1
No one appreciated school spirit anymore. The football season was just heating up and he'd only wanted to show his pride and enthusiasm by spraying a Roman warrior's helmet onto one of the long, blank stretches of hallway in the school. The school administrators had not appreciated Joey's and his show of creative spirit. A Saturday morning detention could have been a disaster (and he was sure it was for some, his brother included) but Saturday was a day off from football since games were mostly Friday nights. Fin really only had two speeds: one hundred and fifty miles an hour and dead to the world. For him, Saturday morning detentions were just a place to catch up on the sleep he missed out on Friday. Fin's feet were kicked up on the top of his desk, a sucker sticking out between his teeth. He felt Nari's gaze on him when she entered and he returned her narrowed eyes with a wink of one of his. "Some of you are new faces and some..not so much."Fin gave a wide, toothy grin around the stick in his mouth, letting his eyes flit around to a few others in the room that knew he was pretty much a regular here. As the old man wrote about no food, Fin gave a pointed crunch on his sucker, making sure the noise echoed around the room. He chewed the pieces before reaching into the pocket of his letterman's jacket under his feet and grabbing another one; strawberry flavored this time. Once the pleasantries were out of the way and their so-called teacher went back to not caring about them, Fin dropped his head back and looked at Rosie upside-down. "Rose," he whispered, "psst, Rosie," a flirty grin flashed in her direction, "why don't you sit on the top of this desk so I can use your lap for a pillow." One hand reached backwards to pat the desk directly behind his head.
2
Joey always felt small here; it was impossible not to with the forest of majestic trees towering hundreds of feet above him. Granted, he sometimes felt small surrounded by a family that radiated happy chaos and the confusion and unanswered questions that had plagued him since the incident he had already dubbed That Night dwarfed him...but this was a good sort of small feeling. The trees had seen and survived much more than he ever would. If any part of nature had some sort of ancient wisdom, it would be this place. It really was too bad he didn't feel a sudden kinship with the trees; he could have used some good old fashioned ancient wisdom.
Perplexed once again, the excited chatter of his family flowed in one ear and out the other. They were going on a hike to a cabin rented months ahead of time, someone didn't want to go on the hike, someone wanted to go in a hollow tree like they did last year, someone was hungry and someone else was thirsty...
Joey eyed the water in his bottle as if it was an unpredictable animal ready to jump out at him at any moment.
"Yeah, let's go to the hollow tree," he agreed, forcing himself to pay attention and start following his family into the park. He was far removed from the ocean; there wouldn't be any answers for him here. He'd have to make the best of it and enjoy the vacation, then return to their home on the southern coast and try to figure out what the hell happened to him. Fortunately, Joey had always been good at making the best of things.
And what better for the best of things to start with but a dog?
Just before he stepped into the woods, a golden blur flashed in the corner of his eye, and he turned around to behold a golden retriever fleeing from a teenage girl (he could have sworn neither of them had been there a second before) in abundant, gleeful glory. Instinct set his feet in motion, but there was no need to run; as soon as the dog realized the existence of another human being, it changed direction and shot directly toward him.
"Hey - oh wow, hi!"
The sheer power of a full-grown golden retriever nearly bowled him over, and dropping to his knees was the only way to avoid a nasty fall. Of course, this was taken as the perfect opportunity to relentlessly attack him in the brutal tongue-to-face method. "Okay, okay, hi to you too," he laughed, "But you're not supposed to be here, now, are you?" He felt through golden fur until his fingers gained hold of a collar, and, holding it tightly, he climbed to his feet and began gently tugging the dog by the collar toward where he had last seen its owner.
Unfortunately for him, the retriever decided it did not want to be tugged and instead sat down on the road and panted, its tongue lolling out. He could have sworn the dog was grinning at him. "Aw, come on, bud - hey, I'll give you a nice belly rub if you come along. Deal?"
There appeared to be no deal.
3
Scouting the battlefield, Rosie's parents had called in when she'd stared at them in confusion. Observing and analysising so they could pick the position where flames would spread easiest and furthest from.
Honestly, Rosie could not help but feel as if they were wasting their time. She did not know much about the art of scheming and planning, she had not inherited any of her (quite possibly mad) parents' intelligence. All she knew was that wood burned nicely, and Redwood National Park was full of it. Wasn't that enough?
No, it was not, they had said. And so they'd sent her off, seeming to think that Rosie would return a couple hours later with something of use rather than a grin, a shrug, and a declaration of "yeah there's a whole lot of trees out there. What's for dinner?".
"C'mon Biscuit!"
Rosie had not inherited her parents' intelligence, and she had not inherited their subtle cunning either. It was obvious in the way her hair seemed to catch alight at the tips and flicker red and gold, in the golden retriever that crashed through the forest with her and in how the air around her rippled with scorching heat more suited for a desert than for a very flammable park.
(Though that was sort of the point.)
She hummed as she walked, half paying attention to her surroundings like her parents had told her and half just throwing sticks for Biscuit. As far as Rosie was aware, the park (at least, the part she walked) was empty and so what reason did she have to try and be subtle? It was often difficult, keeping herself from quite literally bursting into flames. She had to watch herself in a place like this (for now), but that did not mean she had to force the heat from her skin and the flames from her hair right that second. Not when there was no one around to see her.
"Come oooon, slowpoke! Get up! We're here!"
There were people around to see her.
Rosie stumbled over the raised root of a tree, grabbing a hold of the trunk to steady herself. When she dropped her arm back down to her side, it left a blackened handprint upon the bark. She bit back a cry of frustration, squeezing her eyes shut and her lips together until she had cooled from boiling to simply warm and the flames had died away to leave admittedly still fiery looking locks. She could hear voices, growing closer by the second, but she knew that if anyone saw her in such a manner then her parents would be livid.
"Biscuit!"
Rosie cracked her eyes open just in time to see the disappearing tail of her dog. A string of muffled curses slipped from her tongue, and she took off in pursuit off it.
"Biscuiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"
It came out as a whine. She chased the dog out onto the road, barely noticing the family that gathered there, into the woods again, and then back onto the road once more.
"Hey!"
4
It was not Joseph McCormick's first time in detention, but he wished it was. It would be nice if he didn't even have to have his first, but simply being the twin of Finlay McCormick ensured this would never be the case. Fin always found a way to drag him into something and Joey was never able to resist going along with it. He figured him being there to take even the quickest look before they leaped might help prevent them from getting caught, and it had before, but they had not been so lucky this time around. There was really no way to argue your way out of it when the janitor came along to clean the wall you were in the process of defacing it. As Fin had claimed it would be, graffiti was a fun form of self-expression, but unfortunately, it was an illegal one. He sat upright in his desk chair and alternated between staring at the whiteboard and staring into the void. Detention was the most boring activity he could imagine, and it always made him restless. Already his foot tapped relentlessly, creating constant echoes on the tile, and they hadn't even started yet. He hoped this wouldn't drag on for too long. He had to march in a parade of bands tonight with the high school marching band, and he would prefer to have some time to eat and get ready first. No food, no talking, no phones, no fun... The teacher in charge looked like he had no real energy or life left in him. Joey couldn't relate. His other foot had started tapping and he had enough energy to burst out of the building and jog more laps than they did when the director was particularly grumpy. At least he wasn't alone. He grinned back at Nari and wondered how she had managed to land herself here too. Some people here were ones he would have never expected, but then again, Joey supposed he wasn't one people would typically expect to frequent detention. He turned his grin to Fin, whose posture declared he was a whole other story. His phone vibrated in his pocket and his eyes went to the teacher in front. It appeared the man was already done with them, busy sorting through papers at his desk. Subtly, he pulled out the device and typed out a response. text message
to narwhal :)
09:02 am
i swear it wasn't my idea,
but let's just say we really
made our mark and mom
has banned us from spray paint
until pretty much forever. you? He slipped the phone back in his pocket and looked around, wondering if anyone else who could manage to make this morning interesting would show up.
5
A universe very different from this one
A summer in modern times
Redwood National Park, Northern California, U.S.A. The first heat of June was just beginning to hit when the van set off from the South California coast for a few days of rest and relaxation in the very different scene of Redwood National Park. From the outside, it was simply another van filled with tourists en route to the popular attraction, though perhaps it was a bit larger than usual. Inside, the McCormick family had undergone over twelve hours of travel, yet somehow managed to be just as loud and obnoxious as ever. "Are we there yet?" Wyatt whined the classic question of kids on a road trip. Cherry complained that they ought to be there by now and Fin threw a goldfish cracker at her. Their parents sighed and told them to be patient, they would be there in around ten minutes, and they weren't going to act like this the whole time, were they? If one were to ask Joseph McCormick, he would have said that they were. As it was, the fifteen-year-old was far too distracted to pay attention to the chaos. He gazed intently, locked in a staring contest with a rather unusual amount of intensity, given that it was with a water bottle. Slowly, the water began to lift, hovering toward the top of the bottle instead of gravity pulling it to the bottom like it was meant to. He glanced around, made sure no one was paying attention to him, and carefully drew a piece of coral out of his pocket. It glowed electric blue, somehow alive despite emerging from the ocean several days ago, and as he held it between fingers, he felt the sensation that had puzzled him since he acquired it flow through his veins. A few drops of water appeared on his hand. His expression gave away complete confusion as he squinted at it, then suddenly he let out a noise of surprise. Where the second before it had been mostly dry, his hand was suddenly drenched in water that actively dripped onto the van floor. "Almost there, gang!" The kids let out a cheer, and Joey hurriedly shoved the coral back in his pocket, doing his best to dry off his hand while he was at it. Please be dry, please be dry, how is it even not, please be dry...It was dry. He stared, utterly stupefied, for a second too long and was nearly bowled over as his siblings tried to climb out of the vehicle as soon as it stopped. "Come oooon, slowpoke! Get up! We're here!""Yeah, yeah, I'm movin'." Trying to shake it off for the time being, he followed Parker out. Majestic redwoods rose around them, and Joey smiled at the magnificent site of a familiar vacation spot. He breathed in and enjoyed the comfortable earthy scent.
6
MODERN HIGH SCHOOL AU
(Saturday) September 21, 2018
weekend morning detention
She really really hated this. Detention? Nari Parker did many stupid things in her life but to get detention? It was all a simple understanding. ( She couldn't say the fresh black eye her fellow teammate and classmate Bridget was sporting was a simple understanding but..in her eyes it was.) Making her way into the partially empty classroom, the young girl tried not to make much eye contact. Most of the people who got detentions were all troublemakers or kids that were on the wrong path. The chatter seemed to only slightly die down when she stepped into the room, a few eyes glancing in her direction. Speaking of troublemakers... Nari narrowed her eyes as she almost instantly spotted her own 'troublemaker'; Finlay McCormick relaxing casually in a desk chair. Of course she wasn't completely surprised she'd see him in there due to his reckless like behavior but surely his coach wouldn't be happy. Her's definitively wasn't. Her cheer coach was a hair away from screaming at her when she had to miss this morning's practice to be in some random classroom for a few hours. She also spotted her most recently made friend, Joey McCormick. Nari almost let out a sigh in relief. At least she had one friend in this boring as hell situation. It was odd though, to see Fin's identical twin in detention. Joey always was a more relaxed guy who hardly seemed like he'd get in trouble. Her dark doe eyes sent him a friendly wink as a greeting before she chose a desk right in front of him. Slinging her small backpack off her shoulders and onto the floor beside her feet, Nari casually glanced at the teacher in the front of the room. Some middle-aged man with hardly any hair left and a grumpy expression on his face. The older man stood up in front of the whiteboard. "Okay everyone welcome to detention. Some of you are new faces and some..not so much." Nari heard a few people snicker in the back of the classroom "-but for those who are new, here are the rules." The teacher took out a marker and traced three simple sentences onto the whiteboard. no food
no talking
no phonesNari felt her lip curl in distaste. So it truly was going to be like hell. In the least suspcious way she could, Nari casually pulled out her mint silicone iphone under her desk and opened Joey's text profile. text message
to jo jo bear
09:00 am
why are you in here?
7
MODERN HIGH SCHOOL AU
August 16th, 2018
after the first football game of the season, parker home
She leaned up against the light wooden frame of her bed, phone bouncing between both hands as she debated on even opening the text app. Should she talk to him? After tonights game..things were off. Not to mention a certain red head on her team was bragging about recently hooking up with Finlay McCormick. She would have been lying if she didn't admit she felt her heart twist inside her chest. There was no reason she should have been jealous. They were just "friends" now, as he had casually put it. Readjusting her dark messy bun, Nari let out a sigh before swiftly typing in her passcode and hesitantly opening the little speech bubble app. •MADE BY ANNIE 09:31 PM 20% Troublemaker ◣ So you and Bridget huh? When did that happen? ◣ Not that I care or anything, just curious since she wouldn't stop bragging during the game tonight. ◣
*thanks annie for the code <3
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8
text message
to Avery Elliot
11.40 pm
that’s cute.
11.41 pm
did you make a wish for us too?
9
text messageto fiona's mother11.31 pmenough time that my mother almost set the shop on fire with sparklers 11.31 pm lit one for you and fiona
10
text message
to Avery Elliot
11.18 pm
Sorry, who is this?
11.19 pm
kidding. yes i remembered to water her
11.20 pm
how long did you spend making that?
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