Young Writers Society

James got home from work late on Saturday. It was a little after 9pm, and the moment he opened the door the to the apartment, he saw Carter and Elias chatting on the couch. It looked like they actually had homework out on the coffee table, intermingled with snack bags that looked like they were purchased from a gas station store and two cans of beer. So, they weren't too drunk yet. He didn't know how drunk they planned on getting, but he only gave them a quick wave before he took a quick turn into his room. He needed to shower and get ready for bed.

"You smell like farm!" Carter shouted down the hall.

"Because I was at a farm," James said at normal volume before he closed his door behind him.

He stood for a moment in his doorway with a sigh before he plopped down on the corner of his bed and slowly pried his boots off, and then his socks. Even with them off he still felt like he was caked in a layer of dust and sweat. He was so tired.

He hopped off the bed and opened his closet, throwing his stinky socks into his laundry hamper and sticking his shoes on a paper bag in the corner. Then he went to his dresser, pulling out a pair of clean clothes to change into and sleep in after he showered.

When pulling out his pajama pants from the bottom drawer, he'd forgotten he left the top drawer open still for his shirt. So, naturally, as he stood up, he hit his head. Far too hard.

Ow.

As he ducked and veered back and out of the way, he hurriedly pushed the top drawer shut in wearied exasperation, but that movement combined with the bang from his head seemed to shake the whole dresser, sending one of the framed photos on top topping off the side.

His hand jumped out in an attempt to catch it, but he only managed to have the edge of the frame clip against his fingers before it hit the edge of the bottom drawer.

And of course, he heard the glass of the frame shatter. And of course, the glass exploded into the drawer and outside of it.

James stared down at the mess with a slow blink, and he let out a long, long sigh.

Now he had to clean that up first.

He scanned the carpet around his bare feet before he carefully leaned over and picked up the frame first, setting it back atop the dresser, now glass-less. Without moving his feet, he reached for the little plastic trash can behind him by his desk and brought it over. He crouched by the drawer and started picking shards out of the drawer and off the one by one. Carefully, and trying not to touch and jagged edges. When he thought he'd gotten all he could by hand, he scanned the floor once more and tried to step away. He knew he'd need a vacuum.

But apparently, when glass shattered, it could travel quite a distance. He felt something slice the bottom of his foot and he instantly picked his foot up, hissing.

It was not pretty, nor was it a small cut. But what was immediately the most cumbersome issue was the fact that he was now bleeding. A lot. And fast.

With one foot bent up, he hopped to the door and pulled it open.

"You okay in there, James?" Carter asked. "Heard something--"

His head popped into the hallway and he saw James holding up one leg, cradling his foot and tightly squeezing the cut with one hand in an attempt to staunch the bleeding until he made it to the bathroom.

"Oh shit," was Carter's contribution.

James hopped to the bathroom door and pushed the door open before he promptly stuck his bleeding foot in the bathtub, sitting on the edge of it.

"Elias, James is bleeding," James heard Carter say.

"I see that," Elias said as he stood by Carter, staring down at the few drops of blood that managed to drip down from James's foot.

Without prompt, Elias bounded down the hallway and stood in front of the opened bathroom door, worry washing over his voice. "You okay, man?" he asked James. "We heard some noise earlier that sounded like shattered glass. Did you step on that?"

James watched both Carter and Elias out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus mostly on his foot. He was still squeezing it, now with both hands over the cut.

"Yeah," he said simply. "Broke some glass in a picture frame. Don't go in there barefoot."

Carter glanced down the hallway towards James's room and stepped out.

Elias glanced at Carter. "Well, you can worry about cleaning that up later." He took a step forward, suddenly smiling despite the situation. "Want me to look at it? I've had weirder things happen during my internship. This would be easy to fix."

James pursed his lips. "Can you just -- I think we have a first aid kit in the hall closet. Can you get that for me?"

Elias nodded and then stepped out of the room to peek his head down the hallway. "Hey Carter!" he called. "Did you hear that? Can you get the first aid kit in the hall closet?"

"Sounds pretty urgent," Carter replied from down the hall. "It's a shame I'm about to be busy vacuuming."

"That's no way to treat the low budget emergency room," Elias said with a grin, but he paid no mind to Carter's dismissal and slinked away to get the first aid kit. "Hey man, be careful vacuuming glass," he said more distantly down the hallway. "I think it could cut through the filter or whatever's in there."

"Looks like he got all the big pieces," Carter said. James could barely make it out, though.

After about a minute, Elias came back with the kit. "This it?" he asked James, sitting on the other side of the tub and already opening it.

He didn't wait for him to answer as he looked down at his bleeding foot. James was still squeezing it, but he slowly pried his hands away to peek at it. It was deeper than he thought.

"Looks kind of bad, my dude," Elias said with his brows drawn together. He took out some gauze. "Does it hurt? And can I gauge how deep it is?"

James looked down at his bloody hands and foot and then glanced at Elias. It was strange. A part of him felt underwhelmed - like he'd experienced worse. And yet, he couldn't help but worry about how inconveniencing it would be for his foot to be in pain. He walked everywhere. And he still needed to work the next day. And he needed to be able to function. It was just going to be uncomfortable for at least a week until it healed.

"How..." was all that came out as he tried to sort through the hurried stream of thoughts in his head. He needed to wash his hands. He needed to stop the bleeding.

"Yeah, it hurts. I don't think it's too deep."

Elias took out a pair of medical tweezers out of the kit. "Well, buddy, that's probably because you still have glass in there." He gestured to his foot with the tweezers. "Want me to remove it for ya?"

James looked at Elias with narrowed eyes. "Have you... done anything like this before?"

"Trust me," Elias said with a grin, not answering his question. "I'm basically a doctor."

"Uh huh," James replied skeptically.

"I can always call 911 for you," Elias said casually. "Or we can proceed with the Free Doctor Elias Clinic, complete without proper PPE." He shrugged. "Up to you."

911 was far more work and money than James wanted to even consider.

"Free Doctor Elias," James said, staring at the pair of tweezers in Elias's hands.

"Cool cool cool," he said as he gestured again at his foot. "Hand me your foot?"

James already had his leg bent so his foot was up on his other leg. Fortunately, Elias was on the side facing his foot and not away from it, so he didn't quite have to bend around awkwardly. He did find himself a little uncomfortable as he scooted closer to Elias and offered his foot, but he did it anyway.

"Don't you have to sterilize those first?"

"I was going to do that, but now you're making me look bad," Elias said with a slight smile, taking out a cotton ball and the rubbing alcohol. He soaked the cotton ball in the alcohol and then rubbed it on the tip of the tweezers.

"Okay, I don't have a magifying glass, so don't mind me," Elias said as he got on his knees and sat uncomfortably close to his foot so it was right in front of his face. He squinted at the wound. "I already see a few pieces lodged in there, so I'm going to pull it out."

Slowly and gently, Elias reached in the gash with the tweezers as blood continued to drip down. With his free hand, he did pull back some of the skin on James's foot so he could have better access pulling the glass shards out.

He worked quick enough that it wasn't a long and painful process, but slow enough so that he could carefully pull the shards out one-by-one. He placed the first bloodied small shard on the edge of the tub next to him.

"I interned at the emergency room in the children's hospital last summer," he said casually as he worked. "I've seen worse stuff than this. The weirdest thing I've seen is some kid putting too many peas in his nose. I think this sight is easier to take in than the amount of snot I saw that day."

James sat stiffly, focusing on not flinching or showing his discomfort. "Sounds like quite the experience," he said blankly.

Elias glanced up at him, but still continued to work. How many glass pieces were in his foot?

"Yeah. Kid was clearly embarrassed, but I gave him a dinosaur sticker and some candy. Because, you know, at least he tried to eat some vegetables."

"His heart was in the right place. But his execution was off," James said straight-facedly.

"Exactly." Elias pulled away another shard and then set the tweezers down, this time holding some gauze against the gash on his foot to stop the bleeding. "Too bad the kit doesn't come with stickers and candy."

"I don't think either can help with blood loss."

Still providing pressure on the gash, Elias looked down at the tub where the blood pooled in a small puddle. "How do you feel?" he asked, voice gentler.

"Fine," he said with a slightly strained smile.

"Even if you lost a pint of blood like a typical donation, you should be fine," Elias continued on, glossing over his one-word answer. "But it doesn't even look like you lost half of that, so you've got Dr. Elias's stamp of approval. Maybe I'll ask Bo to cook you something with lots of iron, though."

"I think I'll be okay," James said. "I might just be walking a little funny for a minute."

With some cotton pads, Elias was cleaning up some of the blood around his foot with his free hand. "Yeah. It'll be a long minute. What's one minute times one week? That's the amount of minutes I think you'll be hobbling. I'm tryicking to stop the bleeding and so I haven't gotten that good of a look at the nasty thing, but I'm thinking you might need stitches."

James pursed his lips again. "Really? That seems a little... extreme."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Hard to tell, but it looked pretty deep and wide." Now, he was gently squeezing the skin around the gash, like he was trying to bleed it out some more. "I'm letting the blood wash away the germs now," he explained. "Just a little longer... and... okay. Go ahead and run your foot under the water until it has stopped bleeding. It might bleed a little bit, but it should mostly be stopped. Ready?"

James only nodded.

Elias turned the shower knob so water came out of the spout (not head). "Just going to make sure it's at a body temperature, aaaand... okay, good to go," he said as he felt for the water and then pulled away. "I'll be back in a minute. You good?"

James just stared at his foot now running under the water.

"Yeah," he said, glancing over at Elias. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," Elias said with a smile as he gave him a quick pat on the back on his way out. "'Kay, be right back."

James sat alone in silence for a few minutes (apart from the sound of vacuuming), not sure how long it was supposed to take for the bleeding to stop. If he needed stitches, he assumed it might be longer than a minute. The pain was surprisingly pretty bearable - he just wasn't sure how it would feel to walk on it.

"Knock knock," Elias said, back at the bathroom doorway as he softly knocked on the door with his knuckles. He then sat back on the edge of the tub again, holding a new kit on his lap. "I ran up to my apartment and got some of my supplies instead. How's the bleeding?"

"I think it's stopped now," James said. The blood looked like it'd stopped flowing.

"Sweet." Elias handed him a small towel. "Dry up."

James nodded and took the rag, patting his foot dry. Carter seemed to finally reappear in the hall.

"Glass is gone," he announced.

"I can't believe all it took was broken glass for you to vacuum," James said.

Carter narrowed his eyes and smiled wryly. "Can't believe all it took was slicing your foot open for you to take a bath."

"Not a bath," Elias corrected as he stared at his foot, waiting for him to finish. "Unless you count washing just one foot a bath?"

Carter clicked his tongue. "Only one clean foot," he said before he disappeared from the doorway.

"Gotta love that guy and his sarcasm," Elias said with an amused smile to James as Carter disappeared.

James only hummed.

"Okay, let's see the damage now," Elias continued on, sitting on the floor again.

James sighed and lifted his foot back up, pointing it to Elias so he could get a good look. James had looked himself, but he didn't think it needed stitches. It might just take longer to heal without them.

"Hmmm." Elias was staring intesely at his foot, moving it a bit from one side to another so he could see the gash at different angles. "It's not as deep as I thought," he commented. "It's easier to see that now without all the blood."

"Thanks," James said.

"No probs." Elias started to take out some gauze and unwrapped a new bandage roll package. "So, no stitches. But you should still be careful walking."

"Sounds like a good assessment, Free Dr.Elias," James said, starting to pull his foot away.

"I'll take payment in tutorting sessions," Elias said with a small grin. He seemed to note that he pulled his foot away. "Need help wrapping it up, or do you got this?"

"I think I can take care of it," James said. "Thank you, though."

Elias pulled out some antibacterial cream from his kit. "Okay, but put a dab of this under the gauze. And wrap your foot a few times tightly. If you cheap out and only use one or two layers, it might come undone when you walk. You'll have to do this every night, or whenever it gets wet." He paused. "You sure you don't want my help?"

"If I have to do it every night by myself, I might as well start now," James said, grabbing some gauze from the kit.

Elias shrugged. "Fair enough." He stood up to give James some space, but still stood by the doorway. "Okay, but I'll watch you the first time, just to make sure you got it right."

"I suppose you'll be grading me then," James said as he started applying the antibacterial cream. "What a role reversal."

Elias chuckled. "Yeah, exactly. Your grade today will determine what kind of coffee I'll get you tomorrow."

"Sounds like I win either way if I get free coffee," James said, suppressing a small grin as he laid some gauze over the cut and then started wrapping a roll of bandages around it.

"Heh, sure. The best things in life are free things, am I right?"

James paused. He knew Elias likely didn't mean it in a deep way, and he probably didn't even put much thought into the saying, but James found himself wondering. What was considered free?

Probably best not to develop that with Elias. Not in this context, anyway.

"I suppose--" was all he got out before Carter interrupted from somewhere in the living room.

"What about BEER? Someone's gotta pay for it!"

James blinked slowly as he wrapped his foot and avoided rolling his eyes.

"Pffft," Elias said as he poked his head out the hallway. "I think your liver's paying for that one, bro."

Carter scoffed. "So is yours!"

"Hey, not my fault you want that boujee beer." He glanced back at James, and his grin showed that it was all playful banter. "Want me to throw a tenner at you so I can bring another pack of Natty Light only for you to complain that it tastes like dirty water again?"

"Not my fault that I have standards," Carter retorted.

"How burdensome," James said under his breath as he tied off the bandage on his foot.

Elias turned his attention back to James. "The beer, or Carter?" he said softly as a joke.

"High standards," James replied, though Elias was right in both of his guesses.

"Hey Carter!" Elias yelled out again. "Your high standards are burdensome."

"Oh yeah?" Carter said. It sounded like his voice was coming closer - or rather, moving around the living room. "Where'd you learn that word? One of your nursing classes?"

James tidied up the first aid supplies, putting things back in the kit.

"Hah hah," Elias said with amusement, half-rolling his eyes. He was leaning against the frame of the door, watching James tidy up. "How does it feel?" he asked him.

James planted both of his feet on the floor and hesitantly stood up. His foot ached, and the cut still stung to a degree, but it was a dull pain.

"It's okay," he said, picking up the first-aid kit and walking towards Elias and the doorway.

"I give you an A minus," Elias said. "It'd be an A if you had a sticker, though." He watched James carefully for a few seconds. "But really, don't overexert yourself. Talk an Advil if it hurts, 'cause it probably does."

James nodded. "What's the thing you guys say... 'It's just a fleshwound.'"

James reached out and patted Elias briefly on the arm before he slipped past him into the hall so he could put the kit away.

"I will never not be over how little you know about internet memes," Carter said. He was standing within view, in the living room, with a bag of chips in hand. James only shrugged in reply as he opened the closet and put the kit away.

"He doesn't even know pepe the frog," Carter said.

Elias followed James out into the hallway but sat down on the armrest of the couch. "Hey, our man's a normie," he said. "I think it's kinda funny that he doesn't think the B emoji is funny."

James closed the closet door and looked down the hall at the two of them.

"I don't know how you keep up with all of it," James said. "Seems like there's a new slang word every month... or week."

"Urban dictionary, bro," Carter said.

"Internet in general," Elias added on.

"You have to learn all the words, bro," Carter said. "You're an english major."

James simply turned around and walked straight for his room.

"Oh, no, Carter," Elias said with a fake urgent voice. "James is yeeting himself away from this conversation."

"I know what yeeting means," James replied wearily. Then he came to his door. He scanned the floor, seeing that the carpet was, indeed, freshly vacuumed. Hopefully he wouldn't step on any missed shards.

"Thanks again, Elias," James said. He didn't wait for a reply before he closed the door.

When Benji thought back on the study session later on, he realized that it should have been more obvious that things were going to be different that day. Daniel, for one thing, wasn't actually there for their study session. He was almost always free after Morrigan's class and constantly tried to get them to do study sessions, but today he was the odd one out. He said something about a club meeting before running off to another part of campus. Benji just assumed it was something pride club related.

What made the study session even stranger was that there wasn't really any studying involved on Benji's part. After the first week of school, he always had something he needed to do for one of his classes. This was the first time in weeks that he had enough free time to write an article for The Skeptic without stressing - and without feeling burntout from all of his other journalism assignments.

As with all of their other study sessions, James and him were currently sitting in the main room of his suite. Benji was sitting on the edge of the couch that was closest to the kitchen.

With computer turned on an angle that James couldn't see, Benji felt at peace for the first time since the start of the semester. If he was lucky, he could finish a draft of this article by the end of the hour.



James typed away. He was deeply focused, and almost done with a paper for one of his history classes. He'd written an outline and two drafts already. He was just rewriting the closing statements, and he had a dozen different tabs open, and a split screen so he could look at his previous draft. The music in his headphones was one classical song on repeat, and at that point, it had become the equivalent of background noise, drowining every other thought out apart from his paper.

When he finally finished, his focus broke, and he stared blankly at his screen. The paper was due tomorrow. He needed to read it over one more time before submitting, but he was done. He should be done.

With a sigh, he pulled his headphones out and leaned back into the couch, looking over to the other end where Benji sat, facing him, looking down at his laptop.

What time was it?

James checked the clock. He was hungry.

He set his laptop aside and reached into his backpack, pulling out a clif bar. He tore open the wrapper and started eating it quickly.

Now that his focus was torn away, though, he started to feel the ache in his foot again. It had only been a few days, but he hadn't exactly been giving his foot a break. He glanced down into his bag, considering taking ibruprofen. He didn't want to take it often. It wasn't good for you to take it super frequently, and he hadn't had one all day.

He'd save it for later. When he was more active.



Benji wouldn't be submitting his article directly to The Skeptic's site, but he wanted to check the formatting of his latest article against the website to make sure it still worked. It would be less work for the editors when they were suggesting revisions, and less work for him later when he was revising it.

The site was pulled up on his computer now. He almost had it opened to his last article—it was just a few clicks away—but then he heard the crinkling of a wrapper. He looked away from his screen to see James eating a clif bar.

He glanced at the kitchen.

And then he glanced back at James.

"Do you want anything to eat?" he asked. He felt a pang of hunger in his stomach. If James said he didn't want anything, Benji would probably grab a snack of his own. "Daniel and I just went shopping a few days ago. He brought some of the food into his room, but we still have snacks out here."



James looked up at Benji.

"What? Oh, I'm fine, you don't have to get me anything. I have --" he lifted up the already half-eaten bar. "This."



"It's okay," Benji said, giving a tiny wave of his hand. "I'm hungry, too. I'll grab enough food for both of us and put away whatever we don't end up eating."

That, or Daniel would take it. He had been taking all of the scraps from their meals and snacks lately. At this point, Benji was too afraid to ask what exactly he was trying to use it for. Part of him guessed he'd find a giant compost bin in Daniel's bedroom or other room if he actually went in there, but he wasn't sure he could handle the smell if that was what he was using them for.

He got to his feet.

When his computer gave a tiny ping as he received an email from his editor a few moments later, Benji was already too far away in the kitchen to hear it.



When Benji had got up from the couch, he'd jostled his laptop a little so that the screen was just in James's view. James hadn't paid it any mind until the notification ping caught his attention and he glanced up out of a reflexive impulse.

Normally, he wouldn't have let his eyes linger on the screen. But as a speed-reader, he couldn't help but catch the words: "Jersey Devil Article."

James didn't think too much of it at first, but without even reading, he recognized the webside in the background of the screen as The Skeptic. And another tab was open with what logically seemed to be said article.

Written for the Skeptic. By Benji.

Huh.

James hummed softly to himself, tearing his eyes away from the screen, realizing he'd already looked too long. He didn't quite know what to think of the seemingly random discovery that Benji wrote for a pretty well-known website that had some internet presence, but he was impressed. One, that Benji had kept it a secret, and two, that he created content for a popular site.

Would it be weird for him to be proud of him?

James of course, kept his mouth shut as Benji was in the kitchen.



When Benji returned to his seat, it was with a bowl full of pretzels. He liked having something he could eat in small portions while writing. He didn't know when he had first gotten into that habit, but he was just grateful he had something that worked and helped him write.

He sat down next to James.

He started to put the bowl down on the middle of the table, but then he saw that his laptop was angled differently. In the back of his mind, he vaguely remembered bumping into it when he got up.

He suddenly could hear his heart pounding in his ears.

He didn't see anything, Benji tried to tell himself. He put the bowl down and turned the laptop so it was facing him again. All he had was an article up. And even though the article had his name on it, it was just his nickname and his last initial. Other people could have shared that name. He could just play it off as a funny little coincidence-

There was an email notification on the corner of his screen.

From his editor.

With the subject of his latest article as the email's subject.

He glanced over at James. Had he seen that notification? When had the notification even showed up?



James noticed how Benji seemed to stiffen with anxiety, and he intentionally turned the screen away. Clearly, Benji didn't want him to know.

But he did. At least, he was pretty positive he'd pieced it all together based on what little he saw. Normally, he wouldn't say anything, but Benji seemed nervous, and James didn't want Benji thinking he would hold onto this piece of information for later or go around sharing it.

"I didn't mean to snoop," he said. "But I couldn't help but notice it looks like you're writing an article for The Skeptic." He paused, but not long enough for Benji to respond, and continued to speak calmly and casually.

"I think that's very impressive, and honestly, very cool."



Benji froze.

"You...you think it's cool?" he managed to get out. He could still hear his heart pounding away, but it was a little easier to breath now. He took an unsteady breath and stared at James's face. James wasn't the type to lie about something like that. Benji knew that. And he knew that James probably did think writing for The Skeptic was genuinely cool and impressive.

But his brain just couldn't register the reality of this situation.



"Yeah," James said, smiling. "It's a well known site. Your writing's getting out there, and people are enjoying it. And clearly, you're doing well. Honestly, if you've been writing for them for a while, I may have read - or skimmed, admitedly - some of your articles. They've got some interesting reads on there."

He paused, nodding a little to himself in thought.

"How long have you been writing for them, then?"



He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"I've been writing for them since the summer before freshman year," he said. It felt like longer. He couldn't remember a time where he hadn't written for them; it had become such a major part of his life outside school. Suddenly registering James's praise, he blushed a little and stared down at his lap. "I didn't think I would get the job when I applied, but they really liked my writing."



"That's amazing, Benji," James said, still smiling. "I'm sure you're far better than you give yourself credit for."



The blush deepened.

After this conversation, Benji was sure he wouldn't be able to focus on his article. He reached a hand out and softly shut his laptop. He could work on it more later, long after James had left the dorm and Benji had hidden himself away in his bedroom again.

"Thank you," he said.

He glanced up at James.

"Do you have any job you do outside of classes?" he asked.



James closed his own laptop and nodded. He figured he would be done with schoolwork for now. At least, here. With Benji.

"Yes, actually," he said. "I work part time on a ranch. Barn chores. Working with horses and other farm animals. I pretty much live there every weekend."



"That sounds like an interesting job," Benji said. He pushed his laptop farther away from him, trying to put it—and the article he had to write—out of the corners of his mind. He had been to farms before, but he had never visited a ranch. He wondered how someone would get into a job like that. He knew his own job wasn't normal, but James was the first person he had ever met that worked on a ranch. "Did you work there before college?"



James shook his head.

"I actually found the job just before college. I was looking for a place nearby to board my horse - his name's Elliot - when I moved here. I found Hartfield Ranch, and they were also hiring, so it worked out. They're about a 40 minute drive from here, but I don't mind the commute."



"That's lucky," Benji said. If The Skeptic hadn't been almost completely online, he likely wouldn't have been able to work for them. They weren't close to Point Pleasant; he would have had to wait to go to WVU in the fall and hope that they still had the job available.

"...I've always wanted to try riding a horse," Benji admitted. "But they don't really like me."



James leaned back into the couch.

"Please. It's just like anything else in life. You have to put in the work. Usually when horses don't warm up to people, it's because the person doesn't understand how horses speak and communicate differently. If you don't know how to listen to what a horse it telling you in their own body language, you can end up making them uncomfortable. But all of that takes time, practice, and people who can teach you."



Benji followed his lead and leaned back into the couch as well.

Then he gave a little shake of his head.

"They really don't like me," he insisted. "I was in 4H growing up. We weren't really a farm town, but there was one nearby that had horses. We spent an entire summer learning about how horses acted and how to take care of them. I did everything the owners said to—I even looked up more information online. But the moment I walked over to the horses, they would start panicking. They only calmed down when I walked away."

He hadn't ever told anyone that before. Only the members of his 4H group had known about it, and even they hadn't really figured out that the horses didn't specifically like Benji.

He sighed.

"...Animals in general don't really like me," he admitted. "I tried working at an animal shelter in high school for volunteer hours, and I had to quit after my first few days because the animals started acting up whenever I walked into the room."



James blinked at Benji.

"Huh," he said, pursing his lips as he nodded.

"If I were the superstitious type I might suggest you were cursed or something," he joked.



Benji froze.

"Me too," he finally said. He didn't like to think of it as being cursed, but there were still things that were...different about him. The animals were one thing. He couldn't drink and get drunk either—not that he went out of his way to try drinking while underage. It just happened. And then there was his sensitivity to noise. He knew he wasn't the only person in the world that had that issue, but it just felt different to him. Benji couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't right.

He tried his best not to think about it. That was the reason he had first gotten into The Skeptic. He had started reading for it—and eventually writing for it—because he hoped something in one of those articles would make everything make sense.

...It hadn't.



James was surprised that Benji seemed to have taken his joke to heart.

"I'm... sorry it's been that hard, man," James said.



Benji gave an awkward, hesitant smile.

"It hasn't been," he softly said, even though it very much had been. He sat for another second. Then he got to his feet, grabbing the bowl from the table and bringing it back into the kitchen. It didn't seem like either James or him had an appetite right now.



James watched as Benji fled to the kitchen with the food and sighed, taking out his phone idly. It was then that he saw he had a text from Carter.

hey jerica's here asked wya

James hummed. Whether Carter was lying or not, he needed to get going anyway. He threw the rest of his things into his backpack and called back into the kitchen.

"Hey, Benji. I think Carter needs me for something, so I'm going to head out. Thanks again for the study session," he said as he stood up and slung his backpack over his shoulder.



"You're welcome," Benji said.

He didn't protest James's decision to leave. Maybe James was trying to escape the awkward turn the conversation had taken. Maybe his roommate really did need help. Benji wasn't sure. If he had been someone like Daniel, he might have pushed the issue—or offered to go with James to help Carter.

But Benji didn't really feel like being around other people right now.

"We should study together again, soon," Benji added, trying to make it seem like he wasn't anxiously awaiting the moment when James actually left.

When James finally did leave, Benji retreated to his bedroom.

Jerica was buzzing with nervous energy all day. She'd gone to her classes, but barely focused at all, and her notes were mostly just doodles of various things she associated with playing: footballs, goal posts, water bottles, outlines of players with shoulder pads. She had the entire afternoon free. Which didn't improve anything at all.

She chattered nervously at Rek -- who took it patiently for well over an hour -- before he sent her on to go bother Carter, who eventually suggested she should go see if Elias was home. After a while, the nervous-energy that she channeled into talking was spent, so she went back to Rek's apartment and drank a lot of water and carb-loaded while obsessively watching videos of good half-back plays in NFL games.

The team met two hours before kick-off. First, they went over various plays that Coach thought might be effective against the team they were playing. Then they did some warm-up drills to get prepped for the game, before getting dressed for the game and going back for their pep-talk with Coach.

She was so giddy she could barely hide it by the time they were walking out of the tunnel. She grinned broadly, a bounce in her step, imagining how exciting it was going to be to get to start. Imagine, being one of the very first people on the field. She could already hear the roar of the music and the crowd.

"You got this, Freshie!" Davey said, giving her a slap on the back as he walked up next to her and gave her a grin. "You're gonna make us all proud!"

"Ahhh, it's gonna be amazing!"

Tyler walked up behind her, grabbed her shoulders, and gave her a friendly shake, mirroring her energy. "Hell yeah it is! We got a fucking badass on our side."

"We got a whole team of fucking badasses," Jerica answered. The boys near enough to hear all gave a vague roar of approval.

The stadium opened up before them. Thousands of people packed into the stands. The lights bright overhead. The green freshly trimmed and painted. The night couldn't get any better. Well, unless she got a touchdown. Then she could die happy.



Rek was genuinely, thoroughly, completely happy for Jerica -- but if he was honest with himself, he was relieved when it was time for her to go prepare for her game. It was good for her to go be with the people who were as into football as she was. And good for him to get a jittery Jerica out of the house.

He walked up the stadium well before the start of the game so that he'd have ample time to meet up with the legion of people coming to support her. He was glad to see it, even though he was starting to realize she'd made more friends in the first few weeks of the semester than he had in literally an entire year before she got here.

Oh well. That was Jerica for you. He was just glad this group of friends was actually supportive of the things that mattered to her, and would take several hours of their Friday night to watch her play football, even if they weren't into sports literally at all.

He wandered back and forth, realizing he probably should have brought flashcards or something with him, and waited for everyone else to show up.



Elias was running a bit late, but that was nothing new. It was Jerica's first game, and he wouldn't miss it for the world. Mel, unfortuantely, was going to be more late since she had a late shift at work today, but that didn't stop Elias from being artsy.

He shimmied his way past the gate and up the bleachers where Jerica told them all to meet. Something-something about being a football player and being able to reserve seats. That didn't stop Elias from pretending he was sitting in his usual row in the back and holding a giant poster that had "YOU GO JERICA!!!!" scrawled on it by a thick red marker.

Elias weaved his way through the people, noting that the bleachers were not as full as students as he thought. It then occured to him that the game hadn't started yet. So... he wasn't late? Welp. If he'd have gotten the time right, he'd have spent more time on the poster. Probably put in more colors and exclamation points or something.

"Sup, Rek," he said as he approached him, poster still in hand. It looked like they were the first ones here. "How many touchdowns do you think Jerica will do?"

"Gods, I hope at least one," Rek answered, looking like he hadn't really thought about it before that moment. "She's gonna be crushed if she doesn't."

At that moment, a towering figure approached them from the side. One glance revealed it was just Bo, but with a streak of red face paint across half his face, going over one eye. The paint also seemed to extend into his buzzed hair.

It looked like he went all out, wearing school colors all over. It looked like he had an HPU school shirt on that was tye-dyed white and gold and red (and the sleeves apparently ripped off), and he had black HPU sweats, along with red shoes, and of course, he was carrying a giant sign with "GO JERICA #42!!!" written in big dark red letters with golden glitter splattered all over it.

It was all very loud.

"Hey Rek! Elias!" Bo said cheerfully.

Carter was behind him, looking equally school spirited, though perhaps a tad watered down. He was wearing a school shirt with two red stripes under his eyes, football-style. His bun was put up in a golden scrunchie, that had the "HPU" logo patterned on it. Instead of a sign, he was holding - predictably - a six-pack of beer in one hand and a red and white pom-pom in the other.

"Hey, where you guys sitting?" Carter asked. "We all got seats together, right?"

Elias waved at them, then pointed at the general area Jerica had told him to meet at. "Yeah, the front row over there. Jerica got us the entire row 'cause we're VIP." He then flicked his eyes between the two of them. "Man, you two went all out, huh? I like it."

He looked down and noted that he was only wearing his HPU tee and baseball cap. Even his sign was kind of lame in comparison to Bo's sparkly one. Still, it was awesome to see so much support for their gal.

"Thanks, man. I like your sign!" Bo said, patting Elias on the back. Carter passed them, following where Elias pointed.

"Thanks, I like my eyes too," Elias said thoughtlessly then watched as Carter started to head towards the seats. "Don't drink all the beer before the game starts!" he yelled at him with a smirk.

Hah. Because alcoholic.

But also, because he wanted some too.

He shifted his attention back to Bo and Rek. "So, I think we're waiting for a few more, right?" he murmured as he took his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through Jerica's endless texts.

She had texted him the time (which he was beginning to suspect she told him to come earlier than the game actually started since she knew he was late all the time), where to sit (as well as a picture), what to look out for, where to meet, who was coming, and even the damn food menu.

Rek was already here, and so was Carter and Bo. Elias saw James in the seats already. Mel said she would be there a little late. That just left Daniel.



When Daniel had suggested that Benji come with him to Jerica's football game, Daniel hadn't actually expected him to say yes. Things were better between them now - it didn't feel like he was stepping on eggshells every time they interacted. But Benji wasn't exactly an extrovert; he hadn't even admitted to writing a column for The Skeptic yet.

Yet here they were, just about to leave the dorm for the football field not all that far away. There was just one little problem with the supporting Jerica plan: Daniel hadn't ever been to a football game before. He wasn't even sure he could tell when their team scored a point. From Benji's hesitation as they were starting to leave, he had a sneaking suspicion that Benji wasn't really all that sure of what to do, either.

"I feel like I need more school spirit than this," Daniel said, frowning as he looked down at his outfit. All he had was a single little pin he had gotten from welcome week freshman year - he had no idea how he hadn't lost it already.

Benji, despite being the transfer student, had a HPU scarf and hoodie on. He looked the picture perfect example of a good, spirited student - or maybe he just looked perfect in general. Daniel quickly looked away.

A second later, he felt Benji pushing something soft and thick into his hands.

He glanced down.

It was the scarf.

"I can't take this," Daniel said.

"I have my hoodie," Benji pointed out. "I don't need my scarf, too."

"But you always wear scarves when you can," Daniel protested. When Benji gave him a confused and somewhat concerned look, he felt his cheeks warm up.

Benji frowned. "Then you can wear my hoodie."

Daniel blinked.

"We should go," he said, taking the scarf from Benji and throwing it on. "We're going to be late."

"No we're not-"

Daniel made a beeline for the door. "I'm pretty sure we are."

Benji crossed his arms. "I'm pretty sure we aren't. Jerica gave everyone an earlier time so we could get into the right seats before the game started-"

"Then everyone else is already at the game," Daniel said. "So we should get going, too."

Before Benji could poke any more holes into his already incredibly flimsy argument, Daniel slipped out of the door and started heading down the hallway. Daniel could hear him groaning as Benji locked the door and rushed after him. By the time that they reached the stands—and the others that Jerica had invited—Daniel was convinced that he had successfully avoided continuing the discussion.

The stadium lights were bright, even though it wasn't even fully dark outside yet. It was just as well. Get them used to the brightness from the very start of the game. Jerica managed to keep herself from bouncing too much, but she was still buzzing with nervous energy, drumming her fingers on her knees and watching the field intently.

Her team had had to kick off. So she anxiously watched the defense hold the line, not letting the other team score, before it was finally time for offense to take the line. Finally. She shoved her helmet on her head, grinning, and then accidentally made eye contact with Coach.

He looked at her for a long moment, then snorted and shook his head, but there was the hint of a smile in his eyes. "Go get 'em, Ainsley."

"Yes Coach!"

She jogged onto the field with the rest of the team. The junior who was now starting since J.R. had strangely never come back, had thrown his shoulder out during the last game. So Davey was starting. They huddled up at the 50 yard line.

"Okay, here's the plan. We're gonna run the first few -- Jerica, I want you to fake. Let's see how they respond to you since you're... ah..."

"The prettiest fucker on this team?"

They all chuckled.

"Yeah, that," Davey agreed. "So, Zack, get ready, I'mma hand it off to you first."

They got set.

The linebacker in front of her snarled as she crouched in front of him. She looked at him evenly. He glared at her. "You don't belong here, whore. I'mma drive your ass to the grass."

"Hope that helps your dick feel bigger," she answered dryly.

He flushed, muttering curses at her. She kept her gaze on him, unimpressed. She still didn't understand why boys seemed to feel so insecure about her being on the team, but she was beginning to think she never would understand. Who cared that she was a girl? They were playing football. She was a football player. Why wasn't that enough?

The ball snapped.

Jerica started to run towards Davey to do the pretend pass-off that they'd agreed on, but the boy in front of her plowed her over. She felt like she'd been run over by a freight train. His shoulder his her gut, hard. And then toppled her over, and the entirety of his weight fell on her. He made no effort to keep his knees or elbows clear of her. And easily weighed at least twice as much as she did.

She gathered herself up off the ground.

The second play, Davey decided would be a passing play, but she still pretended it was a hand-off. And, again, the same boy plowed her over. Her head throbbed, despite the helmet that cushioned her fall... kind of. Her chest ached from the way the boy slammed his shoulder pads into her for no reason whatsoever.

This wasn't fair.

He was twice her size. And she didn't even have the ball. He was just being a spiteful asshole. Crushing her because he knew that he could.

A third snap.

This time, rather than pretending to grab the ball, she ran to the side, hoping to distract the defense. It worked. Unfortunately. This time the same boy, as well as one of the other linebackers, both piled on top of her.

Her entire body ached.

She groaned as they gathered themselves up off her. This was going badly. She was already so sore. And they hadn't even made it to the first down yet. She stared up at the lights for the briefest moment. This was humilating. This wasn't even a practice.

Sure, that was embarrassing when it happened in practice, too. But that was rare these days. She'd now made friends with her teammates, and they didn't go easy on her by any means, but they also weren't actively trying to injure her. It was possible to tackle her without severely hurting her. It was also possible to jam your shoulderpad into her gut and do your best to hurt her.

She pushed herself up stiffly.

Stop being such a little bitch-ass, literally all of your friends are watching this bullshit. Get it together.

She cracked her back and jogged over to the huddle that Davey called.



"OH COME ON!!!" Bo shouted.

"STOP BEING SUCH--!" Carter then began to yell a very long string of explatives that was censored for the audience. Carter was red in the face and more than a little drunk, and he attempted to climb over his seat, like he was going to hop on the field or something, but Bo shot out his arm and held Carter back.

"WHERE'S THE DAMN REF?" Elias yelled with his hands cupped around his mouth.

Rek had his arms crossed and was chewing on his lip, wishing there was something -- anything -- he could do to stop this. He glared at the field. Jerica wasn't going stop until she got severely injured... and at this rate it looked like that was the other team's plan.

Meanwhile, James was watching quietly with his eyebrows drawn together in deep concern.



Davey cringed as she came into view. "Okay, so they wanna be dicks. New plan. Zack, Jer, switch sides, okay? Let's see how that goes."

That plan worked much better.

The linebackers on this side of the field ignored her entirely. Their attention was acutely focused on Davey and the other running backs. And the receivers. It was almost offending how little attention they were paying her. There were huge gaps in front of her, plenty big enough for her to get through if she'd wanted to.

But she was a shit receiver.

She was also shit at defense.

She tried, but was so much smaller than literally everyone else on either team that she wasn't particularly useful in protecting Davey no matter what she tried. She kept trying to be a distraction but they kept ignoring her. Her team had made a few first downs, but were still probably thirty yards from the in-zone, and were on a third down now.

"Okay, we gotta get a bit further and worst-case we can get a field goal," Davey said, slightly panting as they huddled together. "Jer?"

She looked at him, surprised that her name was coming up. She wasn't the person who should be getting called on when it mattered.

"You're up, freshie. They're ignoring you. That's our in."

Jerica nodded, nervous energy throbbing in her stomach.

This was it.

She wasn't sure if she was more excited or scared. An actual chance to get a first down. Imagine. Actually being useful to her team. Davey was right. The other team seemed to be discrediting her entirely. But... if they came after her, she wasn't going to be all that hard to stop. And this was a stressful play for that to happen on. But she had to try.

They got set.

Just as before, the team ignored her entirely after the snap. Jerica rushed towards Davey, taking the pass-off, then sprinted towards the line. She darted between the first two linebackers before they had a chance to realize what was happening. One of their players further back realized belatedly that she had the ball, and dove towards her.

She jumped as his tackle aimed towards her legs. She stumbled over him, putting her right hand on the ground to catch her balance as she staggered forward, keeping her knees off the ground. She righted herself and sprinted as fast as she could towards the in-zone.

She was fueled by adrenaline alone.

She couldn't hear anything except for the beating of her own pulse in her temples. Her breaths were coming in puffs, lungs burning for air. Her body still ached but felt oddly energized.

She'd never run so fast in her entire life.

A few of the other team almost caught up with her, but her teammates tackled them. And then she was well ahead of everyone as she kept running. She might not be big but she was fast -- and that was apparent as she bolted towards the in-zone as fast as humanly possible, leaving the other team as well as her teammates in the dust.

She got to the center of the in-zone and the referees walked forward indicating a touch down. She beamed. She did it! She got a touch down! Her! A touch down! In a real game! She was panting for air, but had never been so happy in her entire life, ever.

She bounced excitedly, jumping up and down with excitement.



Everyone was on their feet in hysterics.

Carter had grabbed Elias and started shaking him as the two of them both screamed and jumped up and down. Bo and Rek had turned to each other as they cheered and Bo scooped Rek off his feet and spun him around. Mel and James stood beside each other, the both of them clapping and cheering. And Benji looked a little confused—still struggling to follow the game—but also started to clap and cheer when he saw Daniel doing it beside him.



"YOU FUCKING DID IT!" Zack dove towards her for a chest-bump.

She turned towards him at the last moment, jumping towards him as well in an attempt to celebrate with him, but the force of his body against hers drove her backward, making her stumble.

Tyler ran up on her. "TOUCH DOWN FRESHIE!"

He looked like he was also going for a chest-bump.

Zack grabbed Jerica's shoulder to stabilize her, then waved Tyler off. "Stop! She's too little!"

Tyler cut himself off at the last moment, and instead settled for smacking her on the back hard. She laughed, beaming at them both broadly. The crowd was roaring with approval. She still had the ball in her hands.

She did a little dance, being sure she was dramatic enough the crowd would be able to see it. Tyler and Zack danced with her as well, celebrating for a few brief seconds, before it was time to clear the field so that the kicker could try for a field goal.

Jerica jogged towards the edge of the field. Her friends were all on the front row. She grinned at them as she looked at how flamboyant they'd all gotten. Bo looked like he'd bathed in school spirit. He and Elias had both made dramatic signs to cheer her on. Rek looked proud. They were all celebrating too.

She still had the ball in her hands.

This was a huge moment. The ball of her first ever touch-down. It was special. It deserved to go to someone special. But, she didn't have long to decide. Part of her considered tossing it to Rek -- he would always be her best friend, no matter what. But he wouldn't particularly care about the ball, beyond realizing that it mattered to her.

There was Elias. He'd probably appreciate it. And then there was Bo-Bo. He was sweet, and he was here for her. They all were. Daniel, Benji, Carter, James, Mel -- all of them. She wasn't quite sure what she'd done to deserve such good friends. She probably didn't deserve them at all, she'd purely lucked out. But, boy did she feel lucky just then.

James.

Of all of the people sitting on the front row next to the in-zone, he was the least likely. He'd had to take off work to be here. She knew he was probably hating his entire life, having to deal with the boisterous cheering and flagrant alcholism around him. And yet he was here to support her. And had also been the person who had dragged so many people along with him to watch the game.

"JAMES!" she shouted as loud as she could, not sure if he could hear her or not. But, they all seemed to be looking at her just then, celebrating with her. So, she pitched the ball towards him, hoping he'd be athletic enough to catch it.

James was watching her, and made eye contact with her just before she let go of the ball. It looked like he was processing - or calculating - what was happening, but just in time, he reached out and jumped up in the air, catching the ball. When he steadied himself, he held it to his chest and looked over at her with a gentle, bewildered, but proud little smile.

Jerica grinned broadly, proud that he'd caught it -- and even more pleased that he seemed happy about it. She gave him a nod, then turned to jog back to the sidelines, fully intending to brag until Coach told her to shut up. But she ran squarely into a ref.

"Oh, sorry," she murmured, taking a step back.

He was glaring.

It wasn't even like she ran into him that hard. Yeah, shoulder pads hurt -- but she barely even bumped him. She didn't know why he was in such a bad mood just from that.

"Citation for excessive celebration." He thrust a slip of paper at her.

"What?" She instinctively took it, looking at him in bewilderment.

"Don't do it again."

"Don't do--?" It finally sank in what he'd said. She scoffed, indignant as he started to walk away. "What the fuck? You're citing me for being too happy?"

He turned back towards her, raising an eyebrow, challenging, as he pulled out his citation booklet again. "You got something you wanna say to me?"

"No, sir." She dipped her head. "Sorry, sir."

He turned and walked away. She looked down at the slip in her hands.



Her eyes went wide. "Two hundred--? FUCK!"

Who the fuck charged two-hundred fucking dollars for throwing a single fucking football into the motherfucking stands? It couldn't have cost the university more than $15 for that stupid fucking ball. I just won't pay it. She flipped it over to see if there was instructions for appeals.

Instead, she found threats.


"Fuck!" She did what the girl in the gif did, kicking at the grass.

She didn't have $200. She wasn't going to have $200 before the next game. So much for getting to be a starter. At this rate, she wasn't going get to be on the field at all, aside from being in her sweats on the sidelines.

Whatever.

She'd deal with that later. For now, she had a game to play.

She suddenly remembered that her friends weren't that far away. She was pretty certain they wouldn't be able to hear her, but they no doubt saw the interaction. She needed to play it cool. This wasn't a big deal... it... she'd figure out a way to deal with it. She always figured out a way. How hard could it be to get $200 before next week?

Fuckkkkk.

She crumpled the citation in her fist and tugged her jersey straight, then turned towards her friends and gave them a double peace-sign, forcing a grin, before sprinting back to where her team was gathering at the sidelines.



When she got to the sidelines, Coach was shaking his head at her. He gestured at the paper in her hand. "Hope your little boyfriend is worth it."

"He's not my--"

"He just cost you two-hundred bucks, whoever he is," Coach interrupted. He nodded towards the bench. "Go sit down."

"Yes, sir." Jerica sighed and turned towards the bench.

"Oh, and Ainsley?" Coach said. She turned back towards him. "Good play."

She grinned. "Thanks Coach!"

She walked over to meet her teammates.

"What a NOOB!" Davey cackled, throwing his arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry, most of us are dumb enough to do it once. Doesn't seem like it'd be on the list, huh?"

She had glanced at the list of citations at the start of the semester, but they'd all seemed like things she would never do, so she didn't think much about it since then.

"Thank you!" She held up the citation. "This is fucking bullshit. I can see getting in trouble for trying to hurt someone or getting in a fight, but they really gonna fine me for being happy?"

Davey laughed again. "It's okay, Freshie. It was your first touchdown, you deserve a bit of 'excessive celebration'. Fuck 'em. We'll get you paid off somehow. For now you just gotta keep helping us kick their asses."



James stood frozen with the ball in his hands, still stunned at what had just happened and confused by what he was watching happen on the field. It looked like Jerica had gotten in trouble for throwing the ball into the stands.

"Hey, nice catch!" Mel said to him as she slapped his back. "Shoulda applied to the team so you could help keep Jerica outta trouble."

James laughed a little, looking around at the others. Bo, who was sitting behind him, clapped his huge hand on James's shoulder as congratulations.

"I'm not--" was all James really got out as a response because Carter started shouting.

"BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you have the ball!" Carter drawled. He was very, very drunk at this point.

"Our man's got the ball!" Elias echoed next to him. He wasn't drunk, but he seemed buzzed and happy.

Benji stared at the ball. "...Are you going to keep it?"

"Is that even legal?" Daniel asked a second later.

"I'm not su--" James still didn't get to finish his sentence.

"DAMN, she got fined," Carter said loudly, leaning over the railing as if that would help him get a better look.

"...Fined," James echoed quietly. So he was right in assuming that you weren't supposed to throw the ball into the stands. He hoped the fine wasn't too steep, but knowing schools, it probably wasn't.

"HEY! JERICA!" Elias yelled loudly with his hands cupped over his mouth. "WE THINK YOU'RE FIIIINE!"

Oh god. James looked over at Elias with a mix of both surprise and disapproval. Carter unsurprisingly started laughing at Elias.

"Really, Elias?" he said.

Benji sunk down in his seat, face hidden behind his hands. Daniel looked vaguely impressed with the pun.

Then Carter and Elias high-fived. James sighed and rolled his eyes, looking back down at the ball in his hands. He assumed he was supposed to keep it. It seemed rude not to, unless he was expected to return it because it wasn't allowed.

"Does anyone know when halftime is?" A muffled voice came from beside them.

James whirled around, cringing back a bit when he saw someone in a mascot costume that looked like maybe it was supposed to be a muskrat.

"It's so hot in here and I think I may pass out if they make me wear this much longer." The voice continued.

"Uh, Lordy?" Bo asked. "Is that you?"

"Lordy?!" Mel yelled in delight. "OH MY GOD you're the mascot?????"

"He's the mascot..." James muttered to himself, unimpressed. Of course he was.

"Terribly sorry about him kids," Morri appeared from the opposite side of them all, "He insisted we hide in the bleachers to scare the students."

"Carter!" Lordy shouted from under the mask, "Is that beer?"

"OH, FUCKIN' LORDY," Carter said, still talking far too loud than was necessary. "YEAH, IT'S BEER."

"MY MAN!" Lordy pulled his mask off and walked over to Carter, "Swing some my way will you?"

"Is that really the best idea, Lordy? What if the coach sees you?" Morri shook his head.

"I will eat Herby alive don't you start with me."

Rek was watching silently, not really sure what was happening. James briefly made eye contact with him as if to share in the mutual confusion. A moment later, Benji made eye contact with the both of them—looking just as confused. Three-way mutual confusion. Rek somehow felt strangely consoled that he wasn't the only one distraught by this sudden turn of events.

"Isn't Herby a car?" Bo asked.

"THE FUCK?" Carter said, handing Lordy a can of beer.

"It's from an old movie--" Bo started to explain. He was cut off by Carter's explosive laughter.

"I think he's talkin' about the coach," Elias said, finally entering the conversation because that was the only thing he heard. "Coach Roach. Hah, I just realized that rhymed."

"OOoooooooh," Bo nodded.

Lordy grabbed the beer and scanned the faces around him, "Benjamin! I didn't think I'd see you out here today? Did James drag you out?"

Benji froze when Lordy noticed him.

"...Yes?" he hesitantly answered.

"It was his decision to come," Daniel pointed out, sensing Benji's unease. "No dragging out was necessary."

"Well I'm glad to see you out here!" Lordy inched closer and leaned over so he could whisper to Benji, "Listen, I got about four plates of spaghetti and papers to grade later tonight if you're not busy."

Morri pulled Lordy away from Benji, "He doesn't mean that he's just being annoying. You should enjoy yourself, Benji."

Benji gave a strained smile. "Thanks."

Daniel glanced between Benji and Lordy, brow furrowed but posture wary.

"MELLO!" Lordy's attention shifted away from the supernatural boiz, "You got the weekened off or something? You're NEVER out this early!"

"Awww, memorized my hours?" Mel teased, poking at Lordy's furry outfit. "I had to take off work early but it was worth it to see Jerica play. And, uh." She laughed, gesturing at his whole getup. "This."

"See Jerica pla-" Lordy whipped his head to the field, "Oh SHIT! THAT'S JERICA! I can't see anything in this helmet past my own nose."

"Sounds like a personal problem," James commented.

"Wait, are you really the official mascot?" Mel asked, then pointed at the field at another muskrat-donning person jumping up and down near the cheerleaders who were performing their half-time routine. "'Cause who's that?"

Lordy ignored the horse-boy for the moment and suddenly turned his attention to the imposter trying to imitate him. He narrowed his eyes and held his beer can out, "Sorry kids, I gotta take care of some... business."

"Wait, Lordy-" Morri began, but it was too late.

Lordy jammed his helmet back on and took off full speed down the bleachers and on to the field where the cheerleaders were performing. He beamed straight for the other mascot who realized a half second too late that he was about to recieve a tackle with the force of the wrath of zeus himself.

"Holy shit, this is the best half-time show ever!" Elias said, oblivious that Lordy even appeared.

"GIVE 'IM THE CHAIR!" Carter shouted, already invested in the dueling mascot fight.

"YEAH, BEAT THE RAT'S ASS!" Elias added on.

Rek looked towards James and Benji bewilderedly. "Is this...?"

"I think it's safe to assume this doesn't normally happen at football games," James said flatly.

Benji gave a wide-eyed nod.

Daniel, meanwhile, just stared at the whole exchange.

"At least someone is finally causing more trouble than Jerica," Rek said dryly.

"Oh dear this isn't good." Morri noted, taking a seat next to the kids.

On the field Lordy continued swinging at the other mascot, who was desparately trying to escape the flurry of punches and kicks while security did their best to pull Lordy away from him. The cheerleaders had already run away screaming.

Mel elbowed Morri beside her. "Uhhh, was this all planned?" she asked under her breath to him.

"I wish it was. If Lordy isn't in jail tomorrow I'll be surprised." Morri told her.

After what seemed like an eternity of struggle, security had begun carrying a flailing Lordy on their shoulders off the field. The other mascot was being looked at by the field medic but seemed to be more traumatized than hurt.

Jerica was exhausted. And sore. She had no doubt she was going to bruise badly. Oh well. It was worth it. She'd just wear long sleeves so Rek and all the rest didn't notice. Even though they'd probably be able to guess.

After they'd taken the field again, the score was still at 7-0. The linebacker from before was snarling threats and profanity at her. Davey did absolutely every single thing that he could to try to keep him away from her -- and she'd done everything she could, too. But after the whistle signifying the end of the very first play, he decided to drive his shoulderpads directly into her neck and helmet as hard as he could.

It hurt. She'd lied and said it didn't. Claimed she was still fine to play.

But the linebacker got suspended for the rest of the game. And Coach had benched her the rest of the quarter and most of the next one too, until she'd actually rested and recovered a bit, and begged him to let her back on the field.

The rest of the game was blissfully uneventful. She'd made several running-plays that were decent, gained them quite a few yards, but nothing as spectacular or impressive as her first play had been. She even managed to do a receiving play. Sure, she got tackled literally the instant her feet hit the ground. But, she'd managed to catch it and not fumble it when she got tackled, which she was counting as success.

They were down to the very last play now.

They huddled up. The ring consisted of very little but sweat, body odor, and a whole team of them panting for breath. This was it. They were down by 4 -- too many for a field goal to be able to save them -- and were still two yards away, on their 4th down.

"Jer--" Davey started.

"No." Jerica shook her head, chest heaving. Their loss wasn't going to be on her. She could just see it now -- all the scoffs and rude comments she'd get for being 'the reason' her team lost the game. Absolutely not. Certainly not at a home game. And not in the very first one she was starting in. "Give it to Zack."

"That is exactly what they're going to be expecting me to do," Davey argued. "Which is why it's going to you. We're gonna pretend like it's a passing play to Jacob, but you're gonna run it Freshie. Get ready."

She wasn't ready. She wasn't ready at all. But the huddle broke and she was left with no choice in the matter whatsoever. She dried her sweaty palms on her pants, still heaving for breath. She could hear her own pulse in her temples, chest constricted. This was such a bad idea.

The snap.

The fake pass.

The hand-off.

There was the smallest of holes between two of the linebackers. It was all she had. Jerica darted forward, barely getting through the gap. One turned on her instantly, arm wrapping around her torso as he tried to plow her over backward. Tyler wrapped his arm around her from behind and pushed her forward.

She hated this.

Trapped in between two boys, each of which were easily two or three times her size, with them pushing against her as hard as they could in opposite directions. But she was so close. Another linebacker wrapped his arm around her, pushing her forward. She took a strained step. More of the other team started crowding around them, trying to get her knocked over.

They were barely a yard away.

A boy dove towards her legs. She stumbled. She was going down. This was it. Jerica stumbled forward a step, then reached her left arm out literally as far as it would go, clinging to the ball for dear life as she fell. Her grasp was true, and the ball stayed put when she landed.

A gut-wrenching pop.

Pain flooded through Jerica's left shoulder, down the length of her entire arm down to her now-tingling fingers, and even crept down her side and back. She groaned loudly as more and more weight fell on top of her, when all the men who had been pushing from either direction collapsed into a dogpile.

Bit by bit, the weight gradually reduced as boys began picking themselves up off the pile. She still didn't know what had happened. She kept her grasp on the ball as tightly as she could, despite the way her fingers felt cold, keeping it firmly planted on the ground.

"TOUCHDOWN HPU!!!!" The announcer roared over the speaker system.

The stadium erupted with cheers.

"Hey, you good?" Jacob's voice came from behind, a moment before she felt hands on her right arm. "C'mon, you're okay. Walk it off."

She let him help her up. Her entire left arm still felt like it'd fallen off. But she grinned ferally, filled with such excitement and ego that it crowded out some of the pain that made her feel like she was in a haze. "I'm good!"

Her entire team was surrounding her all at once. All of them. Even the defensive line. She got various slaps on the back -- each of which sending a fresh pang of pain through her shoulder -- and good-natured bumps on the helmet. She laughed, cheering along with the rest of her team as they shouted in excitement.

"AINSLEYYYYY!" She turned just in time to see Tyler going for her legs. A moment later, he'd scooped her off her feet and had her sitting on his right shoulder. She laughed, pumping her right arm and whooping in celebration along with the rest of her team.

She pulled her helmet off with her right hand, lifting it in the air by the face-shield as she kept celebrating. She turned to grin broadly at her friends as the wave of her team started carrying her in the opposite direction.



It was chaos in the stands (as if it hadn't been already). Everyone was cheering, shouting, screaming, jumping. James wanted to cheer as well, but he couldn't help but cringe as he watched people pile on top of Jerica, one after another. She was buried, with only her hand sticking out, gripping the ball.

That had to hurt.

When everyone got off of her and started backing away, he noticed how she wasn't moving the arm that had been holding the ball. She'd seemed to brush off a lot of hits, but James had a feeling she'd really gotten hurt. Did she dislocate her shoulder? Break something?

"Something's off with her arm," Daniel muttered.

James glanced behind him, where Daniel sat. So he wasn't the only one who noticed.

"I hope she's okay," he said quietly, though he could hardly be heard over all the cheering.

"Me too," Daniel said. "But if she wasn't, I have a feeling she wouldn't draw attention to it."

James knew that to be true.

Benji tore his gaze away from Jerica to look at James and Daniel. "Something's wrong with Jerica?"

"It looks like she hurt her arm," James said. "We think."

Benji frowned.

Daniel frowned, too. "I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to have to stage an intervention."



Tyler didn't set her down until they were just outside of the tunnel. She got various additional congratulations, including a "Good work out there, Ainsley" from Coach -- which, while by far the least enthusiastic of all of the comments she'd gotten, was one of the most meaningful. She even got a proud grin. Coach almost never smiled.

She kept smiling and shouting her own cheers back at her teammates, and then once the attention was turned away from her -- and after she had the satisfaction of watching Jacob and Tyler chasing Coach down with the cooler of Gatorade -- she headed to the locker room. Davey was close behind.

"Hey." He caught up to her with a smile. "You did good out there."

"You too." She grinned up at him, refusing to flinch as a fresh pang of pain stabbed through her. "Gotta give it to you, that was a good play."

"Only 'cause you played it so good," he answered with an embarrassed grin. "I'm glad you're on the team, Freshie. Jer."

"Me too."

They were at the locker room now. The team had noticed after practices that Jerica always took off her protective gear, then left -- still soaking wet with sweat and wearing nothing but her under-gear tank and leggings -- and slowly realized why it was that she was "being so weird" about things. After that, the whole team had unanimously agreed to give Jer a few minutes alone in the locker room to get cleaned up, before any of them came in.

She set her helmet in her locker, then reached down to pull her jersey off. She cringed this time, inhaling sharply as moving her shoulder was too excruciating to manage.

"Oh shit, you okay?" Davey's gaze locked on her shoulder.

"I'm fine. Just give me a hand, will ya?"

That's what he'd followed her in to do -- help her get the gear off, before he left so she could shower.

He carefully pulled off her jersey as gently as he could, then unlaced her shoulderpads and pulled them off as well. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, muttering every manner of curse you can imagine under her breath.

"Fuuuuck," Davey said. "I'll go get Coach."

"Don't you fucking dare!" Her eyes snapped open, glare focusing on him.

"Look at you!" he protested, gesturing at her. "Your arm's not even in your arm-hole."

She turned and looked in the mirror. He was quite correct. There was a huge depression next to her collarbone, and turning slightly she could see a big bulge on the back of her shoulder. She cringed. "It's just dislocated. It used to happen all the time when I was a kid. Not a big deal."

"Jer, don't be dumb," Davey argued. "You need that fixed. Coach can help."

"Coach is just gonna send me to send me to the E.R."

"Then go to the E.R.!"

"No," she answered crisply. "I'm meeting up with my friends after this--"

"If they're real friends, they'll understand."

"I'm meeting my fucking friends, Davey," Jerica snapped, cringing again as she accidentally moved her shoulder. "Don't fucking tell him."

Davey looked at her hopelessly for a long moment, then shook his head, sighing deeply. "Fine. I won't. I don't know why I'm going along with your fucking stupidity. But I won't tell him."

"Thank you."

Davey sighed again, still shaking his head, but turned and walked back down the tunnel. She quickly undressed the rest of the way, being careful to keep her shoulder as immobile as possible, then took a quick shower. Putting her sports bra back on after the shower was a bitch, but she managed it.

She looked in the mirror, lamenting the fact that she'd only brought a tank top and sweats to change into. She hadn't expected to need to hide a dislocated shoulder. Or, the bruise that was already stretching from the right side of her neck down to her chest and shoulder from that fucking dick spearing her.

Oh well.

She grabbed a hat and threw it on backwards so that she wouldn't have to try to style her still-wet hair with the use of only one of her arms, then shoved the rest of her stuff in the locker. She popped some Advil, then grabbed her phone and shoved it in her pocket, then shoved the bullshit citation in her pocket as well.

She still wasn't sure what she was going to do about that one.

Carter had given her $50 last weekend for cleaning up after a party. She still had $30 of it, even after her Chick-fil-A and rum binge as a reward to herself. But, he definitely wasn't going to have three more parties before next weekend... well, probably wasn't. At least, not big enough parties that he'd hire her to clean up after.

She started down the tunnel.

Not that the fine was going to matter, with this stupid shoulder acting up like this. She was going to have to figure out a way to get it popped back into place later. It couldn't be that hard to figure it out. Derik had done it several times when she was a little kid and knocked it out of place from playing too rough -- once when she'd caught herself at the last moment after almost falling out of a tree, once when Ranofer threw her.

Maybe Rek could figure out how to do it? She definitely wasn't going to the doctor, no matter what. She'd YouTube how to do it herself, if that's what it came to. She didn't have the $35 copay the doctor would want, and she certainly didn't want to explain to Derik why it was that an E.R. charge showed up on his insurance.

But, for now, all she had to do was celebrate.

She had an extremely high pain tolerance. All she had to do was be sure she didn't move her arm, and hope that no one noticed that her shoulder wasn't shaped quite right. She wiggled her fingers. They were cold and numb. Which was probably not a great sign.

She got back to the field.

"For our football goddess!" Tyler came forward and knelt, dramatically holding a football up to her. "Accept thou humble offering."

Jerica laughed. "What's this?"

The rest of the team was crowding around.

"Game ball," Coach said, shouldering his way forward. His hair was sopping wet, Gatorade still dripping off him. "These assholes--" He gave a pointed look at the whole team, but especially Jacob and Tyler, then looked back at her. "Decided you're our MVP... and I gotta say it, they're right, Ainsley. You did damn good."

"Thanks Coach!" She grinned at him. Then she glanced down to where Tyler -- while still kneeling -- was managing to wave the football in her face. "Don't think I can afford another one, though."

The whole team laughed.

"This one, you're actually allowed to have," Coach chuckled. "Go on, take it."

"Thanks Coach." She grinned broadly, taking the ball with her right hand and holding it close to herself, still carefully not moving her left arm. She scanned her team, grinning at all of them too. She nodded. "Boys."

She eventually managed to get herself disentangled from them as the rest of the team decided it was time to get out of their gear and get showers. She walked along the edge of the stadium and out the side gate where she'd told Rek to meet her after the game. She took several deep breaths, bracing herself to put on a show instead of admitting how badly her arm hurt. With any luck, none of them would go in for a congratulatory hug. She wasn't sure how those would go just then.

James obviously wouldn't hug her. Rek would probably try, but she could make sure she kept someone in between them, so that he couldn't. Carter and Bo were more of wild cards. She doubted Carter would, but, it was hard to say how drunk he was. If she had to guess, he was probably very drunk by now, and he knew she liked hugs. Bo-Bo knew that too.

Whatever.

She'd cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, all she had to do was focus on putting on a big enough show that none of them noticed her shoulder. Couldn't be the downer after the game, now could she? Not after a play that big.

Jerica grinned when she saw Rek right where she'd told him, surrounded by a ring of their friends. She puffed back up as they started turning towards her. She grabbed the football in her arms and lifted it in the air dramatically, still carefully not moving her left arm, then shouted dramatically, "Who's your daddy?"

Everyone was huddled in a circle, waiting for Jerica to arrive. Elias had one arm around Mel, but when Jerica made her dramatic entrance, he immediately wrapped his other arm around Jerica and brought them both in.

"Damn, Jerica, you the real MVP!"

Only 0.01 seconds passed before a voice was heard behind them.

"Is that the touchdown ball?" A voiced sounded behind them.

"GAAAH!" Elias yelped as he jumped forward and let go of Mel and Jerica. He whirled around, but then sighed in relief (or perhaps disappointment) when he saw it was just Lordy, the HPU elongated muskrat.

"Oh. It's just you," he said.

Jerica turned towards the mascot standing just behind them. She grinned, "Yo, you threw mad hands, bro."

James only looked unimpressed at Lordy's appearance.

"...I thought the police took him away?" Benji whispered.

"I don't think prison can stop him," Daniel whispered back.

"Wouldn't be his first time escaping." Morri chimed in.

"So that's what my dad wouldn't tell me about," Bo commented quietly to himself.

"Wait, Lordy's been to jail?" Mel said.

"It's a long story," Bo said to her as a quiet aside.

"Jerica, what happened to your arm?" Lordy asked under the helmet.

Jerica looked startled as the mysterious rodent called her by her name. She'd probably have to get used to that, since her name had just been shouted by the announcers. She blinked at him.

"You need to get that fixed, like, NOW!" Lordy shouted.

Jerica stared in perplexed silence, no idea who it was or why he was yelling at her. But she wasn't going to let a stupid injury ruin her fun. She turned away from him without answering, deciding to try a distraction instead. "Carter! Check dis shit!" She held up the game ball, turning towards him.

"It's disloacted, isn't it?" James asked softly as he came up to her side.

"You dislocated your arm?" Elias said with the beginnings of a frown. "When did you -- never mind that. Can I see?"

Carter stumbled over to Jerica and grabbed Elias's hand, dragging him with him (and also using Elias as a support).

"Looks like a football," Carter said. "Sick."

"The football's not really important right now," Daniel pointed out. "You need to fix a disloacted shoulder as soon as you can-"

"Excuse you!" Jerica interrupted, offended. They always did this. Overreacting about a little boo-boo and letting themselves get distracted from things that actually mattered. "The football is extremely important."

"Daniel didn't mean to offend you," Benji quickly said, shooting Daniel a look. "He was just worried about your arm. I am, too."

Letting Carter lean on him, Elias examined her shoulder and arm, wincing. "Yeeeeah. Jerica, this doesn't look good. Where's the field medic? You should get that checked out, stat."

"OKAY Jerica, you are going to put that DAMN shoulder where it's meant to be or SO HELP ME-"

"WaitwaitwaitWAIT!" Elias interrupted. "No one's doing a damn thing unless you're a nurse or doctor!"

Jerica stared at the increasingly-angry rodent. "Who even are you?"

Before anyone could realize what was going on, Morri walked over to Jerica's side and gave a hard tug to her dislocated shoulder.

"FUCK!" She stumbled forward, into Elias and Carter, then growled a whole string of profanities as she backed away from them all, scowling. She looked around like she wasn't fully sure who it was that'd just assaulted her.

"Morrigan," James said in an accusatory tone of disapproval.

"You..." she said, bewildered as she looked at Morri and then feeling strangely betrayed. "You."

"Damn..." Lordy turned to James, "Even I wasn't expecting that one."

"What the hell is even--" Elias shook his head, turning back to Jerica. "Okay, if you're not going to the field medic, can I at least check to make sure dreads over here didn't fuck up your shoulder some more?"

"And everyone give her some space," James said, intentionally putting himself between Morrigan, Lordy, and Jerica. Bo seemed to pick up on it and joined him, as a bigger person to acts as a wall.

"Is it hot in here?" Lordy pulled his helmet off, "Cus man it's hot in here."

Jerica gaped at him for a moment, then snorted. "Of course it's fucking you."

Lordy tried to get closer to Jerica, but there was a human mountain in the way. "'Scuse me you don't mind if I..." He began tickling Bo in an attempt to get him to move.

Bo turned around to look at Lordy and flicked Lordy's hand away.

"Jerica's scared of furries, bro," Bo said. "Have some respekt."

"...She's not really scared of them, is she?" Daniel hesitantly asked, feeling weirdly concerned by the possibility.

Bo gave Daniel a look as if to tell him that it was a joke/bluff and he was supposed to go with it. Benji gave him a nearly identical - and slightly more assertive and frustrated - look.

"Hold this," Jerica murmured, pushing the ball towards James' one free arm so he had to hold both of them. "This one is mine."

"Of course," James said quietly.

"Wait a second." Jerica took a step to the side so she could look at Lordy, but not necessarily stepping all the way around Bo, either. "Were you here for the whole game? You see that shit I did?"

"Jerica my dear I was in jail for half of it, my apologies but I'm sure I'll read the highlights."

Jerica snorted. She rolled her left shoulder ever so slightly, finally able to move it, but cringing slightly. She looked around, vaguely annoyed. This wasn't at all how she'd been envisioning her celebration going.

"Hey, Jerica," Elias said next to her with a gentle voice. "You played pretty good out there, ya know that?"

Jerica looked up at him with a smile. "Thanks!"

"Yeah, Jer," Bo said. "You really went crazy. You're a beast! Two major scores in one game!"

"We're proud of you," James added with a small smile.

Jerica grinned at all of them, pleased that things were finally starting to go more like she'd planned when she came out here.

"And we should celebrate the big win," Elias continued on. "Ya know. Champagne and wings. Whatever you want."

"Celebrate? SHOTS ON ME!" Lordy said throwing his hand in the air.

"SHOTS!" Jerica shouted.

"Yeah, shots, beer, whatever you want," Elias said as he gently pat her back. "I bet you can't take double shots, though. With both hands, at the same time. I'll bet you $20 if you can beat me."

"Oh, you're on!" Jerica said challengingly. She hesitated the briefest moment. "... Wanna make it $200?"

Carter lifted up a drunken finger.

"Waitwaitwaittt," he slurred. "I'm in."

"Pff I'll give you all a thousand bucks if you can out drink me." Lordy said nonchalantly.

Jerica perked up. "I'm interested."

Daniel didn't know all that much about football fines, but $200 sounded suspiciously like the amount a fine might cost. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. After flipping through the bills in it, he grabbed two one hundreds and wordlessly pushed them into Jerica's hand.

Then he grinned.

"I'm in for a drinking bet," he said.

"I'll just stick with wings," Benji said, pale - so nervous that he didn't even notice how much money Daniel had just handed over.

"Wait..." Jerica looked down at the money in her hand, then back at Daniel, not quite sure how he had this much money with him -- she didn't even bring her $30 to the game -- but suddenly feeling very guilty. She held it back out to him. "Wait, no. You don't pay bets until after you lose."

"It's not for the bet," Daniel said. "We saw you got fined earlier, and I had two hundred on me. I'm not using it - you can take it."

"You can't..." Jerica trailed off, shaking her head, still not quite grasping how having money was supposed to work. "Bro, no, I can't take this. I got... I got it, no biggie. Here."

Daniel crossed his arms so she couldn't hand it back.

"It's a gift," he said. "For helping to win the game."

It was a gift, but it wasn't really for that. Daniel knew she'd probably be able to tell, but he hoped it would be enough to convince her.

"Damn you're getting paid for winning," Carter said, still slurring his words. "Hellllll yeahhhhh."

Jerica was still bewildered. She looked at Carter, then back at Daniel. She'd have felt less bad if it'd been Carter, but -- "Dude this is a lot of money. You can't just be -- dude. Buy me a shot. Not..." She trailed off, not sure how to explain the value of money to Daniel.

"I can do that too," he pointed out. He slipped his hands into his pockets. "But it's really okay. I have more money. I'd rather spend my money on my friends than keep it for myself. And you shouldn't have to pay that fine."

Carter came up to Jerica and put his arm around her shoulders, leaning on her a little bit.

"He's fuckin' loaded, bro," he said.

"Wait, you--" She looked between them, still bewildered. "I thought--" she glanced at Carter, clearly only having one concept of rich people, then back at Daniel. "You're rich too?"

"Yes?" Daniel said.

Benji, still pale, suddenly seemed to register the conversation. "You're rich?"

"I think we've bunny trailed a lot," James said. "Jerica, do you want your ball back?" He asked, offering it back to her.

"I..." Jerica was visibly conflicted by the whole thing. She couldn't take the ball without putting the money somewhere, and it seemed like Daniel wasn't going to take it back. She guiltily put the money in her pocket, then took the ball from James. She hesitated for a moment then held it out to Daniel with a forced smile. "You should take this one."

Daniel shook his head.

"It's your ball," he said. "I'm not even a football fan - I just came to the game to support a friend."

Jerica took a deep breath, then nodded, relaxing a bit as she tucked her ball closer to her chest -- guilty, but grateful, that she got to keep it. "Well... thank you."

"Ha ha ha haaa," Elias nervously chuckled, listening to the conversation unfold. He didn't actually have that much money and didn't really expect this to evolve into a whole money situation. He just wanted to make sure she had a working arm. He had no idea if Morrigan actually put it to place correctly, and she was too stubborn to let him see it.

"...High five?" he said instead with a high-pitched voice, facing towards her bad arm.

Jerica looked at Elias, then down at her right arm that was now occupied, then back at his hand as she nodded at her left arm. "I just can't move that one bro."

"I wouldn't push it," James said.



Morri stood there, concerned for the future of his dreadlocks, turned to Mel who was also standing to the side awkwardly probably, "Mello dear, I do hope you don't think this is an everyday thing. Lordy just got a little out of hand and I hope you can forgive his behavior."

Mel blinked, flicking her eyes between Morri and the bickering of her friends. Well, Elias's friends, really. She let out a small laugh.

"Oh, that's okay," she said. "It's kinda funny seeing him in a big rat outfit."

"You're telling me. He [i]insisted he wear it today at the big game. I tried to tell him he'd get thrown out but he never listens."

"Wait, you're telling me he bought a random rat outfit just so he can pretend to be the mascot?" Mel said, then burst out laughing. "That's hilarious!"

"I..." Morri got quiet from the sudden realization, "I don't think... that he just bought it."

Mel paused, squinting in thought. "...So, he's done this before?"

"I'm gonna be honest with you, I think he might be a furry." Morri turned to him, "But I am DEFINITELY not gonna be the one to ask him."

Mel stared at him blankly for a moment. "Huh. Okay. Did not expect that," she murmured as she turned her gaze towards Lordy bickering with the others, still with his outfit on. She grinned. "Got any other furry stories about him that you wanna share?"

"Now that you mention it, I think I did see him crawling out of a sewer hole with that outfit on once." Morri said jokingly.

"Oh my god," Mel said with fake surprise. "He's like that giant rat from that mutant ninja turtle show."

"He... HE EVEN WALKS WITH A CANE!" Morri was piecing it together.

"DOES HE HAVE PET TURTLES?!" Mel added on, copying his tone.

"MAYBE IN THE SEWER HE CRAWLED OUT OF?" Morri scratched his beard, "I think we need to investigate."

"Morri," she began, voice serious. She placed her hand on his arm for extra dramatic effect. "We have to. Because these turtles know kung fu."

"You're right, it's probably best if we speak in code from now on. He's a smart man, he might catch on to us."

"Ooooh, yeah, good point," she said then paused to think. "How about instead of saying Lordy, we say rat?"

"No no, he might be traumatized from his jail time. We can call him fuzzy instead."

"Okay, fuzzy went to jail? Does everyone know except me or what?"

"... I've said too much. ABORT MISSION!"

"Momo!" Mel scolded, playfully punching him lightly.

"Heard y'all were talking shit." Lordy popped up behind them.

"OHhhhahaha heeeeeeey Lordy," Mel said casually. "Momo was just telling me you were fuzzy."

"Fuzzy? Why? Cus of this stupid outfit?" Lordy tugged at the suit, "I can't believe I wore this and only got to beat up a kid in it."

"Yeah, Momo, why -- wait, what. You beat up who now?"

"... I've said too much. ABORT MISSION!" Lordy immediately began running away.

"HEY NOT YOU TOO!" Mel barked as she chased him, but it was just in time, because the others were leaving anyways.

Jerica finally opened her email for the first time in like... she didn't even want to think about it. There were so many messages. She lazily went through and deleted every single one that looked remotely related to an official university correspondence. A couple missed Canvas notifications that... probably would have been helpful to know. Oh well. No point in crying over missed points, was there?

She squinted at an email: "Thought this would help."

Free weed? She clicked on the email, intrigued on who was giving her help. It was from evaline@prestige.edu. Evaline.... like... Elias's broody friend Evaline? Jerica shook her head. It felt like very little in her life made sense, but good thing she was just going along for the ride at this point. She read:

Hey Jerica.

Thought this would help. No need to send anything back. Just trying to help in any way I can. At least they're somewhat interesting reads, if you're into psychology.

Evaline

(1) Attached: word document with 5 links of self-help psychological analyses with scientific merit.

Jerica blinked at the message. How had Evaline gotten her email address? And why was she... sending her...? She clicked on one link and looked at it skeptically for 0.3 seconds.


She then decided she wasn't going to waste time reading anything that she didn't have to. She debated a moment whether ignoring it or sending a "cool thx" would be less insulting, then realized it'd already been several weeks and... whatever.

She looked down as her phone vibrated and saw the Chaos Chat was exploding. She grinned and unlocked her phone, flicking over to a message from Elias:

"im so bored what are u all doing tn"

"u tell me" she shot back, standing up to walk across the room and actually remember to put her shoes on for once. She pulled the door shut behind her, deciding to see if he was home. If he was texting, prolly didn't have anything better to do than hang with her.

The door was locked, but she could hear voices in the apartment.

"I DON'T HEAR ANYBODY TELLING ME!" she shouted obnoxiously, knocking on the door. "WHAT WE DOING?"

After a few seconds, the door then quickly opened and Elias stood on the other side. "Yo, who are you yelling at?" he asked as he poked his head out in the hallway.

"You." She walked past him without waiting to be invited in. "Text me, then don't even answer. I see how it is."

"My phone died after I sent that text," he said simply, closing the door behind her and looking unfazed that she walked in.

"Sounds like you failed at the Seven P's of Perfection." She flopped down on his couch, not bothering to point out that it was like less than two minutes and she was just impatient.

"Seven P's. Is that like, P-P-P-P-P-P-P?" Elias said with a goofy grin as he plopped down on the couch next to her.

A few seconds later, Mel walked down the hallway, seemingly from the bathroom. Her face lit up when she saw Jerica. "Hey girl!" she said. "How you been?"

"Mellie!" Jerica lit up, popping off the couch to wrap her arms around her, and Mel hugged back, laughing. "Glad it was worth my walk down here, now."

"Awwww," Mel cooed, pulling out and then giving Elias a pointed look. "Elias, why don't you have more friends like Jerica? They're so much better than your fake ass frat boy friends."

Jerica laughed, patting Mel on the back before she turned and flopped back on the couch. "Oh, trust me, one Jerica is more than enough in your life. I'm basically just a frat boy with better hair."

Even that wasn't true. She was nearly certain Carter spent far more money and time on his than she did hers. She just washed it sometimes and tried to keep it out of her face.

Mel giggled, sitting down next to her so that Jerica was between the two of them. "As someone dating a frat boy and cuts hair, I can confirm that."

Jerica leaned to rest her head on Mel's shoulder, and threw her legs over Elias's lap.

"Does anyone have Chegg?" Elias suddenly asked. He was scrolling through his phone.

"Chug?" she cut in, knowing fully well that's not what he meant.

"This homework is due in like fifteen minutes but ain't nobody got time for that," he mumbled, still scrolling like he didn't hear what Jerica said.

"Imagine being in school," Mel said. "Can't be me."

"Wish it weren't me." Jerica opened her phone, trying to remember where she'd left the app, then she thrust the phone towards Elias. "Here you go, you can owe me."

Elias grinned, taking the phone as he began to quickly type away. "Sick! I'll Venmo you a nickel."

"Uh-huh." Jerica tipped her head back, looking up at Mel upside-down. "How are you, bb? Long time no see."

"Aw, you know," Mel said with a soft smile. "Same old, same old. Parties are dying down now that school has started, I guess. It can get kind of boring when you guys are all studying, though. I wish there was just more to do around here."

"Pff, you think I study?" Jerica sat up, turning so that she could actually see Mel. "What kind of nerd comes to college to learn? I'm here for the good times. What we gonna do?"

"You and Elias really are the same person," Mel said through a high-pitched laugh. "Let's change things up. Do something crazy. What do you think?"

"Is submitting a long homework assignment on your phone minutes before it's due crazy?" Elias mumbled, still distracted.

Jerica snorted, rolling her eyes before she looked back at Mel and said in a whisper that was intentionally loud enough for him to hear, "I'm the cooler half of that person."

Mel giggled. "So, you agree then?" she said with a sly smile like she was challenging her. "You wanna do something crazy? 'Cause Elias is too chicken."

"You know I do." Jerica grinned at her.

"Are you sure you want me to cut all of it?" Mel asked Jerica as she got the scissors ready.

They were in Jerica's apartment -- or Rek's apartment, really -- since Jerica let her practice cutting, styling, and coloring her hair. But she was hesitant to cut her hair so short to begin with. Maybe she could practice with a few haircuts, and then chop it to the length she wanted?

"Yeah, it's pissin' me off," Jerica answered, jerking her right hand through the knotted mess on her head. She gestured vaguely at the sling. "I apparently have to wear this thing according to Dr. Elias and I can't reach it. Just get rid of it."

Mel pursed her lips and then sighed. "Fiiiine, fine. You have such pretty hair though, girl! I could do so much with it. But for you, b, I'll do it."

After another brief hesitation, she made the first cut. And then another, and then another. Well, that was that.

"So," she began almost out of hair stylist instict to start a conversation. "How's your shoulder?"

"Yeah, it's, uh... you know..."

"Ouchie?"

Jerica hesitated, then, "Yeahhh."

"It's a good thing Elias was there," Mel continued on, letting the hair drop to her feet as she continued to cut. "Morri kinda messed you up. But hey, at least you're better now, and you got me for any time a spot itches and you can't reach it."

Jerica laughed. "You right tho... and yeah, probably so. Morri got the job done but Elias actually helped it feel better... who'da thought he can actually be serious."

Mel laughed. "I know right? I think he just doesn't like to see others in pain. Such a softie sometimes. You should've seen him when he interned at the children's hospital last summer." She paused, and frowned a little. "Although, not every night was good. He one time called me crying because..."

She cleared her throat and started again. How the conversation delved from hair to dying children, she didn't know.

"Anyways, I'm glad you're doing better, girl! When can you play football again?"

"That is a hotly debated topic, as the case would have it."

"Next week?" she guessed. "Month?"

"My shoulder is going to be fine by the game next weekend... but Coach is threatening to bench me for the next two 'to be sure' -- but he'll change his mind." She nodded once, not as certain as she was clearly trying to be. "He will."

Mel flicked her eyes between Jerica and her hair, but ultimately continued her concentration in cutting.

"I mean, your health comes first," she said, stealing Elias's favorite words whenever he wanted someone to take care of themselves. "It would suck if you broke a leg or something. Besides, don't you still get the free tuition? This is like, free vacation. Live a little!"

"Bruh, the free tuition's just like... a perk." Jerica shrugged, turning her head slightly to look at the football that was proudly displayed on top of the book shelf in the corner. "I mean, yeah, I need it or whatever. But like... I dunno. It's nice to be good at one thing, you know?"

"Awww, Jerica," Mel said as she paused her work to face her for a moment. "You're good at lots of things already. You're way smarter than I am, for one, and you're good at literally every sport that exists. Plus, you take down beer like a champ. Football isn't your identity, girl. It's just for fun."

Jerica flushed when Mel first started talking, carefully, awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. Then she laughed. "True dat... so... what I'm hearing here, is I should go troll the soccer team 'til I can move my arm?"

Mel laughed as she stepped back to her side to continue to cut. "Hmm, yeah, I support that. 'Cause you'll kick all their asses, and then Coach will be jealous that you're kickin' ass at soccer, so he'll be wanting to bring you back to the team ASAP."

Jerica laughed again. "We can hope... he does like me better after the last game. I..." She trailed off, smiling a bit. "Well, things are a lot better now than they were at first, you know?"

"I feel you, girlie. You're kicking ass in everything. School, sports. And you got friends. We gotchu if things don't work out. You know that, right?"

"I mean, like, yeah." Jerica seemed a little flustered, like she wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to respond to that. "Y'all are great. Def hit the jackpot in the friends lottery."

"Awwwww. You know what you can do to make me happy though?" Mel said with a grin. "A girl day, you and me. Because why haven't we had one yet? You hang around with too many boys. You need some real girl time."

Jerica laughed. "I mean, fair... I'm not really all that good at 'girl' things, though. But, for you? I'll try. What you thinking?"

Mel almost laughed. Jerica seemed to brush it off like Mel knew nothing about girl days, but she was literally did hair, nails, makeup, and fashion for a living. Mel practically ate, bled, and breathed girl things.

"Shopping," she said like it was obvious. "We're gonna take you shopping, and then we're going lady's night at the bar, and you're gonna look so damn cute. Especially after I cut and color your hair, do your makeup, and pick out a new outfit."

"Hmmm..." Jerica nodded slowly, then smirked a bit. "Sure, okay. But you better make sure the outfit coordinates with my sling."



Jerica sat at the end of the bar and watched the bartender pouring her a shot of rum -- finally something in this day that was familiar. Mel was great. Jerica genuinely liked her. But she wasn't actually really sure what had happened to her over the course of the past few hours.

Her hair looked damn good. She'd give that to Mel. She got a super short undercut with buzzed sides, just like she'd wanted. It felt amazing. So much weight off -- freeing. And, fabulous. She wasn't actually sure what color to ask for. She'd mostly just agreed to that because Mel had offhandedly joked that she wanted to dye Jerica's hair, and she didn't really care. So, they'd settled on bleaching the bottom part of Jerica's hair and dyeing that part dark gold that bled into the dark black of her natural hair.

Her makeup actually looked good too, though she didn't want to admit that one. Mel had given her little eyeliner wing-ies and some gold eyelid powder that sparkled a bit, then did... honestly, Jerica wasn't sure what it was that Mel had done to her. But her cheekbones now looked prominent, and her features were even sharper than usual.

She actually looked like a normal girl for once in her life, and she wasn't sure what to do with that. Did she like it? Hate it? It definitely made her feel something, but she wasn't sure what it was, exactly.

She did hate the shopping part of the day. Dear gods. Mel had made her try on every single outfit in like seven different stores... it might not have actually been that much, but Jerica was thoroughly fed up with it -- especially since she had to keep taking her sling on and off -- before Mel finally pronounced her ready for the bar.

The outfit she'd settled on was actually kind of nice too. Ripped, tight jeans and this weird white fuzzy shirt that Jerica needed help figuring out how to get into. It had sleeves but no shoulders, and the front twisted in the middle and showed off her toned abdomen. The slightest hints of bruises were still visible from the football game, but they weren't particularly noticeable at a first glance.

Jerica grabbed her shotglass and turned towards Mel. "Cheers?"

"Cheers, bitch!" she said through a giggle, clinking her shot glass and then downing it.

Jerica took her shot then chased it, smiling over at Mel. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted after all that haha."

"Exhas-- Jerica!" Mel scolded playfully. "The night is just beginning. Come on, let's dance!"

She took her hand and then started to lead her through the crowd, having to say many "excuse me's" as they weaved through many people. The music started to get louder and louder, playing a remix of a popular radio song. Strobe lights flashed across the room until Mel led her to an empty spot of the dance floor.

"Come onnnnnnn, loosen up!" Mel said, getting into the groove next to her. "Just listen to the music and have fun."

Jerica wasn't sure how Mel expected her to loosen up in these heels that she'd forced Jerica into. Mel seemed to be floating effortlessly in hers. Jerica was... not. For how good her balance usually was in sports and such, she was having trouble figuring out how big of a step she could take without wobbling. It changed her entire stride.

"I'm having fun," Jerica said defensively.

"Oh yeah?" Mel challenged teasingly, then poked her cheek. "Why do you look like the mysterious, not-fun hot girl in every movie then?"

"Surprised you can see me from down there." Jerica straightened her back, giving her a smirk, refusing to react to -- but very much noticing -- the hot girl comment.

Mel scoffed, but then laughed, playfully punching her. "I shouldn't have given you heels."

Jerica laughed, starting to sway to the music as well. "I mean, they do make my ass feel incredible... but I also feel like I'm perpetually at the brink of falling over... trade offs I guess."

"You know what that means?" Mel said with a smile.

"It's time to take them off?"

She leaned in close to Jerica's ear, standing on her tiptoes, even with heels. "YOU NEED MORE PRACTICE!" she yelled, but it was still hardly noticeable to those around them since the music was so loud.

Jerica laughed and pulled her head a bit away. "No thanks."

"Come onnnnn, don't make me force you into having fun," Mel teased with a glint in her eye, clearly up to something else.

"You, you think you can?" Jerica challenged playfully.

Mel grinned and then took her hand, racing back through the crowd of people. Even with heels, it was incredible how fast she could move, especially through a crowd. Eventually she took her to the other side of the bar where they were doing --

Karaoke.

"Come on, let's go next!" she said excitedly, pulling her towards the front.

"Nooo." Jerica hesitated. She was trying to make this a fun night for both of them. But she was suddenly feeling so insecure. Usually, Jerica didn't mind being in the spotlight. She thrived in the center of the attention. But she felt like she was already drawing too much attention from the hair and the outfit and the makeup. She shook the insecurity away. One day. One day wasn't too much to ask to make Mel happy, so she'd keep going along with all the shenanigans like she'd been. "Gah. Fine. But I need more rum first, b-r-b."

"'Kay, I'm going to stand in line. Get me a drink too, b!" Mel said, then paused before she let go of her. "Or do you want me to go with you?"

"What you wanna do bb?" Jerica asked, smirking at her.

"Lemme put my request for the song in and then I'll go with, 'kay?"

"'K." Jerica watched Mel walk away, suddenly realizing she'd never actually agreed to a song. Whatever. Mel would pick something reasonable... dear gods. Jerica was going to take a lot of shots, then it wouldn't matter what Mel picked.

Jerica looked down at her phone and flicked through a few notifications as she waited for Mel to come back. She looked up to see if Mel was coming yet, but instead saw a rando staring at her. She looked at him, unimpressed. "Shoo."

The boy shook himself, snapping out of whatever sort of trance he'd been in. He swaggered towards her with a slimy grin. "Heyyyyy, you wanna dance?"

"... What part of 'shoo' did you hear to mean 'flirt', exactly?"

"Hey babe, there you are!" Mel suddenly said, hugging her from behind as their cheeks touched. She then looked over at the rando staring her down, looking him down, unimpressed and almost disgusted looking. "Well?" she said impatiently. "You gonna just stare? Gross."

"Shoo," Jerica repeated, waving her hand this time, annoyed at the dude but amused by Mel's solution to the creep. "C'mon, babe." Jerica wrapped her arm around Mel then started towards the bar.

Mel giggled, not giving the guy any more than a backward glance. "Man, men are so skeevy sometimes! This is why I didn't want you to go by yourself."

"Aww! Wholesome!" Jerica smiled at her. That was adorable. As if tiny Mel could fight off boys better than Jerica. "I got dis b, but, it rum o'clock and I think I hear it calling both our names."

"Hell yeah, on me!"

Jerica went to the bar and slid her card to the barkeeper before Mel could do it first. "Keep it open. Two of Captain Morgan for me, and you...?"

Mel narrowed her eyes at her for a moment before answering. "I'll have what she's having," she said to the bartender, but then faced Jerica again. "Okay but aren't you like, dead ass broke? Let me at least Venmo you, girl, damn!"

"No," Jerica scoffed. "I have like..." She hesitated, remembering that her account was actually hovering just a few quarters above empty. But, she didn't want to admit that. "A ton of money. As a matter of fact -- hey, um, changed my mind. Here." She took a wad of crumpled money out of her pocket and looked down at it, then decided she didn't want to count it. Surely it'd be enough for four shots... surely. She thrust it at the barkeeper and took her card back as he looked at her, slightly confused.

Mel seemed a little confused too, but then shrugged it off. "Hey, let's take a selfie!" she said, slightly slurring her words as she got out her phone, extending it out in front of her. "We look hella cute and gotta take pics."

"Hell yeah we do!" Jerica wrapped both arms around Mel and grinned at the camera.

They shuffled through several more poses as the barkeeper poured their shots.

"Damn, we're hot," Mel said as she looked through the pics and was in the process of uploading on to her Snapchat story. "The boys are going to see this and get super jealous."

"As they should," Jerica answered with a smirk.

Then she hesitated, it suddenly hitting her what Mel had said. The boys? What boys? She didn't really like any of the options that came to mind for people they knew who might think she was hot, dressed like this.. Carter? Ew. The football team? That would just be... Bo? She turned and grabbed one of the shots and downed it, deciding she really didn't want to think about 'what boys?' afterall.

"HAH, Elias already Snapped me back!" Mel exclaimed, then let out a laugh when she opened it. She showed her what he sent.

He was hanging out at Carter's apartment -- she could recognize the furniture in the background -- and he had the phone at a low, unflattering angle without much of an expression. Barely even a selfie.

"who are u even with" was what he captioned.

"Say 'ur mom'." Jerica wasn't sure whether it was worse or better that Elias didn't recognize her.

Mel laughed and rolled her eyes, looking like she wanted to protest, but then lifted her phone up to snap another selfie of the two of them. Mel was grinning, but Jerica barely had time to strike a pose and looked back at the camera blankly. Mel captioned "ur mom" and then sent it his way.

"Oh hey, you took a shot already?" she mused, and then took one herself, wincing from the taste and then immediately chasing it.

"Heh, yeah," Jerica forced a smirk, but felt her face burning. She hoped Mel wouldn't notice. Even she wasn't sure why she was feeling so embarrassed right then. "Looks like we both got another, too."

"Oh wait, Elias got back to me. And Bo sent me a message."

Fuck.

Mel turned the phone around to show her Bo's message first.

Msg From cottoneyedbo:
Wya? You guys look great! Hope you're havin fun :)
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Jerica flushed a little, angry at herself that the compliment actually made her feel nice. She looked over as Mel giggled as she sent a quick generic reply back, and then showed Jerica what Elias sent.

It was a pixelated, zoomed in picture of Carter's face, with two captions: "wow ok" / "didn't know my mom was such a milf"

Jerica snorted that ended in a cough. That -- he -- did he realize it was --? Jerica turned and downed her second shot.

"Alright, we takin' a second one!" Mel said, putting away her phone to follow in her footsteps and down hers as well. She scrunched her nose and shook her head as she quickly chased it down.

Jerica had no idea why she felt as embarrassed as she did. But, boy did she. She took a deep breath, looking across the room -- away from Mel -- looking for something that she could use as an excuse to not have to stumble over her words like an idiot if Mel wanted to keep talking about it.

"Hey, everything okay?" Mel said instead, seemingly picking up that she looked uncomfortable. "You feeling alright?"

"Yeah!" She forced a grin. "We gucci, bb. Just waitin' for our time to saaang."

Mel narrowed her eyes at her a little. "You sure? You're having fun?"

"I mean, I'd be having more fun if you bought your round now..." Jerica said playfully.

Mel laughed. "I'll def buy the next round. But I don't want you to be super boozed up. Relaaaax, just get into the music."

"Boozed up is the only way you're getting me up on that stage. Jer don't sing sober."

"Man, you're like, not sober? How?!"

"We only had like, three?" Jerica scoffed. She could barely even feel it, yet.

"Three in like, within an hour!" Mel said with a laugh.

"Mel, Mel, Mel..." Jerica smirked at her. "I'mma need you to channel your inner-alcoholic for me tonight."

"Uuuuggghhhh fine. But only because it's lady's night." Mel then waved a hand out for the bartender. "Two more shots, pleeeease! And a water!"

"Weaaaaak," Jerica taunted.

Mel playfully shoved her a little. "Maybe I'm normal and you're an alcoholic," she taunted back.

"Nope, can't be an alcoholic until after you graduate. It's the law," Jerica said with a smirk. "'Til then I just be a footballer footballin', bb."

"Oooohhhh, it all makes sense now," Mel said as the bartender finished pouring the shots. "Only college students can be alcoholics. I see, I see, I see."

She slid both glasses in front of her, clearly both for Jerica, as she gave the bartender her credit card, telling him to keep it open.

"I... no, that's not what I said." Although, it didn't actually seem all that inaccurate. She was sure her liver was going to have words for her eventually. But, what was college without an obscene amount of alcohol?

"Bottoms up!" Mel said as she gave her both glasses.

"You gotta take one--"

Just then, the announcer called out Mel's name, telling them to come to the stage.

Mel's eyes lit up as she grinned. "Hurry hurry hurry!"

Jerica's eyes went wide. No. She was still far too sober for karaoke to be a good idea, even though the last two were finally starting to give her a bit of a buzz. She downed them both, one after another, then chased it. Her head felt slightly woozy as she set them back on the bar and turned towards Mel.

As soon as she finished, Mel took her hand and again led her to the stage, although she stumbled a little in her giggly buzzed stupor. Eventually, they reached the stage, and were given two mics. The announcer was getting the screen and song set up.

"Ready?" Mel said to her, away from the mic.

"No."

Didn't matter. The song started to play anyways.



As the song started, Mel was yell-singing, facing Jerica while grinning the entire time, clearly having the time of her life.

I buy my own things, I pay my own bills
These diamond rings, my automobiles
Everything I got, I bought it
Boys can't buy my love, buy my love, yeah

Jerica nodded along, realizing she hadn't actually listened to the lyrics of this song before. But, she liked what she was reading. She laughed at Mel, then looked back at the screen.

I do what I want (she does), say what you say
I work real hard every day

Jerica jumped in with the next line, obnoxiously scream-singing right back at Mel. Mel had to bite back laughter as they continued to scream-sing the next lyrics.

I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, alright
I don't need a man to be holding me too tight
I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, that's right
I'm just having fun with my ladies here tonight
I'm a motherfucker

Somehow, these lyrics felt just right.

Mel was getting really into the song, almost yelling at this point, and had her arm around Jerica as they got louder and louder to the end of the refrain.

Mmm, yeah
Let's drive around town in my Cadillac
Girls in the front, boys in the back
Loosey as a goosey and we're looking for some fun

Jerica started giggling along with the song, unable to stay serious at this point. The booze was finally hitting, making this hell far more enjoyable. Mel was dancing along with the song, signaling driving and pointing to the front and back when the lyrics called for it. She giggled at the last line, just like the song indicated.

I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, alright
I don't need a man to be holding me too tight
I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, that's right
I'm just having fun with my ladies here tonight
I'm a motherfucker
Mmm, yeah
Mmm, yeah

Jerica was shouting at this point along with Mel, facing Mel directly instead of even looking at the audience anymore. She was dancing dramatically, doing a surprisingly good job at it for how drunk she was swiftly becoming. Mel followed along, having far more fun with it than normal.

Don't buy me a drink, I make my money
Don't touch my weave, don't call me "honey"
'Cause I run my shit, baby
(I run my shit)
Don't buy me a drink, I make my money
Don't touch my weave, don't call me "honey"
('Cause I write this shit, baby)
I write my shit
Don't buy me a drink, I make my money
Don't touch my weave, don't call me "honey"
('Cause I run my shit, baby, I run my shit)

At this point, Jerica was getting progressively more convinced that she knew the lyrics and didn't need to look. She definitely didn't. But, she kept her gaze fixed on Mel anyway, shouting as loud as she could, lyrics that were only vaguely-similar to what she was supposed to be singing. Mel was also laser-focued on hyping Jerica up, and then she seemed to egg the audience on with each repeating verse, until a few stragglers picked up on it and sang with them.

Don't buy me a drink, I make my money
Don't touch my weave, don't call me "honey"
'Cause I run my shit, baby, I run my shit
Don't buy me a drink, I make my money
Don't touch my weave, don't call me "honey"
I run this shit, baby, I run this shit
Don't buy me a drink, I make my money
Don't touch my weave, don't call me "honey"
('Cause I write this shit, baby, I write this shit)

At this point, Mel had hyped the audience up to sing with them, and then she let out a decent musical "ooOoOOh" before going on to the next verse, facing Jerica again with a huge grin. Jerica had forgotten all about being embarrassed. Now she was boozy with a friend, and they had an audience. Jerica had finally remembered how to act when people were watching. She started dancing even more dramatically, dancing progressively lower to the ground until she was bent down next to a couple standing by the stage.

I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, alright

Jerica sang loudly, then pointed her mic at the woman to sing the next one. She seemed a bit flustered so Jerica filled in the next one.

I don't need a man to be holding me too tight

Then she turned the mic on the dude. He seemed a bit surprised but then laughed and started singing with Jerica.

I'm a motherfucking woman, baby, that's right
I'm just having fun with my ladies here tonight
I'm a motherfucker
Mmm, yeah

"Fuck yeah you are," Jerica laughed, nodding to the couple, glad that the girl had finally started to sing too. "Y'all are chill."

Mel finished the song dramatically, singing at the top of her lungs and also dancing around the stage, waving her arms with each strong word. When the song ended, she was grinning and panting for air. Jerica straightened and turned back towards Mel, then took several steps forward, quickly.

She threw out her arms, ready to grab Mel and toss her in the air, but her sling stopped her. Ah. That was probably why Elias insisted she wear the stupid thing -- so she'd remember not to be dumb. Still, she was committed. So instead she wrapped her right arm under Mel's arms and picked her up, spinning her around quickly before having to set her back down.

Mel was surprised and protested at first, but it quickly melted into warm laughter before she got back on her feet, holding on to Jerica as her head spun and she continued to laugh. "We killed it!" she said as she held her for balance. "Are you having fun yet?"

Jerica laughed. "Yeah, we--" she trailed off, catching a dirty glance from the D.J. "We should prolly not be..." She tried to gesture, but her good arm was still wrapped around Mel and her left hand just waved awkwardly next to her abdomen. "This is a stage."

"The world is our -- oh, shit, you right, we should probably leave."

"What do you MEAN I can't wear a suit in the karaoke bar? What kind of backwards logic is this?" Lordy shouted at the bouncer blocking him from entering the building.

"Come now Lordy we can always go home and chan-"

"After we waited for HOURS? No, no. Who's in charge here?" Lordy cut Morri off.

"If you wanna wait five minutes to get told told the same thing I just told you, then be my guest. I'll call him over right now." The bouncer said.

"I can't belive- you know what? Fine." Lordy pulled off his suit jacket and handed it to Morri.

"Um, what are you doing?" Morri asked while the bouncer eyed him curiously.

"Well," he began to unbotton his shirt and pulled his tie off, "If they want me to degrade myself and my appearance for the sake of a couple drinks and some off-key singing then so be it."

As Lordy began unbuckling his pants the bouncer quickly reacted, "OKAY okay let's calm down." He got a bit closer to Lordy so he could whisper, "Listen, you swing me a benjamin and I'll look the other way. Deal?"

Lordy smiled at the bouncer, "Now you're speaking my language."

Rebuckling his pants, Morri handed him back his suit jacket and he pulled a fake hundred dollar bill out of a stack of fake hundred dollar bills he kept for occasions just like this.

"There you go sir," Lordy said as he handed the bill to the bouncer, "Now may I enter?"

The bouncer slipped the bill into his pocket without looking and turned the other direction as Lordy, who was still fixing his clothing situation, slipped inside the bar. Unfortunately for their ears however, they were greeted by what sounded like two stray cats fighting over the last dead rat on the block. Looking up at the stage, Morri and Lordy both stopped in their tracks. It was Mel and Jeric singing.

"This is... an odd turn of events. Do you think maybe we should just lea-" Morri was cut off by Lordy.

"I'M A MOThERFUCKIN WOMA-"

"LORDY PLS."

They made their way to the front of the stage just as the song ended and the crowd was trying to figure out why the pair was still on the stage.

"You two were fantastic!" Lordy shouted up them.

They both finally stumbled down, Mel laughing while she had her arm wrapped around Jerica, possibly out of support since she appeared to be drunk. Her eyes lit up when she picked up Lordy in the crowd.

"LORDY!" she called. "OHMYGOSH you are here!!!"

Jerica had exactly the opposite reaction. Her expression sank and she stared at them in a horrified silence, eyes wide.

"I exist too." Morri whispered to himself.

Mel had already ran up to the both of them, wrapping her arms around their waists. She tried to first wrap them around their shoulders, but she was too short, so she settled on that instead.

"Awwwww, you guys can join us with lady's night!" she said warmly, bringing them closer with a big smile. "Jerica's here, too!"

"Hell yeah!" Lordy said enthusiatically.

"Anything for you Mello." Morri smiled at them.

It was then that Mel just realized that Lordy's pants were literally around his feet. Because he wasn't wearing pants. And the bouncer didn't stop him 'cause of the hundo.

"Where are your pants?" she parked at him, playfully jabbing him.

"My pan-?" Lordy looked down, "Aw WHAT the hell."

"Of all the things I didn't know that I didn't want to see..." Jerica murmured under her breath, finally joining the three of them.

As he rushed to put them back on, Morri turned to Mel, "I tried to warn him but he was in such a rush to get inside."

"Awww, that's okay, I forgive you 'cause you're a motherfuckin' woman," Mel said back with another bright smile, slurring her words and then waving her hand in front of her like it was no big deal.

"Well then my dears," Lordy looked between Jerica and Mel, "How do you kids say it? What's the vibe?"

Mel's eyes lit up again, this time getting a little too close to Jerica, bringing her closer to her instead.

"It's lady's night, and I think you both need some ladies to be your wing-woman. Right? Right??" She waggled her eyebrows at them.

Jerica looked between them, then quickly stepped towards Morri. "Dibs!"

Morri smiled at Jerica, "How is your arm feeling?"

"Oh, it's--"

"Can we take shots?" Lordy asked.

"Okay Jer, you get Momo!" Mel said instead, grabbing Lordy's hand and leading him to the bar. "Lordy, I'm finding you a motherfuckin' WOMAN TO-NITE."

Before they dissapearred, Lordy turned to Morri.





"Wait!" Jerica protested. "Shots!"

She watched them for a minute then turned back to Morri. "...So...How are you?"

"Come now Jerica we both know this is the worst possible scenario for how this night could've ended up. What's say we make the most of it?"

"Actually..." Jerica glanced after Lordy and Mel then looked back at Morri with a playful grin. "I think I got the better half of this deal."

"Oh believe me, I'm more than relieved to have someone at least half sane with me during a night out."

Jerica laughed. "I mean... that can be fixed with a couple more shots." She smirked at him. "Y'all been here long?"

"Not long at all actually, we just got here as you both were finishing your fantasting rendition of that song." Morri giggled, "And for the record, it would look horrendous on me as a professor if I'm seen drinking with a student. So... no pictures?"

Jerica laughed again. "Oh, gods, yes. There's already too many pictures of me looking..." She shook her head, not quite sure how to finish that statement. "Ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" Morri scratched his beard, "I know that stepping out of our comfort zone can sometimes make us feel out of place, but believe me when I say anyone would be lucky to have you my dear."

"Oh, uh, heh." She flushed a bit, but was smiling awkwardly. "Thanks. I uh... am just really hoping the team doesn't see me, honestly." She shook her head again. "That'd be a whiplash, huh? This--" she gestured at her arm, still in a sling; then at herself vaguely. "To this. Haha."

"You'd be surprised how impressed a bunch of meat head jocks would be to find out you can do both."

Jerica laughed a bit. "True. I was also surprised that I can do both. This was all Mel, honestly."

"Oh! Yes," Morri ran his fingers through his dreads, "She works magic when it comes to makeovers."

"Oh, right, that's how you guys know each other..." Jerica said. "You and Lordshire go there often?"

"As often as we need to, you don't think we look so fresh by nature do you?" Morri waved his hand dismisively.

"I mean, I wouldn't put it past you," she said with a grin. "How's that saying go... maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline? Only I guess, it'd be, maybe he's born with it, maybe it's Mel..." She trailed off, clearly not sure what Mel's last name was or how to save it with two more syllables. "Magic?"

"Mel Magic," Morri pursed his lips in thought, "I think you might be on to something. Like, a business name. You should pitch it to her."

"I dig it," Jerica agreed, nodding. "She do be good at hair 'n shit."

"It's kind of loud here, wanna chug some beers?" Morri asked, "It's on Lordy's tab."

"That's my favorite kind of beers," Jerica agreed with a grin, gesturing an 'after you' towards Morri.

Morri did a little curtsy and began walking over to the bar. He flagged down the bartender, "Two of the strongest beers you have on tap. It's on that guys tab." He pointed over to Lordy who was at the other end of the bar.

"I like the way you drink," Jerica said, hopping onto a bar stool as she grinned at her own pun.

"Oh look at you, maybe I'll have a pun competition in class next week and you can demonstrate for everyone."

"Oh, heh, no, I be a one hit wonder... you know who would be funny?" She took the mug the bartender handed over. "Elias. That boy's a walking shitpost. Bet he'd slay in a pun competition."

"Elias? He's a very bright young man. I'm surprised he can get away with acting so goofy all the time." Morri turned to Jerica as their drinks came, "Ever think maybe he's not afraid to be himself even if he thinks people will judge him for it?"

Jerica took a long drink of her beer, clearly stalling, as she tried to think of an answer that wouldn't lead to him somehow turning that on her. Seemed like a perfect lead-in to a startling compliment that she wouldn't know what to do with. "He is pretty great, huh?"

"Mhm," Morri sipped his beer, "Ever think maybe there people saying the same about you?"

That was skill. Still somehow bringing it back to her. "Pff, obviously," she said playfully, gesturing at her sling. "MVP status over hereeeee."

Morri smiled at her, "And you will still be the MVP when you choose to be unapologetically yourself. No amount of makeup or good grades will take that away from you."

"Okay, but, look..." Jerica held up a finger towards him, then looked down at her beer. "I'm too drunk to be having this conversation." She looked up at him again. That wasn't, in fact, going to stop her from having it. She was still vaguely wagging her finger. "But even if you were right -- which you're not -- but if you were... I don't give a fuck if people like jock-Jerica or not. But if they don't like Jerica-Jerica? Mm-mm." She took a drink and shook her head. "Nooope. Don't like that."

"Well," Morri looked down at his glass, "From what I can tell, the only person I know is uncomfortable with jerica-jerica, is you- Jerica."

"Exactly." She tapped her head like the smart meme. "That means I'm winning. Can't hate me if you don't know who I am. Checkmate." She took a long drink of her beer.

Morri sipped his beer, "I know you're saying all of this now, but it's probably because you've never heard anyone tell you out right that they enjoy all sides of you, both smart and... not-so-smart. So let me be the first- you are a briliant student, a brilliant athlete, and a brilliant human being. One day I hope you can look in the mirror and tell yourself the same."

"I..." she hesitated, clearly having no idea how she was supposed to respond to that. He was cutting through every last defense she knew how to put up.

"I know you probably weren't prepared for this when the night started, so please, sleep on the idea. I think I've made you do more than enough thinking for one night. Let's enjoy the atmosphere, aye?" Morri raised his glass up for her to tap.

She nodded and smiled a bit, raising her glass up to clink with his. "Always the thinking with you. I guess that's what makes you a good prof."

"Oh stop," Morri put his hand over his chest, "I'm a decent professor, I just play the part well. It's good students that make me look good."

"Hey, hey, hey--" Jerica shook her head, setting her glass down so she could wag her finger again, lamenting the fact that she only had one hand to use at all. And also, drunk. "No. No. You don't get to be out here pretending that I'm good when I'm not, and then say that you're not good when you actually are good. That's not how this works."

"Some people say warmth is like a fire, but I think it's a bit brighter when people truly care," Morri took a final sip to finish off his beer, "Sometimes it's more like a bouquet of daffodils and assurance that someone's love for you will always be there. Remember that?"

"Wait... no." Jerica gaped at him for a moment. "That was a-- wait you memorized that shit?"

"Uh uh," Morri wagged his finger, "Not shit- poetry. The poem was good, and you wrote it. So unless you're telling your professor he's wrong, then I'm going to need you to accept that as a fact."

"Yeah, I mean it was a..." She cleared her throat and took another drink of beer. "You assigned that, it wasn't my fault."

"Well the assignment didn't write itself did it?" He looked at Jerica, "A student literally tried to submit a haiku about spoiled milk, so don't tell me about quality."

Jerica laughed. "That's amazing." She looked at him with a playful grin. "But I'm guessing this means he didn't pull it off?" She laughed again.

Morri scrunched his eyebrows and smiled, "I gave him a B. The boy had spirit, but unfortunately no brains." He was about to order another round for them when he noticed a commotion going on at the outdoor patio area of the bar.

Morri turned to Jerica, "I think it's time to go."

"Sure, okay." Jerica downed the rest of her beer then stood up. "Where we going?"

"Let's uh..." Morri scanned the area, knowing they had to leave fast, "Let's start with outside and figure out the details later. Deal?"

"'Kay." She glanced around, not quite sure what was going on, but matching his energy and starting towards the door quickly.



"So about those shots?" Lordy asked as they pulled away from Jerica and Morrigan.

Mel led him through the crowd of people, weaving in and out of the crowd. "Yeah, whaddya wanna drink?" she asked over her shoulder.

"I want whatever got you like this. As a matter of fact make it double." He pulled out the wad of fake hundred, "It's on me."

Mel stared at the stack of money he just pulled out, eyes wide. "Hey hey heyheyhyeheyheeeey," she said urgently, covering the stack of fake hundreds and then looking around to make sure no one else saw. "Better put that away before people found out you robbed a bank."

"ShhshshShshh..." Lordy took the stack and held it up to her nose, "Smell them."

Mel looked at him skeptically, but then leaned in and took a big sniff.

"It smells like..." she said slowly, really thinking about this like it was a complex math problem. "...Feet?"

"Precisely," Lordy handed a bill to her, "They're all fake." He put his finger to his lips to let her know to keep quiet.

Mel grinned mischieviously, then playfully punched his shoulder. "Lordy!" she scolded. "You're such a criminal! I like it."

"Don't say that," Lordy giggled, "You'll make me wanna go back to jail."

"Hold that thought," she said as she waved down the bartender and leaned over to say what she wanted.

The bartender started to pour two glasses: one small one, and a double. When he finished, she took the two glasses and gave him the tall one. They both held clear liquid, but hers was a bit opaque, like it was mixed in with something else.

"Drink first, crime second, story third," she said as she lifted up her glass for him to clink.

"Right," Lordy tapped his double shot to her glass, "Drink, crime, and then I flee."

He chugged the shot and realized half a second too late the disaster that was about to unfold.

He coughed a bit, "Is this... Everclear?"

Mel laughed, easily downing her shot, probably because it was a baby shot. "Maaaaaaaybe," she said, and then reached up to grab his upper arms, shaking him a little. "Tell me about jail! You went to jaaaail?!"

"Mello my dear, I'd love to recount my days in the slammer, but I have to be honest with you. They were some of the best days of my--"

Mel then slapped him mid-sentence. "Don't you dare go back to jail!" she scolded, trying to look angry, but it came out looking more like a pout. "You hear me?!"

Lordy was caught by surprise as he put his hand over his delicate cheek, "Wha- I mean I don't PLAN on it. If I had stayed there like I was supposed to--"

She interrupted him again, shaking his by his upper arms. "DON'T GO BACK TO JAIL!" she said as she shook him back and force with surprising force for someone of her size. "I can't do your nails if you're in jail!"

Had it not been for the slow burning of the Everclear already taking effect, Lordy may have felt his body rocking back and forth, "Okay okay! I promise no more jail time." He held out his pinky to Mel.

Her face lit up as she shook his pink with her pinky. "Good!" she said with a big grin, clearly satisfied. "You can't break pink promises. That'd be against ethics. Haha, geddit? 'Cause you're a philosophy prof!" She pulled her hand away and instead poked his stomach to tease him.

"Of course I know," he shoo'd her hand away and smiled, "I won't go to jail ificanhelpit shots?"

"Is that code for you saying you've shot people?" Mel asked, squinting at him, and then burst out laughing again. "Haha, just kidding... Unless...?"

Lordy glanced at her.



"No no no, I haven't shot anyone. And even if I did it hasn't been proven in court, so you know. If a tree falls in the wood and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?"

Mel groaned. "Uggghhhh Lordy, stop, I'm not a student, so don't make my brain hurt. Let's go dancing instead! You're going to get laaaaaaid tonight."

"Oh? I mean," Lordy tidied himself up, "Not that I need help or anything."

Mel ordered two shots of rum for Lordy and a rum and coke for herself, and Lordy slipped the bartender a fake hundred to pay for everything.

"Oh yeah?" she challenged with a smirk. "Wait, okay. So you're not gay for Morri. I can't tell sometimes."

"Pff," Lordy waved his hand dramatically at her, "Morri wishes he could be with someone like me. No see my standards are far too high for anyone I have ever met."

"For anyone you've ever..." Mel repeated quietly, thinking over his words before it suddenly hit her. "Wait, are you saying you've never been in a relationship? Like, ever?"

"It's..." Flashbacks spun through Lordy's mind of a few weeks ago when his best friend Kaz was in town, "Complicated."

Lordy downed his next drink and sucked in a heavy breath.

"You're giving me clear alcohol AND rum? Mello please just tell me you want me to die, it would be much simpler."

She brushed the statements away, pretending like she didn't hear him deflecting.

"Have you ever been on a date?" she asked. "Or like, do you even wanna have a fling tonight? Awww, Lordy, this really is like a girl's night!"

Lordy scrunched his eyebrows at the question as he tried to think back to what seemed like a blip in his memory, "I don't... I can't say I have, actually. I mean, maybe? I could've forgotten. I do drink far too much."

Mel's eyes softened, and with her free hand, she took his hand and led him to a quieter side of the bar. It was awfully loud inside, so she led him to the outdoor patio area where people gathered around tables and stood under the string lights hung above them.

"Awwwww, I had no idea," she said when they settled on their own little corner. She was smiling, and also a lot drunk, but she seemed to be heavily invested in his nonexistent love life. "Do you want to date? I can make you a Bumble account! Ooh, I'll give you a makeover so you look extra handsome in your pictures."

Lordy was taken aback in the sudden shift of momentum. For once he almost didn't know what to say, "Mello, please. As far as I'm concerned, if I have to force myself into love, I already know it won't work out. One of my favorite philosophers once said that love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete. Here with you, with Morri, with everyone else, I already feel complete."

Mel thought for a moment as she slowly sipped her drink through her straw, but then she smiled and patted his back.

"You make it sound like you can choose to be in love," she said. "You can't just force yourself into it. It just happens. I think you haven't had any luck so far because you haven't put yourself out there, out there. But I'm also reeeally happy as is to have you stay in your lil Lordy bubble if that's what you want. And Momo probably feels the same."

Lordy grinned, "He better because he doesn't have much of a choice." Lordy scratched his beard, "But maybe you're right. Perhaps I've just been searching in all the wrong ways? I don't even know where to begin."

"Lordy, ohhhh Lordy Lordy Lordy," Mel said as she smiled and clicked her tongue. "This is going to be a looooooong night."

"HEY!" a familiar voice shouted from across the room.

Lordy turned to see the bouncer he finessed staring him down, waving the fake hundred in the air, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS."

"Mello," Lordy continued to look straight at the bouncer, "When I count to three, you run to-"

"LET'S GO!!!" she yelled, interrupting him and taking his hand to jump over the patio fence. "LIFT ME UP!"

Lordy threw his cane over the fence and folded his hands together for Mel to step up on, "HURRY!"

Mel quickly stepped onto his arms and then jumped to go over the fence, safely landing on the other side. "Okay, now your turn!" she said with her arms spread out. He had no idea what she was implying she could do to help.

Lordy scaled the fence with his cat like mobility and threw himself on to the other side. He quickly got up and brushed himself off, turning around to flip off the bouncer who was still running toward the fence, "SEE YA SUCKER!"

Mel giggled the entire way as they escaped. "That was so fun!" she said as she pulled out her phone. "I just have to text Jerica that I left. And getting an Uber to my place because you're about to have a proper girl's night out with me and my roomies."

"Oh no don't- don't bother," Lordy put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath, "I parked a few blocks up. Wait-" He looked up at her, "Do you wanna drive?"

Mel stared at him for a moment. "Are you tryna go to jail? What did I JUST say about that?"

"Well DUH that's why you're driving."

She slapped him again. "NO I'M NOT DRIVING, I'M DRUNK AS HELL."

Lordy covered his face, "Well SO AM I so I won't even NOTICE."

"WE ARE CALLING A GODDAMN UBER, LORDSHIRE."

"DON'T USE THAT TONE WITH ME MELICKY!"

"Hello? Yes, 911, I'd like to report an emergency," Mel said as she brought the phone to her ear. "I'm suffering from third degree burns from being called A MELICKY!" At the last two words, she shouted really loud towards Lordy's ear.

Lordy covered his ears, "ShhshshshHH they're gonna find us." He looked around suspiciously, "Do you think they're still chasing us?"

"Yes!" she said with a laugh, way too loudly. "C'mon, Uber comes in three minutes. Let's run away even further."

"But," Lordy was still out of breath, "But how will the Uber find us?!"

"QUIT USING YOUR BIG BRAIN AND RUN WITH ME!"

Lordy sucked in a deep breath and stood up straight and he dramatically ran farther up the block, getting away from the bar while they also were getting away from the Uber ride.

But things always worked out in the end for them, somehow.

James was back at the library for the first time in what felt like a long time. After his run-in with Lordshire and Morrigan there, he'd ended up spending more of his time at other locations to study and work on homework. He kind of missed the quiet, cool atmosphere, and the way that no one paid him any mind as he sat in a corner at a desk, with his laptop out, surrounded by several books all at once.

He was multitasking.

He had twenty different tabs open in his browser, half of them for different assignments, and he was trying to get ahead for the next week, but his head felt cloudy and distracted.

Then a notification popped up on his computer. It was from Evaline.

E: My classmate just showed me a viral video from HPU. Something about two rats fighting during a football game?

J: Oh god... of course they made memes of it.
J: That was Lordshire in one of the costumes. He was fighting the mascot. Somehow, he got bailed out of jail in the same day or something.

E: Haha.
E: Wait, you're serious, aren't you?

J: It was a very interesting day
J: I'm not convinced without a doubt that Lorshire is insane
J: This is fine

E: I got a text from Mel the other day saying that he was a furry.
E: I guess I kind of understand the context now. I don't think I fully want to understand it, though.

J: It's definitely something better left unknown

E: So, you went to the game? Didn't take you for a sports fan.

J: I'm not, really. I went with friends to support a friend. We all went as a group

E: I hope you all got to celebrate the win after beating my school.
E: (for the record, I just now googled it and found out that you guys played against my school apparently)

J: I see you're not much of a sports person either
J: But yes, we did celebrate. There was a lot of drinking, as I'm sure you could probably deduce, but it was alright
J: I had to dip out early because I had work in the morning but it was nice to be with everyone

E: I'm glad you had fun :)

J: Me too
J: It was definitely a new experience for me. I've never been to a football game, and I'm only vaguely familiar with how it works, so I did feel a little lost half the time
J: But I guess I can see why people would enjoy it
J: I think it would be more fun to play than to watch though. Not that I know how

E: Maybe you can get Jerica to teach you.
E: And then you can get drafted into the team and also get free tuition. That would be nice.
E: Stressful. But nice.

J: Free tuition is very tempting, but I don't think I'm really cut out for football
J: I'd like to not ruin my body for sports entertainment

E: That's fair. I've heard the English and History world is pretty harmless, so looks like you chose the right studies, lucky you.

J: I hit the jackpot
J: But really, it's not like I don't enjoy playing sports at all
J: But I've already got a lot going on as it is. I don't really have time to add practices and games into my schedule

E: Did you take a day off from work to go to the game?

J: Yeah. Fortunately, I've almost never taken a day off so they were fine with me doing it without issue

E: If you can take a day off for friends, you should take a day off sometime for yourself, too.
E: You've definitely earned it.
E: You don't need to overwork yourself so much - we all need a little 'me' time.

J: I don't know if I'll be able to really slow down like that until fall break, to be honest. A personal day would be nice, but I don't know if I can afford to

E: I see, I see
E: Well, I'd understand if you're too busy the next time I come to HPU
E: But if you're ever in town here, modeling pays $15/hour for just standing still for hours while the studio draws you.
E: You know. Just if you're interested. Since you're so broke and it's been a while since I've seen you.

J: You do make a compelling argument
J: And a competent employment consultant

E: Thanks, it's a flat 10% commission rate upon your first check.

J: I suppose I am good at staying still for long periods of time
J: Do you think I could read while I model?

E: You'll probably be asking to do various poses, but that could be one of them.
E: Basically getting paid to do homework while people stare at you.

J: It's not the most conventional way to get homework done, but I do love maximizing the ways I use my time
J: Multitasking

E: You could get paid even more for doing less, too...

J: How so?

E: Ehhh only old people take advantage of it. I don't think you'd be interested.

J: I would consider that an accurate assumption
J: I like wearing clothes in public

E: What a coincidence, so do I.

J: We have so much in common




Evaline yawned, looking down at the two painted stills she finished for her project. It was 6AM. Class started in two hours, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep without feeling even worse when she woke up. It'd be better if she stayed up, turned in the paintings, attended the lecture, then return back to her apartment to sleep. She had a five-hour gap anyways until her next class.

Sighing, she spent the next minutes putting everything away and then cleaning herself up. When finished, she plopped herself on her couch, too burnt out to draw anymore, but too tired to mindlessly scroll through social media. She knew she'd fall asleep if she did.

Evaline opened up her text messages and, almost out of habit, went over to James's icon.

E: Are you awake?

There was a small delay.

J: Yeah, I'm up
J: You okay?

E: I'm okay, just trying to stay up.
E: I didn't wake you, did I?

J: I normally keep my phone on silent, so no
J: I just woke up 20 minutes ago

E: Ahh okay.
E: Are you busy right now?

J: [Insert slightly blurry picture of James standing in front of a bathroom mirror brushing his teeth with one hand and holding his phone in the other. He looks a little bleary eyed, and his hair is sticking out in the front]
J: Just getting ready
J: So not really

E: Hahahah
E: That's a top tier picture.
E: Profile picture worthy.

J: I don't have my contacts in yet
J: So I'll take your word for it

E: Now I'm imagining you holding your phone reeeeally close to your face while you brush your teeth.
E: Am I wrong?

J: ...
J: It's not my fault I'm blind

E: You should pick up braile someday. Could be useful.

J: HA. HA.

E: 😛
E: Anyways, I pulled an all-nighter and am trying to stay awake before my 8am.
E: Hope it's okay I chose you as my victim.

J: I suppose I can endure it
J: For the greater good

E: Much appreciated
E: Are you getting ready for class?

J: I've got an 8am too coincidentally
J: I like to get up a little earlier on days that I know Carter sleeps in
J: Moments like this I forget he lives here, it's so quiet

E: It's not everyday that you hear someone admit to being an early riser just to avoid their roommate.

J: That's because we don't admit it to just anybody
J: Imagine if word got out
J: Carter would never let me hear the end of it

E: He sounds like a pretty nice guy.
E: Can't wait to meet him someday.

J: Oh, that's right, you haven't met him yet, have you?
J: For some reason I keep thinking you have
J: I'm sorry all you hear about him is from me

E: That's okay, I don't mind at all
E: At this rate, I don't think I want to meet him.
E: I don't mind if you vent. Seems like an all around stressful situation.

J: Which is why I honestly prefer not talking about him much
J: Have you eaten breakfast yet?

E: No, actually. Good reminder.
E: Have you ever been so engrossed in work that you forget that you're hungry?
E: Guilty.

J: More times than I can count, honestly
J: When I am writing, food doesn't exist

E: I'll do us both a favor then by having you stop writing so you can eat too.

J: Texting doesn't count

E: So it wouldn't count if you texted a story then? Still not considered writing?

J: Voice memos
J: Are a thing

E: I'll do you one better.

Evaline then sat up straight and quickly looked at herself through her camera to make sure she looked at least somewhat presentable. Aside from the dark circles under her eyes and some paint on her skin, she looked okay. Still, she quickly brushed her hair with her fingers before opening the FaceTime app and calling him.

He picked up the call, and the camera wasn't facing him at first.

"Hold on a second," he said. "I've got one contact left."

She could see his elbow come into frame. His phone was probably set down on the bathroom sink.

Evaline sat comfortable on her couch, propping one knee up so she could lean her hand against it as she held her phone. She pursed her lips, watching nothing from the receiving end.

"Great view," she said.

James picked up the phone and turned it towards his face. He flashed her a tired smile.

"Now I can see," he said. His voice sounded lower than usual and a little hoarse, very much like he'd just woken up.

"...Better than voice memos?" she said with a little laugh at the back of her throat.

"Yes," he said. "Much better." He paused, and it looked like he set the phone down again but somewhere else in front of him, and it was angled up towards him so she could see him and the very edge of the sink.

"I hope you don't mind me talking while I get ready," he said, grabbing something out of the frame. It was a bottle that he sprayed into his hands, and it looked like foamy hair product. He started running it through his hair.

"I don't mind," she said with a small smile as she took in his surroundings. "Gelling your hair?"

"Not gelling," he said. "It just does whatever it wants if I don't put anything in it."

"Oh right." She then paused her video to go back to his text message, scrolling up to the picture he sent earlier. "I saw that in the picture you sent. I should make that your contact picture."

James laughed, but it sounded like he was trying to keep below a certain volume. Probably so he didn't wake Carter.

"As long as you don't post it somewhere on social media," he said.

"Not unless I need to blackmail you," Evaline joked as she finished setting his new contact picture and then returned to the call. "Also, we don't have to FaceTime if you think you'll wake up... you know."

"He sleeps like a dead man," James said, tilting his head as he looked in the mirror, checking the back of his head. "I'm just being cautious."

She paused for a moment, watching him. Because there wasn't really that much else to see.

"Well, you know how deep sounds carry. And your voice sounds even deeper, so I wouldn't want you to face his morning wrath."

It looked like James suppressed a laugh and a smile, and he glanced back at the screen. "He's not that bad," he said. "Besides, if he does wake up he can mind his own damn business."

Evaline laughed through her nose. "I wish I had your morning energy," she said as she got up and moved to the kitchen, taking her phone with her. "Ever say that to his face?"

James hummed, taking out what looked like a facewash or something.

"Usually when he's drunk," James said. "Which is like, half the time."

"How did you two meet, anyways?" she asked as she picked up an apple from the fruit basket. She'd eat something more fulfilling after the call.

"Well, we've known each other since before college, actually," he said as he started rubbing the facewash on his face. "Back in highschool. I guess you could say we used to be best friends. When we both ended up going to HPU, it worked out for us to room together. It made sense at the time, and it's just... kind of stayed that way ever since."

He then paused, turned on the sink and started washing his face.

While James talked, Evaline leaned over her kitchen counter and took a bite of her apple, taking her time to chew and swallow since he couldn't immediately answer anyways.

"Did he become a different person in college?" she asked. "Surely you must have known what he'd be like if you both were close."

James was quiet for a moment as he straightened back up and started drying his face off with a towel. When he set it aside, he glanced back at the screen.

"He has changed over the years," James said. "In little ways, at first. I don't know. He used to be a lot nicer to be around."

James picked up the phone, bringing it closer to his face. The background shifted around him, and it looked like he was walking to a different room.

"Sorry to hear that," Evaline said softly, her brows drawn together in slight worry. "At least... you're almost done with school. You'll graduate and won't have to renew another lease with him."

James closed a door behind him. It looked like he was probably in his room.

"And after that he should be off to law school--" James set the phone down again, this time on a higher shelf. "--which I'm not going to, so. That'll be that."

She could hear what sounded like a drawer opening, and he bent down. His phone was probably on top of his dresser.

"That'll be that," she murmured back. "But anyways, we don't have to talk about him. I'm more interested in your morning routine. What are you doing now?"

"Well, I'm about to turn the camera away as I get dressed," James said, pulling something else out of a drawer. "I already had breakfast. I usually do that first."

Evaline laughed. "Yeah, okay, fair enough."

She was about to tease him and say that she wasn't going to pay him the $20/hour rate that the nude models get during studio sessions, but then thought better of it. James then turned the camera so it was facing the ceiling.

"What did you eat for breakfast?" she asked instead, keeping the camera to her face even though now she saw ceiling.

"Uhhh," he said, pausing for a moment. "Cereal. And an orange."

"Shame, we could have eaten breakfast together," she said as she took another bite of her apple.

"I could eat something else small," James said. "Second breakfast."

"No, no," Evaline said quickly, hovering her hand over her mouth since she didn't wait to fully chew and swallow yet. "Save your food and money. You'll need it."

"You make it sound like something's going to happen," James said, his voice a little muffled.

She paused to finally swallow down the bite. "Maybe," she said with a hint of a grin.

"Maybe what?"

"It's nothing, really," she said nonchalantly. "But I'm coming back to HPU next week for another project. So." She took another bite, wishing she could see the look on his face, but the delivery was too good to pass.

James grabbed the phone, and it shook for a moment before it steadied in his hands. He was looking at her with a small grin.

"Next week, huh?" he asked.

"Mmmhmm," Evaline hummed, keeping the casual tone. "Next Friday. I'm taking a bus down this time. Hooray for university stipend money."

"Yay money," James said as the background behind him moved again. It looked like he picked something up and then left the room again.

"Thanks for the heads' up, though," James said. "I'll do what I can to make some time for you while you're here."

"It's no problem if you can't though," she said as she twirled a small strand of her hair with her finger. "Since you're really, really busy and all."

James looked down at the screen with a small smile.

"I can make time," he said.

"Funny," she said with a small smile. "I can too. Guess it all worked out."

"It's fate," he said, trying and failing to bite back an amused smile.

"How poetic," Evaline said, failing to bite back her own smile. "But I expected nothing less from you."

"I'm glad I have a good track record," James said as she caught a glimpse of a refrigerator in the background. He was in the kitchen.

Evaline narrowed her eyes, bringing the screen a little closer. "I thought you already ate," she said.

James set the phone down abruptly, and she could hear a faucet go on and off. He lifted the phone back up from an arm's length away with a cup of water in his hands.

"Wa. Ter," he said in two distinct syllables.

"Haven't heard of that one. Thanks for teaching me," she said sarcastically through a small smile, and then glanced at her own fridge.

She should probably get ready and make breakfast anyways. Plus, she was still wearing her painting clothes, and she had to check on the paitings drying on the balcony to make sure they were fully dried before class. If not, she'd have to take dry it with a hair dryer, and that could take some time. Not to mention putting everything away and then take the bus down to campus.

It was nice, though, to talk to James and be able to see his face again. She wished she could make more time in this moment too, but they'll have more times in the future to see each other. And next week, in person.

"I should probably get ready," she said as she looked back on the screen. "I have to make breakfast and check on my paintings. And not wear these overalls covered in paint."

"Isn't that like, an art student look, though?" James asked. "I'm sure you could own it."

"I thought so too, until I learned that wearing paint clothes means you only finished a project last minute. Can't have them thinking that."

"Oh, for sure," James said. "We can't have that. Well, I won't keep you. You can go get ready."

"I guess, though," Evaline mused as she started to walk to her room. "I could just put the phone down and have it face the ceiling."

James laughed a little. "You could. If you want to keep talking."

"Maybe for a bit," she said with a smile as she entered her room and set the phone down on top of her desk, letting it face up towards the ceiling. "Otherwise I might fall asleep putting on clothes."

"What a tragedy," James said sarcastically, but with a small smirk.

Evaline picked up the clothes she wore yesterday, figuring it was relatively low risk since she saw different people on M-W-F schedules than T-Th. She started to change as she heard James continue talking.

"So what project were you working on all night?" James asked.

"It was two paintings," she said. "Not a big canvas, but the stills had to -- ironically -- be about moving subjects, and it had to display the perception of time. So it took a lot longer than I thought. I couldn't just photograph it."

"Wow. That sounds kind of complicated. And time consuming," James commented.

"A little, but hey, got it in before the due date. I can show what it looks like when I'm done."

"Oh, yeah, please do," James said. "I want to see this project that stole away your sleep."

Evaline laughed lightly as she pulled the new shirt over her head. "Ironically, one of the subjects I drew was the sunrise."

"I hope the sun is grateful," James said.

"I don't think it is. It sneaked up on me too fast. Very rude."

"And it didn't even give you a thank you." There was a pause. "You can't see me but I'm shaking my head."

"Thanks for the visual."

"I thought it was relevant. Just helping out."

Evaline finished buttoning her pants and then walked back over to the phone, picking it up and then flashing him a quick peace sign. James replied with a brief flash of his teeth.

"Hello again," she said as she quickly picked up the overalls from the floor and tossed it in her hamper. "I'll show you what it looks like real quick."

She walked him back out the hall and then turned the camera around, sliding the glass door and revealing the city skyline in the background. There was a chair and blanket, and several potted plants. What took up the most space, though, was the tarp on the ground with two canvases drying under the sun.

"That's the sunrise one," she said, pointing at the painting that was the view of her balcony, but a bit blurry as the watercolor effects seemed to age with the painting, colors ranging from dusk to morning.

"And that one is a cat," she said, pointing to the other painting. It was an adult, muscular, orange tabby painted while it was running.

"Those are really good," James said. She could see he was holding the camera a little closer to his face to get a better look. "Is the cat... yours?" he asked.

"She... wasn't, really," Evaline said with a small laugh in her voice, camera still pointed at the cat painting. "Not until this painting. But now she lives with me. For now."

"You took in a feral cat?" James asked.

"Stray cat," she corrected.

"Ah, that does make a difference," James said. "What did you name her? If you've given her a name, that is."

"Ellie," she answered, her finger pointing at the cat's forehead. "She's got an L-shaped mark on her head."

"Aww," James said. "That's cute. Where's she at? In your apartment, I mean."

"I'll show you. And might as well give you the grand tour of my tiny studio since I'll have to walk all over to find her anyways."

With the camera still facing out, Evaline stepped back into the living room and slid the doors behind her again. She briefly showed the living room, then the kitchen, and then walked down the short hall to her room. It wasn't anything fancy, although it was a tad messy since she had some papers laid out. She also hadn't finished hanging up some of her work yet, so it was leaning against walls instead of hung up. Ellie was curled up on her bed, asleep.

"Here she is," she said as she sat on her bed and gave her some pets, angling the phone so that James could see.

"I'm living vicariously through you as you pet her," James said with a smile. "She seems like a sweetheart."

Evaline smiled, giving her a scratch behind her ear. It didn't seem to disturb her sleep, although her ear did twitch.

"Now I guess I have to come down. Just to meet Ellie, obviously," he said.

James couldn't see it, but she grinned and raised a brow.

"Is that so?" she said nonchalantly. "Not for any other reason?"

"Also to make money as a clothed model," he said. She waited as there was a small pause.

"And to see you. Obviously."

Evaline slowed her pets as she felt her cheeks flush a little from that, and she couldn't help but suddenly feel on edge. She pushed it down for now and decided to turn the camera back around when the feelings went away.

"I think I could..." She paused and squinted, thinking back on their words. "Make time."

James chuckled.

"Lucky me," he said. "It might take me a bit to plan and iron everything out so I can come, but when I have the details nailed down, I'll let you know. How's that sound?"

"Alternatively, when I see you next week, we can figure it out together so you don't have to do it all yourself. How does that sound?" she shot back.

She watched as James's focused, thoughtful expression softened into a small smile and he nodded.

"Better," he said. "Let's do that."

"Okay. It's a..."

She immediately faltered, almost saying the phrase out of habit.

"Plan?" James offered.

"Yeah," she said quickly. "We finish each other's...?"

"...Sentences," James said with a little laugh.

"Exactly."

"I will say, I was not expecting you to make a Frozen reference," James said, laughing again.

Evaline laughed too. Maybe a little too loudly and too much. "Okay, and you also butchered the quote. But at least you picked up on it."

"It felt wrong to say sandwiches," James said. "I had to be original."

"Riiiight, original, no cliches here," she murmured as she was already walking out of the room, into the kitchen. "Yeah, speaking of sandwiches, I um -- should probably actually get ready. Food and things. You know."

"Perfect transition. I'll need to get going to leave for class soon anyway, so it all works out. It was good talking to you, Evaline," he said. "Take care."

"Yeah," she said softly. "Thanks for picking up. And answering. And -- yeah, okay. I'll see you next week!"

"See you!"

Evaline quickly hung up and then basically dropped her phone on the counter, feeling the heat return to her head as she nervously laughed.

"Yes, let me just make sandwiches at 7am!" she said to herself in a harsh voice, rubbing her face and then deeply sighing.

At least she was awake.

And will definitely be awake through class now.



James was rolling out a punches, letting the punching bag sway back and forth with each hit. He had his headphones in, and he was listening to an audiobook talking about the fall of the Berlin wall, but at some point, he stopped actively listening and it became background noise.

The gym that he went to was a little out of the way, and he picked it because it wasn't closeby. He didn't want to run into anyone he knew from school, and he didn't really care for anyone to know that he liked punching things in his off time to let off steam.

It helped him loosen up and refocus. Sometimes he was able to get homework done while working out, and sometimes he'd check out and have to re-listen. He didn't mind that, though. It was just to have something to listen to (and it kept people from talking to him - not that the gym was busy enough for that most of the time).

He was caught up in the movements, and just as his fist hit the punching bag, he heard the audiobook cut to a sudden stop, and his phone started ringing loudly.

He stopped, breathing hard, and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Oh. Shit. It was Evaline.

Hurriedly, he rushed into the hall. Fortunately, it was empty for the moment, and the walls were sparsely decorated. Generic enough to not be obvious. He leaned back against a blank space on the wall and quickly swept his hair back, not sure how sweaty he looked. He didn't really have time to check.

Nervous, he answered the call, and Evaline's face popped up on the screen.

Thankfully, the gym had wifi.

"Hey!" she said with a smile, looking distracted. "Sorry for not texting beforehand. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."

He could tell that she was outside since the sky and street was behind her, and he could hear the wind rushing by as she talked. She held the phone in front of her as she walked, giving him and the path ahead of her equal attention. Her hair was pulled back and looked to be a little messy, and since she didn't hold the camera up high, he could see that she was wearing an athletic tank top.

What a coincidence.

He smiled. "It's okay. What's up?"

Evaline smiled back, shakily bringing the camera a little closer. "I took a different path around the city and saw something I thought you'd like. Figured I'd show it to you instead of sending a picture. For the full experience."

She turned the camera around and then walked a few more steps before she finally panned to what she wanted to show him.

It was of an alley, deocrated with string lights and tables and resturants. But what she mostly focused on was what was painted on the alley wall.

It was of a giant mural, of a big farm with rolling fields and horses, cattle, and other animals.

"Who says the city doesn't bring farm life?" she joked as she panned across.

That was not what he'd been expecting to see, and he couldn't help but laugh as he took in the picture of the farm.

"If you look closely you can see me," he joked back. "Right up by the little farmhouse."

"Let me see... Oh, right. There you are!" On his screen, he could see her pointing at an old farmer driving a tractor on the fields.

"They captured me perfectly," he said with laughter in his voice.

"And -- look, look," she said as she moved quickly down the mural, now panning towards the part where the farm turned to nature, and wild horses ran in a pack. She pointed at one with a golden coat.

"That one looks like your horse."

"Elliot! Running wild and free," James said.

"And in the city! Who'd have thought?"

She turned the camera back to her face and began to walk down the alley, smilling and looking out ahead of her.

"Anyways. Thought I'd steal a few minutes out of our day so you could see that," she said.

"Worth it," James replied.

Evaline held the phone a little closer and spent more time studying him like she was just picking up what he looked like for the first time.

"Where are you, anyways?" she asked. "It doesn't look like you're in your room."

"Astute observation," James said. "I'm actually uh -- at a secure location."

He couldn't finish the joke. He broke into a smile and sighed, shaking his head.

"How ominous," she said with a smirk.

"I'm at the gym," he admitted.

"Oh. Well, that explains why you look like you... exercised."

"I'm sweaty, I know," he said.

Evaline let out a small laugh. "What a coincidence, because I called you in the middle of my jog. It's a better view outside, though."

"I'm sure it is," James said, glancing out the window.

She paused for a moment, glancing back and forth between him and she screen. It looked like she was slowing down, maybe to find somewhere to stand.

"Why keep it a secret?" she asked without looking at the camera.

"I kind of like not running into people I know while working out," he said.

"Do FaceTime calls count as running into you?"

James smirked at the screen and narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're the exception," he said.

Evaline looked down for a moment and chuckled as she finally held the camera still. "I'm... honored, I think."

James laughed lightly and reached up to brush his hair out of his face again, as some of it fell forward onto his forehead.

"This is privileged information," he said in a joking tone. "You have to keep it under wraps. No one can know I work out. I'm just a books and library sort of guy. Can't have you ruining my reputation."

Evaline smiled and laughed a little, pausing before she talked again. "...Did you, um, hurt your hand?" she asked instead, changing the subject.

"What?"

James paused, and a brief look of confusion crossed his face before he looked down at his hand.

"Oh," he said with a little laugh. "No, uh--" he brought his hand back into the frame and wiggled his fingers. "Punching bags."

"Ahhhh." She looked away from the camera for a moment, but then returned with a grin. "I'll keep this under wraps as well. Can't have anyone knowing that the books and library guy can throw fast punches."

James laughed a short, quick laugh. This was why Carter never knew. Because he would probably try to fight "for fun." He already had enough of Carter's drunken wrestling.

"It's a good thing we don't have any mutual friends or anything," James said sarcastically.

"Yeah. It'd be a shame if I screenshotted you now and then sent it off to our nonexistent mutual friends," she teased back.

"Wooooooooooooow, so you weren't kidding about the blackmail, huh?" James joked.

Evaline laughed. "I'm full of surprises." She paused for a moment. "Like this call. But, um - I'll let you get back to it. Punching and all."

"Have a nice rest of your jog, too," he said.

"Thanks, and I'll... maaaaybe see you... tomorrow? Saturday? This weekend?"

"I've cleared saturday evening," he said. "You're free then, I hope?"

"I am now," she said, but then quickly added, "I mean, I'm free pretty much the whole weekend, so, sure, yeah, that works."

James laughed a little. "As long as it isn't trouble for you."

Evaline shook her head. "No, it works. Okay." She laughed a little too. "See you then. Off screen."

James smiled. "See you. Goodbye until then, Evaline."

"...Bye James," she said with a small smile, then hung up.

James watched as the call disappeared from the screen and he paused for a moment, looking out into the hall. Without him clicking anything, the audiobook started up again, and it made him twitch a little in surprise. He quickly put it on pause and walked back into the gym.

He was excited to see Evaline.

Daniel knew that Mothman realistically wouldn't be found anywhere near HPU, but someone on the forum had mentioned a sighting recently in HPU's area. A quick check with Google Maps showed that it wasn't all that far away; Daniel could easily make it there and back. Plus, he was bored. Benji was off writing another article for The Skeptic—not that Daniel was supposed to know about that—so he couldn't spend time with his roommate. Going to a nice, abandoned building that had probably been condemned ages ago sounded like the perfect break from school work.

There wasn't really any one thing that Daniel needed to bring when hunting cryptids. A backpack full of snacks, an emergency portable charger, and a trusty flashlight with spare batteries never hurt. He also had a spiritbox for kicks, but he never really used it—he just thought it was funny after he saw a clip of it on YouTube and had wanted to test it out in places ever since.

Armed with his supplies, Daniel made his way to the abandoned house. By the time he got there, it was twilight. Daniel could just barely make out the setting sun on the horizon as he slipped inside. He ignored the signs warning people not to enter, and also ignored the graffiti someone had put right near the doorway.

Mothman wouldn't be inside of a building, but the cryptid had been spotted from one of the windows on the top floor. If he could just figure out how to safely navigate his way up there, he'd be all set. It could theoretically be dark by then, but then he had the bonus of seeing the stars out the window, too.

Now, where were the stairs?

Jerica was glad it was a nice day. That was something, at least. But it was starting to get dark and she was tired and this was a stupid dare. Her shoulder was finally good enough that the atheletic physical therapist allowed her to go back to running drills and doing lower-body conditioning, but she still wasn't allowed to actually practice or do any upperbody strength training.

It sucked.

But there was nothing she could do about it. Coach was resolute that she was only allowed to do what the physicial therapist said she could do, and nothing more. And the physical therapist was resolute in his opinions, despite her best efforts to bribe him.

But today had actually been rigorous. She was starting to get a bit slow from the several weeks she hadn't been able to condition properly. But today they were doing agility drills, which she was actually able to do. So lots of running and footwork and jumping. She was exhausted and already a bit sore.

And then.

Somehow they got on the topic of this super-spooky haunted house a few miles from campus. The whole team was in on the teasing and running their mouths, then daring each other to go to it. And then the daring turned to bribing, and before she knew it Davey had bet her $50 that she was too scared to go.

So now she was going.

The sun had already long-since set, and the blue-ish hue that enveloped the world just before true darkness had set in. She walked up to the decrepit fence and turned and took a selfie with the house in the background and sent it to Davey.


She sighed deeply, but slid through a hole in the fence and walked up to the entrance. It was spooky. It felt like her legs were fighting her more and more with each step that she took, unwilling to go to... that... place. But she steeled her nerves and went to the entryway, then snapped another selfie and sent it to Davey too.

He still wasn't happy, and was threatening not to give her the money if she didn't go all the way inside and find something she could take a selfie with to prove it.

Jerica peered inside uneasily. She'd already walked so far to get that stupid money. There was no point in her having done all this if she was just going to chicken out now. And, why shouldn't she go in? It was just a house. Ghosts weren't real. And she could rub the whole teams' faces into it tomorrow.

She steeled her nerves and took a deep inside. See? It's not so bad. She looked around as best as she could. It looked like she'd come in the back door, so she was curious what the other side of the house looked like. Just a simple walk through. An evidence selfie. And then a quick retreat.

Jerica had her phone flashlight on as she picked her way through the dank, mildew-y house. She finally found a weird wooden statue next to a grandfather clock and decided it was the perfect selfie op. The only problem was that she had to turn off her light to get her photos. There's nothing here. It's fine. Just take the picture.

Jerica flicked the light off and opened her photos and did her best to get the right angle -- not that she could see in the darkness -- and then

CRASH

"Oh hell no!" Jerica turned towards her left -- opposite where the sound came from -- and sprinted as fast as humanly possible.

Daniel hadn't gotten all that far in his search for the stairs, but he had discovered a few forgotten pieces of furniture here and there. One piece of furniture in particular had caught his eye: a random, tiny table that had a vase sitting on it. Neither the vase or the table were all that special, but Daniel had a sneaking suspicion it would be quick to fall over if too much pressure was applied to it.

Right after he had that thought, he heard something moving elsewhere in the house. It was probably just a mouse, but instinct prevailed over his desire to find the stairs. He turned around to catch a glimpse of the noise's source.

And then his backpack hit the very edge of the table.

Oh, fu-

Daniel spun around again, frantically trying to catch the vase before it could hit the ground. He wasn't able to save the table, but he somehow managed to keep the vase from shattering.

There was a crash as the table slammed into the ground.

Then there was noise again, coming from the same direction as before. Daniel was too busy trying to figure out where to put the vase down to look back this time. The only warning he got was the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway he was in.

Something suddenly slammed into him.

Daniel wobbled, the vase precariously balanced in his hands. He stumbled back—forward?—away from whoever or whatever had just hit him, trying to keep the vase from hitting the wall as he got way too close to it for comfort. He spun around again, starting to get dizzy from said spinning, and felt his backpack go bumping up against the wall.

The force was just enough to switch the spirit box on. A painfully loud and obnoxious static sound filled the hallway. If he hadn't been holding the vase, he would have covered his ears.



Jerica's heart was in her ears now, entire body throbbing with each beat. Her chest was too tight to draw a breath. She looked over her shoulder to make sure that whatever had been chasing her wasn't gaining on her.

And then she slammed face-first into something in front of her.

A warm something.

That staggered forward and then whirled around on her. A horrific static-y sound stabbed through her ears, further overwhelming her senses. Her eyes landed for the briefest moment on a monster with glowing red eyes and she saw a glint of fangs.

She screamed and slammed her palms into its shoulder to force it back, then stumbled backward as fast as she could -- away from it and closer to the entrance, but unwilling to turn her back on it. Which was a mistake. She tripped over a big box next to the wall and landed flat on her back, still screaming.



Someone was screaming.

The very small part of Daniel that had been secretly hoping that Mothman had just slammed into him was quickly squashed; he didn't think Mothman was much of a screamer. And while he couldn't recognize a person from the sound of their scream, he could guess that they were right around his age.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" he shouted over the sound of the static. His ears were pounding from the noise now. He really needed to turn the spirit box off. But his hands were still full with the vase, so how was he going to get to something tucked inside of his backpack.

He quickly glanced around.

There wasn't anything nearby that he could put the vase on, so he quickly placed it on the floor and started fumbling for his backpack. When he finally had the straps off, he looked over at the person who had bumped into him—and caught a glimpse of a very familiar face.

"Jerica?" he managed to get out the moment he pulled out the spirit box. He flicked off the box and stuck it right back into his bag.



Jerica scrambled upright as fast as she possibly could -- still going backward before she even fully managed to get her feet under her. Her back slammed into the wall and she was about to turn the corner to sprint away when she... heard her name?

Her head snapped back towards the monster it suddenly made the static stop and she saw... Daniel?

Well, that was confusing.

And humiliating.

Jerica didn't know how to handle embarrassment -- so it quickly morphed to anger instead.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" she snarled.



Daniel blinked.

"I could ask you that question," he pointed out, slipping his backpack on again. Now that the crisis was averted and Jerica was no longer screaming, he turned his attention to the overturned table.

He put his foot underneath its single leg and kicked it up. Grabbing the leg in one hand, he put the table down so it was upright again.

"I'm looking for a cryptid," Daniel said. It was only afterwards that he wondered if he should have said anything. It wasn't like it was weird to come here for something like that; Jerica had to have a reason for being here, too. But he knew cryptids weren't the most common interest out there, and he hadn't really brought it up to anyone else before.

He grabbed the vase.

"I was trying to find the stairs," he said. "But I only just got here, so I haven't had much luck."



Jerica didn't know how to process all of this. She forced herself to take several deep breaths as Daniel righted the table and explained himself. She forced her shoulders to relax, deciding she'd just play it cool. The static was pretty loud. She could play this off.

She looked at the table and back at him. Had he...?

"Did you knock that over?" she nodded towards the table, crossing her arms. If he hadn't then they were still screwed by whatever had made the noise.



He placed the vase down.

"I did," he confirmed. He glanced back down the hallway, suddenly putting the pieces together. "I got startled when I heard something moving in that direction, but I'm guessing that was you?"



"Yeah." Jerica shrugged defensively. The embarrassment was starting to seep back into her. "I mean, I wasn't scared. I just, you know, heard a crash and figured I should... go... see what had made it. Investigate. You know?"



"I understand," Daniel was quick to agree. "You definitely weren't scared."



He was pretty sure she had been scared, but also knew that Jerica would hate that he had realized that. It would be good to change the topic before she figured out that he had seen right through her.

"You never answered my question earlier," he said. "You know why I'm here, but I don't know why you're here."



Jerica eyed him for a moment. It was a weak explanation and she knew it. But he didn't seem interested in calling her on it. So, she supposed she didn't really need to threaten him into keeping his mouth shut about it.

"Money." She shrugged, feeling a little chagrined that she was still doing stupid middle school dares for money. But, she doubted she was ever going to outgrow that, if she was being honest with herself. "Davey's gonna give me fifty bucks if I find something to take a selfie with in here."

Wonder if he'd count as something to take the selfie with? She quickly shook the thought away. She had exactly zero interest in any of the team knowing there had been a witness, because that ran the risk of Daniel telling them he caught her running away like a scared little girl and that was... no.

She looked at him, flushing a bit, as she remembered their interaction at the game a few weeks ago. The fact that he gave her money. That she still owed him for. And now here he was seeing that she was, as usual, broke again and doing stupid stuff for money. She shrugged again.



He wasn't sure why she was getting flustered, but his eyes still lit up when he realized she was doing a dare.

"This is a good place for a dare," Daniel commented. "It's been awhile since I've done a good one—and even longer since I came to a place like this for one. Do you need help finding something to take a selfie with? There's all sorts of weird stuff in here."



Jerica blinked at him. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting -- maybe to be mocked for how scared she'd been or scoffed at for still being immature enough to take dares. But he was just... going along with it?

"Uh... I mean... yeah. Sure." She hesitated, deciding to force humor into the situation to hopefully get her feeling more in control than she currently did. "I'm guessing you can't help me find the stairs though..." She flashed a playful grin.



He grinned back.

"That's the only thing I can't find," he agreed. He scanned the hallway. There had to be something interesting there to take a selfie with. But no matter where he looked, he wasn't able to spot anything that really stuck out. They'd have to find the stairs or enter one of the likely dust-covered rooms. "Do you have anything in mind?"



"I mean... I could probably just take him that vase for proof, honestly," Jerica said, thinking outloud as she eyed it. She glanced back at Daniel. She didn't really know what he was here for, but the word sounded cool, and was clearly something he was interested in. "Or... uh... I mean. Did you find any of the cryptids yet? Maybe one of those?"



Hearing her mention cryptids took him by surprise, but he did his best not to show it.

"Not yet," he admitted. "I wasn't actually sure I'd find one here. There were rumors that someone had seen something like Mothman, but..."

He sighed.

"...It's not really the right place for Mothman," he said. "The region's all wrong. It would be cool to take a selfie with him, though."

He grabbed the vase from the table.

"But this a good second option," he said, holding it out to her.



"Wait, so, like..." She took the vase, but realized that she truly didn't know what a cryptid actually was. She hesitated. Her brain was thinking like... tunnels? Maybe? Or were those catacombs? Or... "Mothman's that uhhh glowy-red-eye dude from the uhh point... pleasant? or some shit?"

She decided to cut her losses and just stop talking, hoping he'd say something she understood.



He immediately perked up.

"He is!" he confirmed. "He doesn't exactly look like a moth, but he does have giant moth-like wings and red eyes. He's supposed to be from Point Pleasant, but there's been rumors of him appearing in other places, too. I've heard of him appearing in places as far away as Chicago."

The light had faded outside. Now that night had finally fallen, Daniel reached into his backpack and pulled out his flashlight. It wouldn't hurt to use it now.

He flicked it on.

"Mothman is my favorite cryptid," Daniel said, shining the light down the hallway, "but I've been interested in the Jersey Devil for longer. I actually have the same name as the person that the myth supposedly came from."



Jerica nodded slowly. She still didn't understand, but decided she was going to try to bullshit it anyway. Better than having to admit she didn't know. "Oh, yeah, that's cool. There's like, a lot. I like how, you know, different they all are?"

Hopefully.



Her vague answer brought him back to reality.

He wasn't really embarrassed about gushing about cryptids to her, but he could tell that she didn't really know all that much about them. He had been assuming that when he mentioned Mothman and the Jersey Devil, but her lack of knowledge was finally sinking in.

"It's okay if you don't know about cryptids," he reassured her, giving her a comforting smile. "Most people don't know much about them. They might recognize a few names, but they usually don't know more than that."

Heat rushed to his cheeks. Feeling surprisingly sheepish and uncharacteristically shy, he glanced down at the ground. "I'm...I'm just grateful you know something about Mothman. And that you let me ramble about cryptids."



"Oh, yeah, for sure, dude," Jerica said quickly, glad that he didn't seem annoyed by her not knowing much. "I mean you like, came to my game for me when like... I don't think most of y'all actually like football." She laughed a bit and grinned, but then sobered, a weird pang of guilt coming over again. "Which, like, thanks for that by the way. I... like... you didn't have to. And like... if..."

She trailed off, not really sure how to finish that statement. She didn't want to offend him by offering to pay him back or promising the $50 she was getting from this to him. But at the same time, she still felt so guilty for having taken his money. Especially since they didn't really know each other for real.

"Are you sure that was okay?" she asked, deciding to go that route instead of trying to convince him to let her pay him back. "Like for real, for real?"



"Why wouldn't it be okay?" he asked. "I don't know anything about football, but it was fun watching you play-"

He faltered. She wasn't talking about him going to the game, was she? She was talking about the money he had given her. Which hadn't really been a big deal to him, but it must have been a big deal to her if she was bringing it up now.

"I really didn't mind giving you that money," he said. "I could get by without it."



"Yeah, but, like, you shouldn't have to." Jerica rubbed the back of her neck. "You shouldn't lose money just because I'm dumb. It's like... I can cover it, you know? Like, I'm getting like fifty bucks tonight, and I could..." she was getting flustered again. "I'm just saying you shouldn't feel pressured to fix my stupidity because it's not fixable. And I can pay you back. You can un-make the choice to give me the money if you wanna. It's really okay if you want to. We chill."



"Hey," Daniel sternly said. "You're not dumb. You didn't know about the rule, and they shouldn't have made you pay that, anyways."

He faltered again.

He had never truly felt embarrassed about how much money his family had, but he had never talked to someone who was so intent on paying him back. He didn't want to dismiss Jerica's concerns, but he also didn't want her to worry anymore about needing to make things up to him.

"I, uh, don't really mention this to anyone," he hesitantly admitted. "But my family is well-off. I have twelve siblings and none of us had to worry about paying for college, so you can probably guess how much money we have."

He took a deep breath.

"I don't plan on keeping it all," he said. "I actually want to give my share of it away when I'm done with college, just in case my classes cost more than I think they will now. But, in the meantime, I'm happy to share my money with my friends. I know it sounds...silly, but that's how I've always wanted to use my money."



"I don't think that's silly," Jerica answered quickly. She couldn't really comprehend having enough money to pay for thirteen college educations -- she wasn't really sure she was going to make that much money in her entire life. But she definitely didn't want to put him in a position where he felt awkward about being generous. "I mean it's like -- your money, you know? Use it how you want. I just... I don't know. That's a lot of money and just wanted to make sure it was okay, you know? Cause it's okay if it's not."



He nodded.

"I understand," he said. "But it really is okay-"

His stomach, not understanding the importance of his reassurance, decided now was the perfect time to start making noises. Even though he had brought some snacks, he was starving. Lunch felt like an eternity ago; he needed an actual meal now. Maybe he should have grabbed dinner at the dining hall before coming here.



Jerica smirked as she heard Daniel's stomach rumble. She was also hungry. She'd come here straight after practice, and was now starting to regret that decision. She'd wanted to get here before it got too dark -- but now, here they were. In the dark anyway. And now hungry, too.

She thought about suggesting they go grab something to eat, then remembered that the fifty bucks was coming tomorrow and she, in fact, didn't have any money on her just then. It was a several-mile walk and she figured he'd decline, but thought she'd throw it out there.

"Me too. I've uh got some uh..." Jerica hesitated, trying to think of what she'd seen in the fridge this morning and guess at what of it Rek might have already eaten. "It's like chicken and bacon and ranch over some pasta. Pretty good. If you wanna like, come get some? Or whatever, no pressure."



Daniel grinned.

"That sounds delicious," he said. He glanced back at his backpack. "I also have some granola bars and beef jerky, if you want a little more variety."

He reached into his pocket for his phone.

"I can get us an Uber," he offered.



"That sounds amazing," Jerica answered, glad that he'd offered. She was tired and getting progressively sorer the longer she went without resting her muscles. "You can tell me about this Jersey dude while we wait."



His grin grew.

"Deal," he agreed.

He might not have found Mothman tonight, but he was going to consider this whole excursion to be a victory. After all, when else was he able to have free food with a friend and talk about cryptids?

After two months of playing tetris with their schedules, the starts finally aligned after all of their talk of going to the gym together, and now they had it set in stone. Every Sunday, Bo, Jerica, and Daniel were going to meet up at the gym and work out together.

Bo was excited. It was their first meet-up at the school gym together, and they all decided to meet up at the reasonable, not-going-to-kill-you-waking-up-for-it-but-still-early-enough-so-you-have-some-daytime-ahead-of-you time of noon.

Bo loaded up on a protein shake just before walking in to the gym early, getting his weights set up and picking a station for them all to use. He was wearing a simple green t-shirt with an applejacks logo on it and black gym shorts along with his sneaks. Nothing fancy.



It was Jerica who showed up first. She was wearing a plain blue tank and leggings and carrying a huge water bottle. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and she shouted across the gym, "BOBO!"

"JERJER!" Bo shouted back. A few heads lifted up briefly at their shouting, and then looked away, uninterested. People were going about their own things, as they should.

Bo waved Jerica over with a smile. He already had all his things either in the gym locker or sitting around the bench - aka his equally chunky water bottle.

He grabbed it off the floor just to show it off with an: "Eyyyyyy, we're matching!"

"Twinsies!" She clanked hers against his. "Cheers!"

Bo took that as his cue to take a quick sip of water, and then he set his water bottle back down.

"Cool, cool," he said. "So we're just waiting on Danny boy."

As if on cue, Bo saw the tall dude in question coming in through the entrance and waved at him. Daniel waved back. He wasn't carrying anything, save for his phone, student ID and dorm key. He was wearing a plain back t-shirt, faded jeans, and his usual combat boots.

"Bruhhhh," Jerica said as he approached. "You ever been to a gym before? What's with the jeans?"

"And the boots," Bo added - though the boots admittedly made more sense than the jeans. "I wouldn't wanna get sweaty in jeans."

Daniel shrugged.

"I haven't been to a lot of gyms before," he said, "and I don't have anything other than jeans. But they're comfortable, so I'll be fine."

"I would offer you a spare pair of shorts," Bo said. "But I don't think they'll fit anyway."

"I could give you some leggings," Jerica snickered.

Bo pursed his lips in thought and raised his brows, looking to Jerica like that was a fair, though maybe less desireable option.

Daniel grinned.

"I'm not sure I'd fit in those, either," he pointed out.

"Fair enough," Bo said with a nod. "No pain no gains."

"Exactly," Daniel agreed. He scanned the room. "So what are we doing first?"

"Let's start with a few simple workouts to get our blood flowin'," Bo said. "LET'S DO THE STAIR MACHINES!"





Jerica was glad they were starting with lower body stuff. She was mostly better and the staff physical therapist had cleared her to lift again, but her shoulder still felt vaguely unsteady when she did, so it was nice getting a slow start.

Before long, she was sweating and bending down to get her water before they moved to the bench.

"Okay, so who wants to go first?" Bo asked. "I'll spot ya. We'll start small and work our way up to play it safe."

"I vote Daniel goes first!" Jerica said quickly. She needed to see how high he could go, because she fully intended on only going one increment higher than him. Enough to gloat, but not enough to go full-out if she didn't absolutely have to. She looked at him, water bottle still opened. "Did you even bring water jeans-boy?"

Daniel shook his head, sweat clinging to his forehead. "I completely forgot to bring some--I thought I could get some water at the water fountain."

Bo, without announcement, shoved his water bottle into Daniel's hands.

"Bro, you gotta hydrate," Bo said. "I can refill. Drink up, bro."

Daniel looked guilty as he raised the water bottle to his lips. "Thanks. I'll have to bring one next time." After taking one big, several seconds long gulp, Daniel lowered the water bottle and wiped his face with the back of his hand. "I think you should go first, Jerica. I...need to catch my breath after our warming up. I can go after you and Bo go."

Bo patted Daniel hard on the back.

"That's okay, buddy," Bo said with a little smile. "Jerjer, you good to go?"

Jerica chewed on the inside of her lip. This wasn't going well. It was a convincing excuse, but she already knew she wasn't going to beat Bo, and now she didn't know what to expect from Daniel. But she forced a nonchalant shrug. "Pff, you know it. Let's go babyyyy."

She bit back a sigh and laid down on the bench.

"Okay, let's get you started," Bo said as he brought a bar over the bench, setting it down on the little holder as he slid weights on to either end.

Daniel just watched from the side, sipping on Bo's water bottle again before placing it on the ground next to Bo.

"Alright, we're starting you light, but I'll add more," Bo said. "Give it a go."

As Jerica lifted her arms to pull the bar down, Bo hovered his hands beneath it. Jerica easily did the rep, then waited for Bo to add more weight. They kept going, Bo being an excellent spot, as Jerica struggled progressively more and more with each new level added after they got up to the hundreds of pounds. But she did her best to pretend that she wasn't struggling and actively refused to grunt as she was doing the reps.

Her personal best to this point was 360, and that one certainly hadn't come easily to her. She was just now getting up to that general range, since she was lowkey offended that much of the rest of the team could out-lift her when she joined. Now, she was solidly middle of the pack. But middle of the pack wasn't acceptable here.

Or, she supposed, middle would be ideal. Just anything to beat Daniel.

Jerica couldn't hide the struggle as they started approaching her max. She still refused to grunt, but her arms were trembling and she was drenched in sweat, and she was sure her face was probably bright red. It always did that when she exerted herself.

It was at that moment that Bo came and gently took the bar from her, leading it to the stand to relieve her of the weight. It settled down with a clank.

"I think it's time to give Daniel a try," Bo said. "You've done great, Jer."

Daniel nodded in agreement.

"That was a lot to lift," he said. He glanced over at Bo. "But you should go first, Bo. I'm still feeling a little exhausted after our warm-ups. I can spot you so Jerica can get a break."

"Pff, I'm fine," Jerica argued, panting but not getting up from the bench. "I've done way more than that before. That's not my max."

She was at 355, just five pounds below her all time record. But they didn't know that. But, her shoulder was aching this time.

"I know, Jerjer," Bo said, gently patting her shoulder, like he was reading her mind. "You don't have to prove yourself. We're just working out for a good time. This ain't a competition. Besides, I WANNA GO NOW."

He was giving her an out. And her ego wanted to keep pushing, but she knew fully well she couldn't go much higher, so it was better to take the out rather than have to fail at a few pounds higher.

"Heh, yeah," she agreed, sitting up. "I mean if it was a competition I could go way higher. Like, by a lot. But we're just lifting."

She picked up her water and then went to lean against the wall and hope she didn't die.



Bo had benched a lot.

Jerica had, too, back before Bo and Daniel had to intervene and get her to stop so she didn't hurt herself. After Bo got off of the bench, Daniel knew that he was going to have to take his time if he wanted to truly beat the two of them. He also had a sneaking suspicion that Bo might have been able to press more than upwards of 500 lbs; he wasn't as red in the face as Jerica had been when she stopped.

Daniel took one last gulp of water and laid down on the bench.

"I'm ready," he said, trying to keep a straight face. He glanced over at Bo and Jerica. "Who's spotting me?"

"I can start," Jerica offered. "So you can catch your breath, Bobo. But I be feelin hella lazy, so maybe half n half?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine," Bo said as he got off the bench and patted Daniel's shoulder as he backed away. "You got this, bro."

Daniel nodded.

"Thanks," he said, giving Bo a grateful smile and trying his best not to feel too guilty about how Bo kept supporting him. He'd have to make it up to him after this was over. He turned to Jerica. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Sure." Jerica turned and removed the weights Bo had worked up to, bringing the weight back to what Bo had started with. "Let's see what you got, Dan-Dan."

Daniel grinned.

"Hopefully I won't disappoint," he said. Jerica started to put the weights on. Even though Daniel had been claiming he was absolutely exhausted, he didn't struggle with the first set of weights. He didn't have a reason too, yet. Most people didn't have a problem with this many weights.

But as Jerica put on more and more--and got closer to when she would switch with Bo--Daniel started taking more time to lift the weights up. He wasn't struggling like Jerica had been before she stopped, but it was clear he would reach his stopping point a little after the switch probably would happen.

Jerica was still pretending that she could handle as much as they could and more, but as they went upwards of 300 pounds she started running her mouth again. Trying to get out of this without bruising her ego. "Ugh, this is taking foreverrrrrr. Bobo, you wanna take this? I'll go get us some water."

"Yeah, for sure, Jer," Bo said as he came to take her place as spotter. "Go get your fluids."

He added a few more weights for Daniel, and then brought his hands under the bar, looking to Daniel.

"Okay, bro," he said. "Whenever you're ready."

Daniel thought for a moment.

"I'm ready," he said. Now that Bo was spotting him, it was time to start taking things a little more seriously. He had been playing this scenario out in his head ever since they made plans to meet up today. He hadn't been able to predict who would spot when, but he knew he needed some point where the change in benching ability would be noticeable. A switch in spotter was exactly what he had been hoping for.

Daniel benched the weights that Bo put on.

And then benched some more.

And some more.

And some more.

By the time he reached just around five hundred, he knew that Bo and Jerica had to have put the pieces together. Daniel hadn't really been tired after the stair machine, and hadn't really needed to take a break. He had just wanted to beat Jerica and mess with her a little. He might not have been able to come up with good nicknames on the fly like she could, but he did have a knack for pushing his body to extremes it probably shouldn't have been able to handle. When he passed Bo's weights by a good amount, he finally stopped.

Jerica was sulking by the wall, pretending that she wasn't sulking. She grumbled, "I've got the water if you need some."

Meanwhile, Bo was taking one of the weights off.

"You did great, man," he said with a genuine smile. "Wanna call it a day? I think we all did a good job. Time to water it up."

"Water sounds good to me," Daniel said, sitting up as the last weight was taken off and the bar was put back into place. He gave a little stretch as he got to his feet. "It's been a while since I've worked out like that."

Jerica was definitely sulking. She thrust Bo's water bottle towards Daniel without making eye contact, grumbling, "Yeah, you did fine I guess. Here."

Daniel grabbed the bottle and gulped down some water.

"Thanks," he said. After drinking for less time--and less frantically--than earlier, he handed the water bottle back to Bo. Bo smiled and nodded, taking a drink of his own.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but now I am HUNGIES," Bo said, patting his stomach loudly. "Imma head back to my place and make some food. You guys wanna come?"

"I'd never say no to free food," Daniel replied.

Bo turned to Jerica expectantly with a small smile.

"You know it!" she said, finally brightening a bit.

"Cool, cool," Bo said. "Lemme grab my stuff and we'll head out!"

Evaline arrived at HPU on Friday night, and she stayed at a hotel by the university, as subsidized by her own university. James told her that he was going to pick her up Saturday morning, although he didn't say where he was taking her, or what they were going to do. The uncertainty made her a little nervous, but she chose to not worry about it and instead enjoy the moment.

Although they texted (and now video chatted) on the regular, it had been over a month since she had seen him. It almost felt a little awkward when she entered his car the next morning, and they were back to having a normal face-to-face conversation. He didn't mention where he was going, and instead they caught up and mostly talked about her plans for the rest of the weekend. For now, she decided to not mention that she was coming in because Lordshire of all people was her (last minute) sponsor, because she didn't want him to detract from the conversation.

He later pulled up to a parking lot, and she could see the sign for the farmer's market. She smirked and let out a little laugh, figuring he chose this activity because she was vegan and preferred fresh food. She decided to not mention that she wasn't a hardcore health nut that vegans tended to be, but she did still appreciate the opportunity to come to a farmer's market. It had been a while since she went to one.

They walked through the stalls and vendors, and James stopped more than she did, and asked for samples whenever possible. Not for himself -- but for her, since he only asked for samples that were vegan-friendly. It was thoughtful, but also amusing to watch. He must have come here often since he seemed to be familiar with some of the people at the market, and he'd exchange hellos and some conversations. Evaline also had the pleasure of seeing his boss at a booth, who ended up giving James some fresh carrots so that he could spoil Elliot with it. Some other people he knew gave him other free items, like a small bag of candy or loaf of bread, and he shared it with her. Between this and all the other free samples they snagged, she was no longer hungry.

They both bought more food for later, and the hours stretched on as James walked her through the city and eventually to a nearby park. He claimed that there was a hill that not only gave a great view of the sunset, but of the city as well. It ended up being more of a spontaneous hike as they went up a steep hill, and she did fill a little silly from the spontaneity of it all since they were carrying a bag of food from the market, but she still chased him up it until she stood by his side at the top. She understood why he'd want to take her here.



Evaline caught her breath as she silently gazed at the view in front of her, and then she turned to James with a smile.

"You're full of surprises today, aren't you?" she said as a subtle thank you.

James turned to her, grinning.

"I hope you've liked the surprises," he said.

Evaline let out a small laugh, gaze settled back towards the sky. "I do like it," she said. "Thanks for today. It was nice."

Although, it wasn't over yet. They sat on the grass and snacked on some of the food items they bought from the market, continuing to talk and converse. James said a few funny stories that made her laugh, and she asked more about Elliot and the ranch, which sent him into a passionate speech. It was nice to to hear him talk about something he enjoyed, and as if he thought he was stealing all the time talking about himself, he asked to share some more about her hobbies as well.

Eventually they finished, and the sun was quickly setting, so they had to hike back down before it got too dark. It was faster to go down than up, so they made it back to his car in the nick of time. Evaline didn't want to pressure him by asking if he had any other plans after this, instead letting him drive to whatever location he planned to take her, which she assumed was back at her hotel.



James was glad for how the evening went so far. He'd enjoyed spending it with Evaline, and it seemed like she'd enjoyed herself. Once they were in the car, heading back, he couldn't help but feel like he didn't quite want the night to be over. But he knew they'd both need to part ways and get to sleep, because she was busy with the art sponsorship all day tomorrow, and he had early classes in the morning.

There was a small lull of silence as the two of them sat in the car, and he turned out onto the main road.

"So... about seeing you again," he said, breaking the silence. "I actually do want to come down and visit you. I've already mentioned wanting to take a weekend off to my boss, and she uh--" he laughed a little. "She actually agreed with you, actually. That I should take a break. She sounds like she's all for it."

He could see Evaline watching him from the corner of his eye, and she let out a small laugh.

"I wouldn't mind if you wanted to visit me," she said. "I'd like that." She paused. "Is there a certain weekend that you have in mind?"

"Well," James said, glancing at her with a smirk. "I did happen to overhear that there's an art show coming up for you?"

All he knew was that he'd overheard Elias and Carter loudly talking in his living room, and Elias mentioned going to visit a friend's art show. It was easy enough to put two and two together.

"Is that so?" she said with a smirk in her own voice. "I don't think I've mentioned it to you. It's full of snooty art students."

"You think I'd stick out too much?" James asked.

Evaline hummed. "Maybe not unless someone trains you beforehand."

"Ah, yes," James said. "If only I had someone who knew the ways of the art world to teach me all of the art show lingo."

"If I were you, I'd find someone to take you to the art museum before the show," she said. "So you can practice what to be look out for."

"Well," James proposed. "I'm taking a whole weekend off, so I'm sure I'd be able to come in a day earlier to make that happen."

"I see," Evaline said casually. "Well, when you do that, make sure to dress nice as well. Between that and the new art lingo I'll teach you, you'll fit right in."

She paused for a second.

"I mean, that someone will teach you," she quickly said when she realized that she became more direct.

James laughed.

"I'll make sure to both dress and talk like a snobby art student," he said. "But only for show, of course. Not when I'm just talking to you."

Evaline laughed again, but it sounded a little nervous.

"Right," she said. "That makes two of us."

James grinned and nodded.

"So, I never did get a date for when the art show actually is. How far away is it from now?" he asked.

"It's two weekends from now," she said. "I can text you the flyer if you want."

"That would be helpful," James said.

"It's really not anything amazing, though," Evaline said quickly. "I don't want your expectations to be too high. It's just showcasing work from university students. Not like any of us are professionals."

"I know," James said with a little laugh. "I just want to be there to support you, you know. And see your work."

"It is a long drive," she warned, like she was trying to talk him out of it.

"I drive almost two hours every weekend to go to work and back," James said. "I think I can handle it."

"Well, you've also seen most of my work anyways. Or... most of it."

"I'm also coming to see you, silly," James said, briefly glancing at her before returning his eyes to the road, slowing at a stoplight.

Evaline turned to face the window even though there wasn't anything to see.

"Right," she said softly. "And my cat."

"Can't forget the cat," James said.

There was a small pause between them, and the light turned green. James pulled forward.

"So... do you know of any cheap hotels or airbnb's near you?" James asked. "Otherwise, I can just look them up myself, but if you have any recommendations that'd be nice."

"The cheaper ones would be out towards the suburbs, if you want to deal with traffic," she said, then paused for just a moment. "I mean, you can stay in my studio. It's really no big deal. I don't mind."

James flicked his eyes over at her.

"I wouldn't be intruding?" he asked.

"I don't even have a roommate," she said with a shrug. "There's no one to intrude."

"Does your cat like other people?" James asked with a small smirk.

"Not sure," she said with her own smile. "I guess you'll be the first person to test that out."

James smiled.

"Lucky me," he said, glancing at his blind spot as he switched lanes. The hotel was only a few short minutes away.

"Two weeks should be plenty of time for me to match today's surprises," Evaline thought out loud.

"Oh, so you're going to try to one-up me now, huh?" James teased.

"Maybe," she teased back. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate today?"

"Ten out of ten, but only if you think it was a ten," James said.

"I'd say it's a ten," she said nonchalantly.

"Perfect," James said.

There was another short pause as the buildings they were passing grew more familiar.

"Looks like I have--" she started to say.

"So two weeks from--" he said at the same time, and then laughed.

"You go first," Evaline said quickly.

"I was just going to confirm details," he said. "I can come in on a Friday morning. Maybe closer to noon, and then I could leave Sunday night. Or possibly Monday morning, depending on what works better for you."

"Either option works," she said. "I have studio classes on Mondays and Fridays, so I can get them done anywhere at any time. I'll be sure to do all my work ahead of time, though. I'll text you my address in case I'm running a little late from my morning Friday class, though."

"Sounds good," he said, pausing. "What were you going to say? Before I interrupted you?"

"Oh," she said with a small laugh. "Um. I was just going to say that I should plan for the weekend to be an eleven out of ten instead. That's all."

James smiled and looked over at her.

"I don't think you'll have to try too hard," he said as he looked away to turn into her hotel's parking lot.

"That's -- well -- too bad," she spat out. "I'll try hard anyways."

James laughed as he scanned the parking lot, finding a spot to pull into and park.

"Thank you," Evaline said as he parked, not having moved yet. "For today."

"Of course," James said, looking over to her. "I'm glad we were able to do this."

She met his gaze but then unbuckled her seatbelt.

"I am too," she said, then paused for a moment, not reaching for the door yet. "So... I guess... I'll see you in two weeks."

"Would you like me to walk you in?" James asked, glancing toward the hotel. It was dark out already. "I just want to make sure you make it in alright."

Evaline drew out a long "um" and as she looked towards the hotel. "Maybe just to the entrance," she said. "If that's okay."

James smiled with a nod.

"For sure," he said, opening his door and stepping out.

She also stepped out of the car, closing the door behind her as she walked by his side towards the hotel.

"Thanks again," she said. "It's too bad no one will be here to walk you back to the car."

"Ha. Ha," James said with a smile. "I'll be fine."

"Right," she said with a nod and a smile. "You box."

"But I don't look it, so that's how I surprise them," he said with a mischievous grin, leaning in as if to whisper, but not really trying to lower his voice.

Evaline laughed, shaking her head. "It certainly surprised me," she said. "I'll keep it a secret so everyone else will be surprised too."

"Well I'm hoping they never find out," James said, pulling away again. "But, yes. I'm glad I can trust you to keep it a secret."

She hummed. "So I know a secret that no one else knows about you," she commented.

James slowed as they approached the front entrance. The sliding doors sensed their approach and opened up to the hotel lobby.

James laughed lightly.

"I suppose so," he said.

There was a short, but tense pause as they both stood, looking inside. He turned to Evaline.

"Well, goodbye for now," he said a little more quietly.

"This feels a lot more different than the goodbyes in our calls," she said, returning her gaze from the door and back to him.

James grinned.

"Yeah," he said, briefly waving his hand in front of his face. "No screens."

Evaline let out a breathy laugh and smiled, then opened up her arms for a hug. "Yeah," she said. "No screens."

James stepped forward into her arms and returned the hug, and pulled away after a second.

"Alright, then," he said with another little laugh as he started to turn towards the parking lot. "Take care."

"Bye, James," she said with a wave, stepping backwards. "I'll talk to you again. Through the screens."

James smiled and waved back as he started walking away slowly.

"I look forward to it," he said. "Goodbye, Evaline."