hallmonitor and end up being slapped with detention. He had better things to do this afternoon, than to sit around in some classroom and waste his time. And besides, he'd kind of indicated to that new chick Brilee that he would show, and while it wasn't a promise written in blood, he'd feel kind of bad to just blow her off. So, after getting his things from his locker, he headed back the same way he'd come, just as the first bell sent the students around him scurrying towards their respective destinations.

A few minutes later, he sauntered into the class room along with the last couple of stragglers, and aimed a slight motion of his head at Lilith in greeting, where she sat with some girl he hadn't seen before, and that queer guy, Rio what's-his-name, before plopping himself down next to Brilee. Seeing the sheets spread out infront of her, with what looked like Greek to him, his dark brows furrowed slightly.

"What the h*ll is that?"

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
Lab Assistant
#928 Old 13th Dec 2010 at 5:51 AM
Default The assignment

Brilee propped her binder on the edge of her desk, supporting it with her legs. She analyzed her handwriting scrawled across the page. At least it was consistent. Brilee looked around the classroom. Everything about it was public. Instead of straight rows of identical desks with identical chairs and baskets, there was a hodgepodge of mismatched desks, some in better shape than others. Students sat with binders and papers instead of top of the line laptops. Even Brilee herself sat with a binder, a small reminder of how things now were.

She all of a sudden felt sheltered. She spent eleven years in the same private school, and inside its walls, everything was the same. Each classroom identical to the one before it. However, outside its walls, Brilee was slapped with reality. She wasn’t sheltered as a teenager, she’d been in her share of trouble. After all, money only led to trouble. In the distance, a bell rang signaling the beginning of class. Brilee looked at the papers strew across her desk, sometimes it was just better to just not think about it.

"What the h*ll is that?" A voice exclaimed beside her as a figure swiftly slid into the chair next to her. Brilee glanced over to see Tyler examining her crinkled math sheets. Brilee’s first thought retreated back to Donnie’s words, “you don’t want to be poor and stupid, do you?” But the look on Tyler’s face told her they may have found a common ground. A dislike for math.

There comes a time when you just have to laugh to keep from crying, and they seemed to be coming in pairs, this was one of those times. Brilee simply shook her head and laughed, “Unimportant.”

Brilee quickly stacked the crinkled worksheets together and folded them neatly before tucking them into her bag. She chuckled at the contradiction. She shuffled around in her bag for her lit book. After retrieving it, she sat up to find Professor Rubelein upon them with the assignment.

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#929 Old 15th Dec 2010 at 12:11 PM Last edited by Ghanima Atreides : 22nd Dec 2010 at 7:27 PM.
Default Lauren, Lilith & Rio - English Lit. Class




"Yeah...", Rio began "Neither did I. Neither of those would have been my first guess, even if I'd known there were two guys in the popular crowd getting it on."

Lilith smirked her agreement as she opened her Shakespeare book and half-heartedly began moving the pages around. Welp, there it was, if not even Rio had an inkling... though she sometimes liked to sneer at the collective football team and the sausagefest that it was, Brennan had never quite made it on her list of actual suspects; the way Lilith saw it, if any of the jocks was doing the dirty with another guy, it would be one of those most vocally homophobic – overcompensation and so on. Sure, Sidle fit that criteria – being both vocal and homophobic – but he was also one of the biggest man***res around, and as far as anyone knew, none of his conquests had anything to complain about his performance. Not that Sidle's bedroom prowess was something Lilith paid a lot of attention to, but it was the kind of thing that would have made its way along the grapevine sooner or later...so, not the sort of guy she would easily suspect of preferring sausage to taco. Hell, perhaps he liked both; didn't make him less of a douche though, nor was this “revelation” a get out of jail free card - “oh poor guy, his life has been revealed to be anything other than perfect” - yeah right. Welcome to the real world.

It was a malice-tinged thought Lilith would soon find herself regretting. Almost as soon as it crossed her mind and Rio was commenting on his malfunctioning gaydar, a girl's voice sounded from somewhere nearby, heavy with dramatic portent:

"Did you guys hear? Matt Sidle's in the hospital!"

The comment had an instantaneous effect on everyone within earshot; some dropped whatever they were doing to listen for the explanation which would surely follow, whereas the more impatient of the lot began with the usual trite phrases like “omigod, are you sure?!” and so on. Lilith adopted a dubious frown and aimed an equally dubious glance at her companions, though she, too, kept listening:

"Yeah," she heard the girl say "Apparently Mandy Stevenson called his house this morning, and their housekeeper said he tried to kill himself!"

And she took what Mandy Stevenson said at face value? Lilith thought even as her eyes widened involuntarily at the sheer unexpectedness of it all. She scanned Rio and Lauren's faces in search of a reaction, though she was mostly met by blank looks similar to her own. At least at first, until Rio mumbled:

"Christ..."

Around them, the commotion was growing, swelling like the water in a boiling cauldron: more and more voices joined the cacophony, overlaying and overlapping into a babble of unintelligible muttering and frenetic whispering as the news was being passed on from table to table. It was only a matter of time before Professor Rubelein noticed his class was preoccupied, and not with his assignment.

“What is the meaning of all this commotion?” he rumbled from the depths of his chair and adjusted his glasses to better look at the moon-like face of a student nearest to him, one of the nerds who always claimed the front row seats.

“It's Matt Sidle, Professor!” the boy answered breathlessly. “We've just heard he's in hospital, apparently he tried to commit suicide!”

There was a pause while Rubelein absorbed this, clearly not having expected it any more than the rest of the class. He cleared his throat, straightened himself.

"According to who?"

"Mandy Stevenson; she called his house this morning!"

“Hrm, yes, I see. As distressing as the news undoubtedly is, I would like to point out it is but a rumour at this point; let us not get ahead of ourselves. In the meantime, you still have an assignment to complete.”

"Oh shut the f*** up, Rubelein, you blowhard" , Lilith thought and rolled her eyes.

The hubbub merely decreased in intensity; some of the students resumed their work, while others continued to huddle together, whispering incessantly. A few, including lovestruck Amanda Stroud, were bothered by Rubelein's emotionless reaction and responded by giving him dirty looks. At her table, Lilith was torn: for the first time a different part of Matthew Sidle stood before her eyes, stripped of all the trappings of highschool popularity and the superficially perfect life he had seemed to lead, revealed to be only human, with fears and shortcomings like everyone else. Even more, overwhelmed by them, pushed to such a desperate gesture by something most people had never even guessed existed. It was the part he'd so laboriously kept hidden from everyone, fooling them because they were so willing to be fooled. Lilith had been no different, but at that moment she could feel reality catching up, inescapable. She was cold, but she wasn't that cold, and deep down she strongly suspected even Mandy Stevenson wouldn't start such a rumour for the heck of it.

“Well, sh*t, this is the drama that keeps on giving", she said tartly, leaning across the table. Abruptly, she stopped. “I mean, he's not exactly my favourite person in the whole world, but I don't wanna see him dead or anything...”

Why did that sound ever so slightly...defensive? Lilith frowned, bit her lip, and tackled the issue from a different angle:

“If this turns out to be true, it can't be just because he outed himself either; this must've been coming a looong time...so much for appearances, huh?”


If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets
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#930 Old 15th Dec 2010 at 10:07 PM
Default Tyler and Brilee - English Lit class


While the main reason why Tyler had been made to repeat his Junior year in high school was the extent of his absence during said year, another reason was the fact that even if he had been attending every class like he should, he often took little to no interest in what was being taught, and so still wouldn't have gotten much more out of it, than he did not being there in the first place. Most students had one or two subjects at which they excelled and were interested in, and one or two that they disliked, but Tyler wasn't particularly interested in any of them. Not that he considered knowledge and learning in any way redundant, it was just that from his point of view, life and friends were far better teachers than the people hired to teach in school.

However, this year, he was making a bit of an effort to ensure that he'd pass; he wasn't particularly tempted to do it all over yet again, and would prefer to have school done and over with as soon as possible, so that he could move on with his life. Though passing a class wasn't the same as being actually good at it, it just meant that one had to make sure not to be too bad at it, and so needless to say, Tyler still didn't really excel at any subject in school. English, math, geography, history, they were all equally dull, and Tyler very much doubted he would ever get an A in any of them, or even a B.

Minding his own business however, was a subject on which he was pretty much an expert. He didn't appreciate it when others put their noses where they didn't belong, and he himself practiced what he preached, and so tried his best to stay out of what didn't concern him. The only times he got himself involved in other people's business, was when he was either paid to do - like with Neville Highams and Emma Brixton - or when people's *ssholery went too far.

But if it was just your everyday situation, or casual conversation, and the other person got evasive or defensive, he would back off, no further questions asked. As was aprtly illustrated when in reply to his rather spontaneous question, Brilee laughed it off with a rather dismissive;

"Unimportant."

For the second time this morning, Tyler got the distinct impression that she wasn't all too interested in his company, or at least not in talking to him. Yeah, she'd said she'd save him a seat, and she had, but maybe that had been just to be polite? Why else would making conversation with her be such a tough one? So, alright then. Tyler could take a hint.

"Okay", he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders, and then lazily turned his attention to Professor Rubelein, who was just starting to explain the assignment.

Whether or not Tyler would end up actually doing it, depended on the level of pointlessness, but in order to determine that, he figured he should at least listen to what it was about.

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
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Original Poster
#931 Old 16th Dec 2010 at 12:28 AM Last edited by Alissa888 : 16th Dec 2010 at 6:09 PM.
Default Josh - English Lit to Locker Rooms
Josh wasn’t ever expecting it to be a talk that’d go well. In all honesty, the best thing he could have hoped for was for his parents to say the ever awaited, miraculous words that were “You’re our son, we accept you for what you are”. Hoping didn’t get him anywhere because those words never made it past their lips. In fact, what was dished out to him was much the opposite. It bore regret, mainly, of all that was expected of him and all that he would he had failed, and now will never succeed to accomplish.
It was no easy thing to endure, the systematic breakdown of all that your childhood and your adulthood was meant to be, and how you had ruined the meaning of anything and everything in that.

Jesus Christ, it wasn’t like he’d committed a crime, or killed someone. He’d been a disappointment, and subjectively, at that. Nonetheless, his own assertions of his independence and autonomy did little to defuse the situation, and worse yet was his own failure in deciding where to draw the line. At the end of the day, they were his parents, and while he’d decided that he was going to do what he wanted to do, it still made it no easier to fob off the people who’d looked after and loved you all your life. He’d always known it’d come to this, but it did little difference to the difficult that was dealing with it. He wasn’t going to tell his parents it was none of their business, because frankly, it was. That said, he wasn’t going to do as they wanted, and that left them at a stalemate and the only consolation was that with the cat out of the bag, there wasn’t any more going back and sticking their head in the sand.
Most shocking was how outraged they were by it. It wasn’t shock – shock, he expected and understood – but actual outrage, like the thing they were worried about most was the fact that he’d done something that he knew that they’d disapprove of.

Then the situation regarding Matt and Marie-Elisabeth came to light, because Josh figured that if he was coming clean, he would let them in on the whole debacle. Or maybe on some level, it was to throw the spotlight off the fact that he was out of the closet regarding his bisexuality. Somehow, they took the idea of him having fathered Marie’s child a lot better than they took the idea of his relationship with Matt, and at that Josh conceded that his plan officially backfired and that he had two serious problems to deal with. Well, until it was soon revealed that the baby was Matt’s – not Josh’s – at which point Mr Brennan demanded how Matt was the father of the baby, and following one sardonic comment from Josh regarding the basic facts of life, he was banished to his room. Rather, Daniel Brennan stormed off in fury and frustration and the whole thing was put to bed.
Sunday morning saw the situation no better, with Julian being parcelled off to their grandparents’ for a week while all this was sorted out – Josh being no less disappointed in them as they were in him for figuring this would take all of a week to “sort out” – and Josh being subjected to several talks and olive branches that turned out to be ultimatums. He wasn’t going to compromise.
Therefore, when Monday rolled around, Josh was more enthusiastic than ever to get out of the house and to school, because nothing could be worse than this.

He was quite wrong.
Matt wasn’t here, which meant that Josh was subject to scrutiny, curiosity and condemnation over the whole affair, and frankly, he figured that they could all go to hell because it really wasn’t any of their business; regardless of what they thought of him, and who he’d hung out with, he’d never told anyone how to live their lives and so, he figured they owed him a similar consideration. But it didn’t work that way, and even Josh wasn’t naive enough to pretend that it did.
First was the shoulder checking that he received from some of the other jocks as the coldly walked past him in the hall, but he decided to ignore that, and deal with it when he had to; during team practice.
Then came the state of his locker, which he found brandished with streaked red letters bearing profanity and homophobic abuse of several flavours. He decided to let that one slide too, but he couldn’t help but admit the fact that it burned at his skin.
Third, and the toppling blow came in English Lit.
He’d barely walked into the class for all of two minutes and he felt the icy chill of soda rage violently down his back, turning around sharply to see that jerk Folsom step back with a Cheshire cat gin of accomplishment disappearing beneath a veneer of false regret.

“Jeez, man, sorry. Total accident,” he started, small sniggers erupting from those around him before he finally worked up the balls to deliver the punchline; “Don’t go hoping for a rub down, though. Isn’t that why you’re quarterback? “
Josh merely set his jaw and started focusing on the damp back of his shirt, while Reubilein began his intervention.
“Bet you barebacked Sidle. What –”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get your turn,” a female voice intervened and Josh turned to find a smug Natalie shooting down Folsom, and he couldn’t figure out why the hell she was bothering to intervene. “God knows you’ve been trying for some action.”

“Why don’t you go mind your own business, bitch?”

“Could say the same for you.”

“I’ll tell you why it’s my business,” Folsom retorted, turning to Josh with his dead gaze. “We’ve had this homo in with us in the locker room, on nights out and out on the pitch and the entire time he’s probably been fantasising about –”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence or the accusation for a fist fiercely cut through the air, colliding dead on with the side of his jaw, Josh reeling back from the hit with a mixture of rage and confusion before Reubilein finally intervened, too late and only in time to see Josh storm off.

"Life is just a chance to grow a soul" - A. Powell Davies
Lab Assistant
#932 Old 21st Dec 2010 at 7:53 AM

The professor quickly retreated without much more than a simple glance. Another gesture she wasn’t prepared for by her good old private school. He found his place back at the front of the class and began to lecture.

If Brilee had to pick a class to enjoy, it wouldn’t be English. So while Professor Rubelein droned on and on in front of the class about the assignment, Brilee flipped absent mindedly through the pages of Twelfth Night. She stopped occasionally to read a few words before flipping through to the next scene. Once she reached the back of the book, she closed it and surveyed the room.

Professor Rubelein still droned on trying to keep the distracted class on task. Brilee listened to the hushed banter behind her. Apparently, there were more important things than Shakespeare like this Matt Sidle. Needless to say, he was fighting a losing battle. And it seemed the only person paying any attention was Tyler.

She took this time to observe her partner because anything was more interesting than Professor Rubelein. She wouldn’t have tagged him as being the ‘pay attention in class’ type. Usually grade A students didn’t wander corridors or show up with the tardy bell. At least in her experience they showed up before the first bell and sat in the front row.

So far they hadn’t hit it off. It seemed to be misconnection after misconnection. Even now as she gazed at him, he hardly seemed to notice. Brilee figured this was her fault; she was moody. It was quite possible each little smart remark she envisioned wouldn’t be delivered properly. At least not without knowing what was behind it. And she had no desire to tell him what was behind it. So then logically, she determined, she had to quit with the cryptic messages or else be the anti-social goon of Brooklake.

She also figured she should quit awkwardly staring. Brilee snickered lightly to herself. It was actually funny, she thought, less than 15 minutes ago she was terrified of him, and now here she was gawking. Way to go! Brilee smiled at her own personal amusement.

With little left to wonder about, Brilee figured it was about time to focus on the lesson. Tyler seemed to be paying attention, and she kind of hoped he had been. She leaned over to whisper in his ear when she realized that he wasn’t as intent on the lesson as she originally thought. Which meant he probably saw her completely *awesome* (and embarrassing) one person stare contest. Fearing for the worst, she finally whispered, “Lesson that interesting?”

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#933 Old 22nd Dec 2010 at 8:25 PM
(((ooc: Just a quick message for all those who are waiting for replies from any of my characters; I'm sorry for taking so long, and I assure you it's not intentional or because of lack of interest etc. I've caught quite a nasty cold, with a cough and a fever that just won't quit, which in turn have left me in no shape to do much else than alternate between the bed and the couch. I don't know how much longer this crap will last, but rest assured that as soon as I'm well enough to think straight, I'll get myself back into RPing. Take care, and merry christmas.)))

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
Alchemist
#934 Old 22nd Dec 2010 at 8:57 PM Last edited by Ghanima Atreides : 28th Dec 2010 at 4:22 PM.
Default Faye - class, all over the school, boys' bathroom w/Riley


It was going to come out, sooner or later. Faye just didn't know when.

Would it be in the form of a grim announcement from a teacher? Probably not, not unless...she quickly moved away from that train of thought. Having no idea whether anyone else knew or if she was the only student in the entire school currently sitting on a veritable ticking bomb of sensitive information, Faye felt prepared for pretty much everything...except for having it all erupt from the table just behind hers during English Lit.

"Did you guys hear?" a girl was saying excitedly and in a voice that was not-quite-a-whisper and therefore perfectly audible to Faye and her companions, "Matt Sidle's in the hospital!"

Although the whispering and muttering that followed spread like wildfire, to Faye it felt eerily quiet as she was targeted by two pairs of unblinking eyes: Anna and Kelly, staring right at her in stunned silence. She pretended not to have heard and did not lift her gaze from her book, though the act was short lived. Slowly, reluctantly, she returned their gaze; with Sidle's name currently being mouthed all around them, it would take an onset of sudden deafness not to hear it.

“Whoa...” Anna mumbled, but Kelly sported a dubious frown.

“I'm calling bulls**t”, she said flippantly, “Suicide, Sidle? No way.”

Faye bit her lip and averted her gaze, a minor inner debate taking place within the confines of her mind. Soon enough, she reached a conclusion and sighed.

“No, it's true. I've seen him, at the hospital last Saturday. You were in the doc's office with Aaron, I was just stretching my legs...and I saw him get wheeled in on a stretcher.”

Kelly and Anna's eyes widened in perfect timing; they were speechless for several long and, for Faye, uncomfortable moments until the former spoke:

“And you didn't say anything?! Why didn't you say anything?”

Faye's stomach tightened; she had been half-expecting this, and it was part of the reason she'd been so antsy lately.

“I just...I mean, the doctor said 'suspected suicide attempt'; for all I knew, she was wrong and I wasn't going to risk spreading that kind of rumour all over the school. Can you imagine what it would've looked like, especially coming from me?”

Anna seemed to be pondering this, but Kelly's expression had shifted from pure bewilderment to rising anger; clearly she took it personally.

“Like I'd tell!” she scoffed, “What, you don't trust me now? Did you tell Riley, maybe?”

Faye, whose tolerance for snide remarks was significantly lower after several long and emotionally draining days, did not appreciate the tone or the insinuation and countered Kelly's defiant gaze with one of her own:

“Someone almost died and you're pissed at me because you weren't the first to hear about it? And no, I did not tell Riley if you must know!”

The conversation ended there, with Kelly moving her head sharply away and Faye frowning down at the page she was supposed to be reading. At one point she heard some commotion somewhere to her side, and turned her head around just in time to see Josh Brennan storm out of the classroom, a big wet patch on his back. There could be no doubt about what had happened, or why. Faye, who had a good opinion of Josh and could only imagine what he must have been feeling like, felt her anger rise. Her cheeks were flushed and she felt quite warm; she couldn't believe some people continued with the same old bull**it even then, including one of her best friends pulling a stunt like that, as if it was some trite schoolyard gossip, as if she was under some kind of obligation to immediately tell her everything, and bringing Riley into it as well under the insinuation that there was some kind of nefarious “don't tell Kelly” pact between them!

Speaking of Riley...with a jolt, Faye realized he still hadn't made it to class, and they were well within the first half of it. As much to ignore Kelly as anything else, she began placing calls to him and hanging up as soon as she heard the tone ring– their method of giving one another a charge-free heads' up. No response. She spent a few more minutes unsuccessfully going through Rubelein's assignment, then texted Riley instead, asking where he was with the request to get back at her. When that, too, went unanswered, she finally hid her head under the table and placed an actual call, but all she reached was his voicemail.

Where the hell was he? Faye had seen him come in that morning, so no possibility of him having skipped school, and nobody bothered to do that only to miss the first class. Unless...they had something better to do, though she couldn't imagine what Riley would...oh. Oh crap. Oh no! Faye's heart quickened at that thought, her first and foremost impulse being to brush it aside. No that couldn't be it; maybe he got delayed, or he forgot his books or...no matter what explanation she produced to explain Riley's tardiness though, the original remained planted like a thorn in her side. It hinted back at previous times he'd skipped classes or come in late with some cooked-up excuse she'd even then suspected of not being entirely true, but had assumed it had to do with one of his “moments”. That used to mean “needed to be alone with his grief”, but Faye now knew better...and the similarity to the present situation unsettled her. She had to find him, if only to prove herself wrong.

Without more than a nod to her companions, Faye rose fluidly from her seat and approached Professor Rubelein's desk with the request to be excused for a few moments. Since Faye looked genuinely uncomfortable, and she was one of his best students, Rubelein simply waved her away.

With classes in progress, the school was empty and very quiet, but Faye still managed to bump into a hallway monitor whom she informed Professor Rubelein had excused her due to not feeling well. Used to hearing that story quite often, the woman looked suspicious but did not pursue the issue; had Faye been lying and the monitor brought it up with Rubelein, she'd have been in trouble.

Faye did a round of the entire building, checking all of the places she could think of someone might choose to go to for a bit of privacy, save for the off-limits areas which she had no access to. She could only hope Riley also didn't. She even checked the out-of-the-way spot by the outer fence where she knew he sometimes retreated “to be alone”, but that too was empty. Seeing her options diminish one by one, and with Riley still not answering his phone, Faye was left with one last possibility she might try, one she'd avoided until the very last moment: the boys' bathrooms. Obviously, she'd rather avoid walking in on anyone actually using them, and she definitely didn't want a monitor to spot her going in, but it was a risk she felt forced to take. One by one, they yielded no results apart from a startled Freshman caught in the process of zipping up his pants – awkward-, until she came within sight of Riley's last potential hiding place: one of the least used bathrooms in an area where only two labs existed surrounded by various storage rooms.

Making sure nobody was watching her, Faye gripped the handle and gave the door a push, slipping quietly inside. School bathrooms weren't particularly large, so it only took a glance at the five stalls to establish whether any of them was occupied. One was. There was something peculiar about it though: although the legs, or rather what Faye could see of them, suggested the person was sitting on the toilet, the pants were entirely pulled up. Far more importantly though, and the thing which froze Faye in place, was the fact that she knew those pants, as well as the shoes attached to them. She'd seen both plenty of times: they belonged to Riley.

Brusquely, unthinkingly, Faye rushed to the stall in question and banged several times on the door, making it shudder under her fist.

Riley!” she called out firmly, agitation rising. “Open up, Riley, I know you're in there!”

------------------------------------------------------------------

((Feel better soon, Atropa! *hugs* And Merry Christmas, guys!

Also, a small note: in order for the appropriate amount of time to have passed, consider the second half of Faye's post to take place a bit later than everyone else's.))


If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets
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#935 Old 28th Dec 2010 at 2:07 PM
Default Rio - following Josh to the boys' locker room


If there was anyone in that classroom right then, that knew just how tough it was to face one's demons and one's innermost fears, and take the step into openly admitting one's "deviant" sexuality - to oneself and one's surroundings both - it was Rio. Not yet out of the closet for a full year, he was still struggling to find his footing, in a world that would sooner judge him than offer him the support he often felt he needed, but was constantly being denied. From his parents especially; the two people that deep down, he had thought he'd always be able to look to for encouragement, only to find out that he'd been utterly mistaken, and that their encouragement only applied as long as he followed their ideas of what he ought to do and be. He knew what it was like, to be targeted for being different, to have all kinds of hateful slurs following wherever he went, and having cruel jokes played on him just as a way for the haters, the "normal" kids, to emphasize that he was not like them. Or rather, that they were not like him. He knew all about the lengths that other kids would go to, in order to fit in, and never risk being thought of as anything other than what they were "supposed" to be. As a deviant, he was their ticket.

Furthermore, he knew about the inner turmoil as well, the constant battle you had to fight with yourself and that little voice in the back of your head, chiming in with the choir of outside voices telling you that you were a freak, that something was wrong with you, that you weren't right in the head. He knew of the constant battle for a sense of self worth, of having the right to stand your ground and be proud of who you were. None of it was news to him. And yet, as difficult as it could be at times, and as much as he would sometimes wish he was just like everyone else, he had never pondered a way out of it all. He had never contemplated taking his own life. Not on a serious level. Like everyone, he'd thought about it now and then, but never as an actual option. And frankly, he would have never in a million years guessed that someone like Matt Sidle would. Sitting there in the class room, with the buzz about Sidle's apparent suicide attempt spreading like wildfire and whipping the whole room into a frenzy, he was as shocked as everyone else, even though he was among the very few in there that had any clue whatsoever about the real pressure of coming out. He had seen it coming no more than anyone else.

But then again, as he sat there, silently pondering to himself while Professor Rubelein tried to restore some sense of order, he had to admit that his situation was vastly different from that of Matt Sidle, and Josh Brennan too. As far as Rio knew, the two of them had always lived in Brooklake, always gone to school with the same people, and they belonged to the popular crowd. Thus, they carried the weight of far more expectations on their shoulders, than Rio ever had. He had never been in the same place long enough to build an image for others to base any real expectations on. He was always the new kid, and as such could afford to enter into any new school exactly the way he wanted to, without any stigmatizing notions that he was supposed to live up to. Except for his parents, he'd only had to face the effects of coming out with people who, by comparison with how Matt's and Josh's friends knew them, hadn't known him very well at all. There had been no years of friendship to be turned upside-down by his revelation, the way that he was sure Matt and Josh had friendships with people that now would never ever be the same. He hadn't lived years of lying to the same people, except himself and his family, and with starting a new school, he'd entered into it as openly gay, and so had never had to go through the transformation that now surely awaited Sidle and Brennan both.

"Well, sh*t", Lilith commented from beside him, as things finally started settling down ever so slightly around them, "this is the drama that keeps on giving. I mean, he's not exactly my favourite person in the whole world, but I don't wanna see him dead or anything..."

Rio shot her a quick glance. It was a comment typical of someone who'd had quite a few malicious thoughts darting through their head regarding the person that now had turned out to have been struck by tragedy. A comment people made when they knew they'd been wishing harm on someone, but when faced with their wish becoming reality felt guilty, and wanted to assure themselves as well as everyone else, that they had never wished for any serious harm. It was the very epitome of the moral in the "be careful what you wish for" story.

But again, Rio couldn't blame her. He was hardly pure as snow himself; he too had had one or two vengeful thoughts make their way into his mind, when he'd heard about Sidle's stance on the openly gay, or even those related to them. It had been only at one occasion that it had come up in conversation between Rio and a couple of friends, and it hadn't even been all that personal, since frankly, Sidle had never done anything to him. But hearing of his treatment of others like Rio did strike a chord, and so out of a sense of loyalty, Rio had of course aimed a not-so-pleasant thought Sidle's way. So indeed, Lilith was hardly the only one within the small trio, to have devoted a dark thought or two, to Sidle's existence.

"If this turns out to be true", Lilith added in a slight shifting of the topic - it seemed she'd heard how the first part had come out, and hadn't liked the sound of it - "it can't be just because he outed himself either; this must've been coming a looong time... so much for appearances, huh?"

Yeah... Looking around, or simply just listening to the conversations going on around them, it didn't seem anyone had ever imagined that Sidle of all people would succumb to the inner torment that lead people to try and take their own life. Indeed, the general impression seemed to have been that Sidle had no inner torment in the first place - rich, handsome, popular and successful, what reasons could he possibly have to be unhappy? - and that now that it turned out that there was apparently far more underneath the surface than anyone had ever guessed, people actually struggled to comprehend. The guy must have put on quite an act...

Because Rio was with Lilith on this one. For someone to try and commit suicide, there had to be far more to the story, than "just" coming out. Though that didn't mean it couldn't be the matter of his sexuality that had driven him to it, because Rio knew from experience that coming out was preceded by months of agonizing and questioning oneself, and that all did take it's toll. And with Sidle having gone to school with the same people, and having acted the way he had... Well, suffice to say that Rio could understand why the situation might have driven Sidle to such a desperate act.

"Yeah...", he said slowly, while still trying to process it all himself, even though he hadn't actually been around Brooklake long enough to have had a chance to form a really solid perception of the guy. "Talk about your real life Richard Cory ..."

Glancing at the two girl, and realizing they might not really know what he was talking about, Rio was then just on the verge of explaining himself, when yet again he was interrupted, this time by some commotion at the other side of the class room. Looking over there, he saw Josh Brennan just in the process of being targeted by some of the other jocks, by having had his shirt sprayed with soda, and with snide remarks about him and Sidle starting to hail down on him.

Rio's eyes widened. After what had just happened, after the rumour that had just spread through the entire class and whipped it into a frenzy, these guys went right on to attack Brennan, without a single moment's thought? Jesus Christ! And then there was Natalie, getting herself involved in it all with a smirk as though she wasn't in the least bothered by what had just happened either, even though Sidle had downright accused her of blackmailing him, which in light of the rumour now spreading would have her seem to be at least part of what had caused him to try to end his own life! She seemed completely unfazed! What the hell was wrong with people?!

Though there was no time to reflect, because the next thing anyone knew, Brennan, understandably, had apparently enough, and flat out clocked the ringleader of his attackers, before turning on his heel and storming off, leaving behind a momentarily stunned class. However, when only a second later it erupted in yet another cacophony of teenage voices, and Rubelein was once again trying to restore order, Rio turned his gaze from the door that had just slammed shut behind Brennan's disappearing form, to the two girls at his table.

"Uhm, excuse me, ladies", he said as he stood, and grabbed his backpack in the process, to swing it over his shoulder. "If Rubelein asks, tell him I had to go to the bathroom or something, ok? Thanks. See you later."

And with that, he too slipped out of class. He'd had quite enough of the display in there, and also figured that someone ought to check on Josh. With the outing, Sidle's rumoured suicide attempt, and now this, it was no wonder he'd snapped, and... Well, Rio didn't really know the guy, and had no clue whatsoever if he had anyone to talk to, but as someone who knew at least a little bit of what Brennan was going through, he wanted to at least check. Thus, once out of the class room, he stopped for a moment to look around and see where Josh might have headed off to, and caught sight of the other boy's back just as he turned a corner down the hall. With little hesitation, Rio followed with slightly hurried steps in order to try and catch up, but as he didn't want to draw attention from the hall monitors, he refrained from calling out, and also tried to move as quietly as possible. Therefore, Josh ended up making it all the way into the boys' locker room, before Rio had a chance to stop him. He reached the door only seconds after Josh had gone through it, but stopped there for a few more, when suddenly grasped by apprehension. For all he knew, Josh was still p*ssed off, and wouldn't take kindly to having someone butt in, good intentions or not. What if he clocked Rio as well, or worse? People had a tendency to loose control when really upset, and the jocks were known to use violence as a way of blowing off steam... Granted, Rio was no stranger to getting beaten up, but that didn't mean he would willingly prance right into a lion's den.

But, nah... Brennan had a reputation for being a decent guy, and frankly, even though Rio didn't really know him, he was currently more worried about the guy than about his own hide. He felt bad to see people be made victims of other people's prejudice and ignorance, knowing himself all too well what it was like, and he also knew so very well the torment of having no one to turn to. He couldn't not at least check on Josh, and make sure he was okay. Kind of.

With a deep breath of determination, yet with hesitation still lacing his movements, he pushed open the door to the locker room and peeked inside, while rapping his knuckles against the wood, to announce his presence.

"Uhm...", he said at the desolate room opening up in front of him, yet pressed on since he heard someone move somewhere between the many rows of lockers in there. "Can I come in?"

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
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#936 Old 2nd Jan 2011 at 3:56 PM
Default Tyler and Brilee - English lit class


It didn't take Tyler many seconds of listening to Rubelein explain what today's assignment was about, before deciding that nope, he wasn't particularly interested in doing it. If he'd wanted to act or sit around discussing why a certain fictional character did what they did, he would have chosen to be in the drama club. The reason why he wasn't, was because he didn't feel like pretending to be someone else, and trying to understand a motivation or situation that frankly, he didn't give two sh*ts about. Seriously, what was the fr*ckin' point? What were they supposed to learn from assignments this?
Pft!

Just as he was sitting there, inwardly rolling his eyes at the entire thing and trying to think of a good way of dodging when Rubelein came to check on them, that was when it all suddenly really did evolve into drama class. In a manner of speaking. Within just a few seconds, the small sea of students suddenly erupted in cackling and loud "whispers", about how apparently, Matt Sidle of all people was in the hospital after having tried to kill himself. At least, that was the gist of what Tyler was able to gather from all the commotion, which only another few seconds later was confirmed, when Rubelein had a minor meltdown about the ruckus, and one of the teacher's pets promptly took it upon himself to explain what it was all about:

"It's Matt Sidle, Professor! We've just heard he's in hospital, apparently he tried to commit suicide!"

So that really was it then? Geez...

Following the brief exchange, Tyler's eyes shifted back to Rubelein in anticipation of what he believed would be a less than pedagogically correct reply. And sure enough, it was an assumption that the Professor rushed to prove to be right;

"Hrm, yes, I see", he grumbled in conclusion, and then went on oh-so-sympathetically: "As distressing as the news undoubtedly is, I would like to point out it is but a rumour at this point; let us not get ahead of ourselves. In the meantime, you still have an assignment to complete."

Yep, trust the old fart to deal with the issue by simply sweeping it under the carpet and pretending it was no big deal, when it was obvious that some of the students were getting really upset and agitated, and might actually need to talk about it, simple rumour or not. But no no, apparently real life took the backseat to what went on in the imagination of some dude over four hundred years ago. Figures. It was all a perfect example of just why Tyler thought alot of what was being taught in school, was bullsh*t. Nothing more, nothing less. God forbid you should ever focus on the matters of real life.

"Lesson that interesting?"

Cutting softly yet somewhat unexpectedly through his thoughts, there came a sudden whisper from beside him. It prompted him to turn his head and look at the pretty blonde next to him. Well well well, it spoke! He had seen out of the corner of her eyes how she'd been studying him, but due to what (little) experience he had of her so far, he had gotten the impression that she was quite standoffish for some reason, and thus hadn't actually expected her to open her mouth and talk to him again. Consequently, it took him a moment ot register what she'd actually said.

"Huh?", was his initial response, though only a second later a faint, lopsided smile seized his lips. "Nah, I was just thinking."

From there, he probably would have continued, but was halted before getting that far, by yet another burst of commotion at the other side of the class room. Though Tyler didn't quite get to see what happened, because whatever it was, it was over by the time he'd located the source, and all he saw was Josh Brennan storming out of the class room, while Rubelein set off from his desk, towards the remaining jocks.

"Geez", Tyler muttered as he turned back in his seat, for even though he hadn't seen what had happened, he could very well imagine. "Feels like I'm an episode of some soap or somethin'..."

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
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#937 Old 5th Jan 2011 at 5:39 PM
Default Riley and Faye - boys' bathroom


Why couldn't he do it? Why was it that no matter how many times the urge filled him, and no matter how strongly, he just couldn't seem to move? He'd been sitting there for well over twenty minutes now, in one of the stalls in one of the boys' restrooms, just staring down at the little plastic bag in the palm of his trembling hand; the one he'd so yearned for, for days now. The one that he'd risked a beating to get, the one that had made him break his promise to his best friend. The one he'd been so very convinced he needed, to be able to make everything right... sort of... He'd been so convinced that he needed just that last one fix, to say goodbye to the only thing that had helped him cope for the past couple of months, but had agreed to give up. He needed it to take the edge off the anxiety that had been haunting him for almost a week now, and make the worst of the withdrawals go away, so that he could think clearly again. Half an hour ago, he couldn't get his hands on it fast enough, and yet here he was, thirty minutes later, with the forbidden substance still in his hand, rather than in his system. What was wrong with him?

For some reason, he just couldn't do it. A part of him - a big part of him - really wanted to, so very badly, to the point of a voice in his head screaming at him to just do it already. To just reach down into his backpack, and take out the spoon and the lighter, and all the rest of the items he needed in order to go through the ritual that for the past couple of months had been both soothing and filling him with eager anticipation, all at once. He had complete privacy in here, and it would be so easy to just heat up the heroin, draw it into the syringe, and just inject it. Just like he'd done so many times before. What was it that was holding him back, that had him sitting there, staring down at the small plastic bag for almost half an hour now, unable to go through with what he'd set out to do? Why couldn't he get it over and done with?

Deep down, he knew the reason. It was the same reason why only a few minutes ago, he had reached into his backpack, only to dispose of the cell phone he'd had in his back pocket, and which he had now muted: Faye. A few seconds earlier, the cell phone had rung ever so briefly, and he hadn't even had to look at the display to know who it was, or what it was about. The melody that had started cutting through the silence had been the one he had chosen for Faye's caller profile, and the fact that it rang out only for a few seconds told him she was using their cheap system of letting the other know they wanted to get in touch. Faye; the best friend to whom he'd made the promise he had just broken, and of whom the mere thought threatened to weigh him down with the guilt of letting her down. And, the person whose words he just couldn't stop from ringing in his head, every single time he was on the verge of reaching for the paraphernalia in his backpack. They even drowned out that other familiar voice in his mind, that kept urging him on to just do it. He kept thinking about what Faye had said, and how it had made him feel, and no matter how much he wanted to just block out everything that was so hard to cope with - the feelings especially - he just couldn't bring himself to go through with what he had intended. Ten minutes passed, twenty minutes passed, and he was still sitting there, while his inner demons battled it out without getting anywhere. He was stuck. He couldn't take the drug, and he couldn't not take it. He'd risked so much to get it, he'd betrayed a friend, and his whole body seemed to ache for it. Yet the thoughts that had been brought to light just two days ago, would not leave him alone. He still could no longer escape what he was doing to himself, the changes he'd gone through, and from the bottom of the downward spiral he'd been on over the past few months, death and Hell were still staring back at him, as vividly as they had been when Faye's fear and frustration had first faced him with them.

Caught up in that seemingly never-ending inner tug of war between his user persona and his common sense, Riley barely noticed it when someone entered the bathroom. He heard them, but he didn't truly register their presence, other than as a distant notion wishing for them to go away and leave him be. That's why, when suddenly the door to the stall he was in came alive under a forceful pounding, followed by the eager sharpness of Faye's voice, he was so startled that he nearly fell off the lidded toilet in pure fright.

"Riley!", she barked from the other side of the door. "Open up, Riley, I know you're in there!"

Despite the unexpected intrusion, Riley's first instinct wasn't to wonder just how on earth Faye had located him, or how she had known it was him in there. His first instinct was deceit; to pull up his feet and pretend he wasn't there, or to pretend he was someone else. To flush down the small plastic bag and put on an act of perfect innocence. His second instinct, was deceit still, but rather than flushing it down, it was to hide it, since he realized that Faye must have seen that whoever was in the stall didn't have his pants down around his ankles, and that thus flushing would be a dead giveaway that something fishy had been going on.

It was only once Riley's third instinct rolled around, that actually being truthful slowly emerged as an option. The only option. The reason why he even still had the drug, the reason why he hadn't taken it already, was Faye. Riley had felt so very guilty about breaking his promise to her and letting her down, after having had her turn into the one person he had been honest with in months, and now he was on the verge of lying to her all over again? It had been such a bittersweet relief to talk to her this past Saturday, to confide in her, and now he was thinking of ruining all that, and rob himself of that outlet, along with the only tiny sliver of honesty he'd been capable of in God knows how long?

He stood from the toilet, slowly. It wasn't easy, and his every move was laced with reluctance and uncertainty, but he did reach out to unlock the door, and pulled it open carefully, to peek out at Faye like a guilty child caught red-handed. Knowing he had let her down already, he wasn't able to keep his timid gaze steadily on her; it repeatedly dove for the tiled floor by his feet, though he constantly forced it to flick back up.

"Hi...", he said, and didn't bother to even attempt a smile, knowing that it would probably look as fake to her, as it would feel to him.

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
Alchemist
#938 Old 7th Jan 2011 at 3:52 PM
Default Goodbye, Sweet Sixteen. It's been fun.
((Hey guys,

After much thought on the matter, the time has come for me to call it quits. I've been part of this game for a long time and I've enjoyed it a lot, so I'd like to take the opportunity to thank my RP partners for the fun and inspiration, and Alissa for hosting it. The spark isn't there anymore however, and doesn't look like it's coming back, so the only thing left for me is to bow out.

Bye bye, everyone! ))

If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets
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#939 Old 7th Jan 2011 at 4:03 PM
((Hey guys. Well, Ghanima pretty much said it all already, as my feelings on the matter are the same. I've been a part of this RP since it first started back in 2007, I believe, and I've had much fun, but with the lack of players and general involvement/commitment of the players that do remain, I've come to lose my mojo, and so I feel I have very little left to give. It was fun while it lasted, and I'd like to thank everyone I have RPed with, and everyone else that has participated over the years. It's been a great ride. ))

~ * ~ Volition ~ * ~
Test Subject
#940 Old 14th Jan 2011 at 9:33 PM
((I feel the same way. I had looked forward to RPing with all of you because I felt there was a genuine connection here. However due to unforseen circumstances, I don't think Ill be able to post as often as I'd like, and I couldn't do that to you guys. Thanks for the shot time I was here, good luck to everyone who is still RPing here.))
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