eden williams.

✝ HOUSE MELLERAY ✝ i like saying no. it lowers their enthusiasm. — seventeen, junior — — workaholic — — book worm — — goodie two shoes — — post-it note hoarder —

[ediams]

faithfullymckay‌:

Usually if you wanted to avoid all of the rest of the student population…well Faith was still a safe bet to sit beside given how much of Broadripple wasn’t exactly keen on getting a sermon outside of compulsory Sunday morning mass, but today was a particularly good day to have her in company. It had been hard for her to be herself in the last few days, so trying to smile and pretend everything was a-okay was more difficult than usual. She was able to manage a smile at Eden, who she knew wasn’t there to bother her or ask too many questions. At least nothing to purposely make her uncomfortable.

“I just hope it clears soon,” Faith shrugged, pausing to highlight what she needed from the textbook in front of her - pretending that it still had her full attention and not the prospect of that retched smell sticking around for the rest of the school year, “But I’ve stocked up on air fresheners anyway. Spring Awakening, Fresh Vanilla, Clean Cotton. You name it.” And sometimes if you used a tenth of the can it even helped. The pink highlighter paused against the page, her bottom lip getting trapped between her teeth as she thought of exactly how she wanted to answer. “Everything’s fine,” She finally decided, shooting a reassuring nod Eden’s way. It was a lie of course, everything couldn’t be fine when you were avoiding your best friend, but she didn’t want the other girl to worry.

“You’re such a smart person. I knew it’s why we kept you around,” She grinned.  For a moment, Eden felt genuine relief sweep over her, glad that if anyone was going to think of tools to deal with a situation at hand, it was going to be Faith. “If you have a spare, I’ll swap you for convenience points. I don’t know how much longer I can handle Kat’s scented candles,” Eden chuckled, easily more drawn to the idea of Clean Cotton or Vanilla over some strange Fig and Obscure Plant Root option. Also, Kat and candles were a fire hazard. Eden had already banned her from using them two days into The Big Stink and steered her towards scent sticks and aerosol cans. Until Kat had caught her in the face with one, now she was down to just incense sticks.

Watching Faith’s reaction, Eden figured that was a warning sign to drop the topic. Which was fine, Eden didn’t mind, she didn’t always need to know everyone’s business. But... then again, sometimes people really wanted to talk about things, even though they said they didn’t. So she had to be considerate. Just because she thought Damian was currently the indignant father of Kat’s unborn child, didn’t mean Faith did yet, but all would come out eventually. The truth always did. “Okay,” She responded with a small shrug, fingers floating over her keyboard for a second before the next part fought its way out of her mouth, “It’s just that I get it... Sometimes your best friend does something that makes you question everything and well, it sucks... and it doesn’t always feel like it makes sense either.” She admitted, specifically talking about her own grievances with Penny right now but assuming that it might be a ballpark for where Faith stood with Damian right now. Eden may not have been included in any real source of friendship groups at the academy but she saw a lot that went on, overheard all kinds of conversations and snippets of gossip. She knew more about what was going on than she let on, so a well-educated guess told her that Faith was lying too. Everybody was. 

[ediams]

ofkatherinebishop‌:

“I don’t know,” Katherine genuinely didn’t know, just because Eden didn’t have a tangible friendship group like Kat did didn’t mean she wouldn’t go mouthing off about it, “Just- you know, don’t hint at it or make jokes about it or-” she didn’t know what she expected Eden to do, Eden wasn’t anything like that but still, the fact that she’d already accidentally spilled the secret to the other girl made her nervous about it spreading further, “It just has to be for us. Nobody else,” she instructed plainly. “Warriors,” she uttered softly a few moments later, knowing that it was so far beyond the point that Eden was trying to make that it wasn’t worth vocalizing aloud but still, she evidently felt compelled to fill in the gaps. 

She nodded her head in understanding, they were on the same team. Katherine didn’t want to gossip either, she didn’t want to scold Clussy for her recklessness or spread rumors about her, she just wanted to help her and the babies. “Okay,” she agreed with a nod of her head, accepting the other girls help even if it was by proxy. “Backpack?” she asked, it wasn’t often that her friends rummaged through her things but it wasn’t entirely unlikely to happen either, “I’m not keeping it,” she reminded her, “I’ll give them to her today and I won’t buy anything else,” she decided with a nod of her head and a wiggle of the pill bottle, as soon as this conversation was over she had a list of things to achieve with Edwina now. Firstly, she had to hand off the vitamins, then she had to try and remember all of the things Eden had implored her to find out about the pregnancy.

Kat visibly cringed at the thought of Edwina showing. Not only was she going to be obviously pregnant, she was going to be fucking huge, her tiny frame overwhelmed by the mass of two infants. It made Katherine’s own stomach hurt and she placed a hand to her belly subconsciously, “I don’t think that will work,” she was still picturing Clussy, waddling between classes, her school shirt too small to button over her enormously swollen belly and bursting at the seems. She exhaled deeply, “Okay,” she needed to stop worrying about what was going to happen and she needed to start worrying about what she was going to do to help, “What about- who’s the biggest boy you can think of? Maybe we can borrow a shirt?” she thought, she didn’t have the money to buy Clussy a new uniform and her parents would be calling with questions if she started ordering them in extra large on their account. 

Eden pursed her lips flatly, but there a was a small uplift to her shoulders and a look on her face that said fine, okay, just us. Or at least, she hoped it did because she felt like an idiot continuing to play this game with Kat. “That would probably be better than keeping them in plain sight,” Eden vouched, glancing to the shelf where she’d found the vitamins before looking back at Kat. “You always have people in here, someone was bound to find them sooner or later.”

She watched Kat touch her stomach, eyes pinning to the gesture before flitting back to her face. What, hadn’t she thought about that either? Just how recently had Kat found out what was happening to her? Eden wanted to pinch at her hairline and scream, there was so much to consider and here Kat was, what? Trying to sleep it off?

“Maybe. Or you could just face the fact that a new uniform is probably the last of your issues that you have to deal with, so why not just get a new uniform? I mean, you’re thinking about this financially right? Parents? Do they know yet? Because unless you’ve got some secret paying job none of us know about, it’s not like you’re going to be able to look after a baby with convenience points.”

[ediams]

faithfullymckay‌:

Faith had never felt so unprepared in her life. Usually assignments were done as they were given, in between her various extra-curricular she made sure that her planning was done within at least forty-eights hours and after that she was insistent that the papers always pretty much wrote themselves. Unfortunately the incident with the bear - and the fact that she had kindly offered to help out Father Spence, helping out involving trailing after him from room to room with various vials of holy water and relics in hand should a demon show itself - had meant that she had fallen behind and even uncharacteristically forgotten about one of her assignments. That was what led her to be sitting in Dot’s common room, frantically typing up a biology paper that was due in less than two days. And still that didn’t stop her from smiling up at Eden, sympathetically nodding as she thought of the state she had left the hall in that morning when she became aware that getting work done would be next to impossible. “I thought the smell might be gone by now,” She commented as she moved her various textbooks that blocked the seat beside her, “Clearly it’s lingering.” Or maybe it was just her overactive imagination.

Eden let out a sigh of pity for all of them, putting her bag down and taking a seat next to the blond. Well, if she’d made herself unapproachable before she was practically putting up barbed wire around her hurt feelings now, sitting next to Faith Mckay of all people. At least, hopefully, Eden thought, she might be one of the few who wouldn’t just flip on her for no reason and make her feel shitty. After Penny and after Jamie, it was safe to say, Eden was on the verge of being sick of people all over again. Maybe she could just... bow her head and go back to how it all was before. Ignore the rest of the student body and have the student body ignore her back.

“I think it’ll take a few days to clear, especially over that side of the school. No amount of chemical can really cover that sort of thing up, I feel sorry for whoever’s job it is to clean down there.” She vouched, pulling out her laptop to continue her bio-report. Taking a beat, Eden wondered if it was okay to ask, but then again... it was basically all the school was talking about right now. “Hey, is everything alright? With you and Damian. I... heard about what happened in the boy's dorms.”

[ediams]

jamesonward‌:

Jamie narrowed his eyes at Eden over the computers, growing suspicious of her intentions. He was beginning to wonder whether it had been a good idea to tell her about where he came from if she was just doing to use it against him in some arbitrary argument about whether he should go out with dignity or not.

Despite his best efforts to hang onto his things with both hands, Jamie hadn’t seen his dignity in a while. Not after the bathrooms, not after Damian, not after Kat and the Yearbook committee. There were a lot of things more embarrassing than getting expelled for holding his own, like the thought of having to put up with Dylan for another year after Damian graduated, slugging through 4 years of torture just to end up going back home with nothing to show, living to see 30 just to realize he hadn’t done anything in his whole life but fight for stuff he wasn’t sure he even wanted. 

Hackles rising, Jamie bit out, “What do you know about embarrassing? Your worst problem right now is a messy roommate and a BFF who just won’t quit.”

He couldn’t stop the vitriol once it came out, turning his skin into shrink wrap and bearing all the spines beneath it. Jamie pinned his eyes to his screen, staring at the blinking cursor as his analysis of themes in To Kill A Mockingbird hollowed out into despairing, static feedback admonishing him for being forthright about anything if it was just going to be used against him.

Maybe it had to do with her subpar ability to read people, or maybe Eden really had actually just said the wrong thing and deserved the sudden venom from Jamie. Either way, it had shocked her the moment he’d said it, making her sit back a little in her seat and contemplate what it was she maybe had done wrong. Was it because she said she wasn’t worried? That hardly seemed like something Jamie would care about if she had to take an educated guess on what part of her reply had caused him to prickle up like a cat. No, you know what? She didn’t have to sit here and de-code what she’d said to figure out which part had offended him. That wasn’t the kind of friendship they had if they even had a friendship at all. This, Eden realized, was why it was easier to just be friends with people like Penny who clearly felt sorry for her but all the same didn’t go out of their way to hurt her feelings over it.

“Okay, sorry, I didn’t realize it was a competition...?” She stated, not sorry at all and clearly peeved by his sudden attitude. If she hadn’t just sat down, Eden probably would have gotten up again, it wasn’t like she’d really unpacked much. A quick swipe of her laptop under her arm and she could be gone in a flash, doing something better with her time. “What’s your problem?”

[ediams]

ofkatherinebishop‌:

Katherine’s eyebrows lifted, really important? She hadn’t the slightest clue, it could have been weeks, months, she didn’t even know where to start but she made a mental note to find out, “I can find out,” she assured the other girl with confidence. She’d make it a priority. She couldn’t text Clussy, she didn’t want the question in writing even if she did use emojis to disguise the incriminating phrases, no, instead she’d have to hunt her down and ask her personally, preferably in private. “Oh my God,” she had been so on board with what to eat and what not to eat, not to use the microwave so much, to avoid strenuous exercise if possible. She hadn’t considered any of the serious stuff, vaccinations, blood tests, health insurance, this was all stuff her parents dealt with, Kat didn’t even really know how to make a doctor’s appointment on her own. Her eyes widened and she stiffened at the thought, praying for Edwina’s sake that she was more well equipped for adulthood than Katherine was. “Huh?” she asked, looking up at Eden now, instead of staring at her legs and trying to remember whether she’d even had her flu shot that year, “Yeah I do,” she confirmed a little absently, unwilling to provide any details on the matter. The moment she said anything about Jamie he’d be easily identified by his any one of his unfortunately distinguishing features and then the revelation that Clussy was pregnant would surely follow in a matter of seconds. Eden was smart after all. “Uh,” she hesitated, she didn’t know anything about Jamie’s family let alone about his genetics and wondered if Edwina did. Despite the fact that they were a bona fide couple, Katherine would have bet money on the fact that Edwina’s knowledge of Jamie’s history, genetic or otherwise, was limited. “I can ask,” Edwina, she meant, not Jamie, there was no way in hell she’d manage to get an answer out of him. It hadn’t yet occurred to Katherine that Eden was still talking specifically about her, she was under the impression that her roommate had easily accepted her claim of it being for a friend and she appreciated the other girl’s willingness to help, even if she didn’t know who she was helping. She offered the other girl a warm but uncertain smile, fiddling with the bottle of pills in her hand, “You won’t tell anybody will you?” she asked, her tone of voice practically begging Eden to keep her mouth shut. “I promised I wouldn’t,” she added, to assure Eden that it wasn’t Katherine’s secret she was keeping, it was somebody else’s and that even if she wanted to scorn Kat, Edwina shouldn’t be victimized in the process.

Eden’s lashline narrowed down when her roommate told her she’d find out, still playing this off like it wasn’t her own problem, still pretending as if Eden was stupid and didn’t get what was really going on here. But...  okay, fine. If Kat wanted to play pretend for now then Eden would humor her. Maybe that’s what this weekend was all about, coming to terms with the truth. She knew, in theory, that could be hard for some people. Not everybody was so realistic about things sometimes, especially when hormones were involved. Sooner or later though, she had to come clean.

She made a face as if to say, okay so whose is it? But Kat didn’t relent and so Eden gave a sigh of frustration, hands falling to her hips and head tilting back. Why, was it because it was Damian? Okay, so Catholic school was judge-y and Faith might throw a fit but did that even really matter at the end of the day when new life was potentially churning about in Kat’s uterus? Eden didn’t think it did. Babies and science and new life were more important than the status quo and anyone who thought otherwise was just an imbecile.

Eden scoffed a laugh at Kat’s question, looking at the wall above her head and then to the side. Oh, the rose drawing was gone... Eden blinked and shook her head. “Who have I got to tell? Seriously?” She put her hands out in surrender, for once, being kind of okay with the fact she was completely and sincerely on her own for this one. She and Penny still weren’t speaking, and despite Jamie’s offer to sit with him at meals, Eden hadn’t taken it in the end. She felt weird about that, like it was an offer but not really an offer at the same time. Right now, she didn’t really know where she fit in but she knew she could help with this. So maybe that’s why she clung to it so much. “I don’t have a weekend whatever group.” She couldn’t remember what they called themselves, but she knew it had weekend in the name. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell them. It’s not my business. I just want to help.” Eden threw a hand towards Kat at her claim though, feeling kind of low about it for a second before remembering this wasn’t about her. “Look, if you don’t want anyone to know then I suggest putting this kind of stuff in a bag where people won't just find it... and maybe invest in new uniform shirts because after a few months, it’ll start to show and you won’t be able to just stuff it in a bag.”

[ediams]

ofkatherinebishop‌:

Katherine’s entire body shuddered as the bed sheets were ripped so dramatically from on top of her, exposing her pale skin and contorted figure where she had been laying in a near coma for over an hour. “What the fuck?” she demanded in a croaky tone, lower than her normal voice which wasn’t difficult to achieve. She wiped some residual saliva from the corner of her mouth and squinted as her vision cleared, trying to read the pill bottle in question. She recognized the pink coloring first and then the words and immediately snatched it from Eden’s hand instinctively, “No!” she squealed, her whole body twitching as she spat the word at the other girl and straightened her spine, far more awake now than she had been moments prior. “Oh my God,” she uttered, wishing she’d been left alone to nap first and foremost but wishing, for the first time in history, that Eden would mind her own business. “I-” she started but stopped herself as Eden continued, clearly on a roll. If Kat wasn’t so panicked about Eden thinking she was pregnant, she would have actually commended the other girl for being so compassionate and knowledgeable on the subject. Her compassion was certainly more unexpected than her knowledge, admittedly.

“Stop,” she instructed, fixing her t-shirt where it hung crookedly on her frame from being smashed into the mattress without movement since before lunch time. “I’m not,” she was obviously talking about being pregnant but there was a lot of other things she needed to address too, once she could get her head around it.

“It’s-” for Edwina? No fucking way was she going to be the one to spill those beans, not only would Jamie skin her alive but Kat had some sense of female solidarity to offer; it was Edwina’s truth to share and not hers. “It’s for somebody else, I got them for somebody else,” she insisted, “A friend,” it sounded like a lie, she knew it sounded like a lie but she had no way of proving otherwise, “How important is it- like the how far along? How important is it?” she asked because foolishly she hadn’t asked Clussy for that information. She’d provided her with a herbal tea, offered her a banana and had spent her own money on pre-natal vitamins much to the dismay of the Nighmore pharmacist but she hadn’t asked Edwina how long she’d been pregant for. Maybe she wasn’t the mid-wife she’d intended on being, maybe she needed Eden.

Eden didn’t like being told to be quiet, it was probably her most obvious trait about her, particularly when it came to how much noise Kat made on a regular basis. Still, her lips shut instinctively because she wasn’t a rule breaker by any measure and if Kat had something important to say about the matter, then Eden needed to listen. Clearly, her roommate needed guidance and a firm hand but whatever she had to say about the situation, Eden needed to listen to her every word.

Of course. The blame game. Maybe they weren’t best friends or anything, but she’d known Kat since she’d arrived at the academy and it was long enough to tell her that if Kat Bishop was going to point a finger at somebody else to spare her own, she would. So Eden watched her roommate say that it was for someone else, her eyes sheepish and frankly, quite telling that she was hiding something. Yeah... something being that she was pregnant and that that was probably what her and Damian were screaming about yesterday, and now, Eden had to deal with it like always because whenever Kat was going through something, it was just suddenly everybody else’s problem too. 

“How—” She was going to repeat the question back to her incredulously as if obviously, it was very important. Because it was. Duh. But then Eden had to remember that not everybody spent hours researching the human body out of sheer interest, or reading university grade reports on specific functions, and challenging all autoimmune developments that came across the board. Maybe it wasn’t obvious to Kat. Maybe nothing was and maybe, hopefully, in fact, this was her first rodeo. Maybe it was Eden’s job to educate her. “Kat, it’s really important.” She insisted, pursing her lips to make that very clear. “The sooner you know how far along, the better, then you and a doctor will know what step to take next, there’s... like, vaccinations to look into, sexual health checks, blood tests, health insurance plans...” Eden sighed, “Do you even know whose it is?” Is it Damian’s? The question sat on the tip of her tongue, but Eden refrained. Frankly, she probably would have asked if it was her friend Jay’s too but the fact that Kat had yelled at him about something being so serious yesterday really made it seem like the answer was as clear as day. “Because that’s a factor too. If you do, then you should really know what his health history is like, his family’s health history, if there’s even anything remotely genetic that you have to worry about.” She paused, looking at the vitamin bottle and then to Kat. “Look, I know we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things but this isn’t something you can afford to just... wing, okay? I won’t let you.”

[ediams]

jamesonward‌:

Jamie didn’t have a mother or any way to measure the amount of concern radiating off of Eden, only enough to know that it was kind of super annoying when people bothered making valid points about his business. She was starting to sound a lot like Edwina, which he wasn’t sure he loved the feeling of anymore if his distance from the Yearbook committee was telling of anything.

The facts were more transparent the further away one got from him. Jamie didn’t love to explain himself but it was hard not to see the way he was spinning out of control. Getting into fights, abandoning the things he once enjoyed, putting distance between himself and anyone who might’ve given a shit to stop him. He really wanted to care, but the barrel felt empty and he was tired of refilling it, having lost the reason to when he realized that there wasn’t any point of supporting something that he didn’t care about surviving anymore anyway. Life was getting so painful that Jamie was feeling a lot like an animal backed into a corner by it with only one option left after trying to tunnel out for years.

Jamie looked at her above the laptop, trying to drum up an answer that wasn’t petulant and bratty. “Would it have made you feel better if I said I would’ve?” 

He failed, obviously.

Jamie’s rapid typing slowed down as he mulled over Eden’s points. He didn’t really want to, but Jamie was blessed and cursed with a measure of self-awareness that made him both smart and tortured. 

“I won’t go back there,” he told her solemnly. He said he didn’t want to die there, but he never said anything about dying at school. “Why are you so worried all of a sudden? You can get that A without me.”

Eden looked to the side for a beat. “No.” She decided, then looked back at him with a small uplift of her shoulders, lowering them again only after she felt she’d said the right thing. She wondered how he tutored people. If he played a game of; you ask me a question and I’ll answer back with another question. She hated when people did that, not that many did, but regardless, it was annoying.

Well. That was a small win. At least she knew he wouldn’t be going home, so maybe that meant he’d not flash any more knives at people. She had to be hopeful, at least he didn’t appear dumb like everybody else. Smart people did stupid things sometimes. It was jarring but... she guessed it was life. She hoped the knife thing was his one dumb pass and that he wouldn’t repeat it.

“Oh, I know I can, and I’m not. You being expelled for something that wasn’t my fault doesn’t exactly affect me.” She told him, her tone matter-of-fact, eyes drifting off towards the floral bushes behind him. Eden didn’t like the outside world as much as the concept of what was in it, and while irony stood between her and her birth name, she didn’t much like gardens either. But here she was, trying to make him feel better anyway because she was sure that’s what she was meant to do as a living, breathing person. “I just think it’s really dumb and telling to show everyone how clever you are for three years then get sent home before the last race because of one really idiotic thing. It’s kind of embarrassing, actually. And I guess I just would be disappointed if you went out like that.” 

[ediams]

raqueltorrance‌:

Raquel smiled back at her and started straightening up her things on the table so that she wasn’t taking up most of the space, but still had room to work with. She laughed at that and nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got a lot to catch up on,” she admitted, blowing out a heavy breath as she looked over her notes then back up at Eden as she settled in across from her. “Whatcha working on?” she questioned curiously. 

“Nah, I can’t be inside or in one place too long,” Raquel told her, shaking her head at the thought. “It gets too boring and stuffy to me, I need to keep moving around or be outside,” she said with a little shrug of her shoulders. 

“Oh god, yeah… What the hell is that? Is it a sewer issue?” Raquel asked, nose wrinkled with disgust. “I was wondering what the fuck it was,” she said, shaking her head. “At least the flowers and stuff here help a little bit, so now it’s shit and floral in the air,” Raquel commented with a laugh. 

Eden sat, not sure if it was okay to talk about the fact Raquel had been gone for a while and what rumors she’d heard otherwise. She didn’t really like prying into people’s personal lives, nor did she really care what other people were doing with their time if it didn’t directly affect Eden. “Just a report for Biology, it’s almost done, I’m mostly in the editing phase before I write up my conclusion. That’s always the most tedious part, I find.” She sighed.

Glancing up at Raquel when she spoke, Eden smiled, but she couldn’t relate. It sounded like her roommate honestly, always doing something, moving, making annoying noise. She never understood why people couldn’t just learn to sit still. “No one knows,” Eden told her with raised eyebrows, “I would have said sewerage a few days ago but it’s coming from air vents, I’ve heard, not the drains. Or not any drain I’ve been near, anyway.” She frowned, typing something into her laptop before putting her hands in her lap and looking at Raquel. “The shower block doesn’t smell as bad as the dorms, I think, but that’s me. The classrooms on the far side are even worse, I think. It’s good it’s warming up so outdoor classes aren’t too bad. But it’s still a massive inconvenience.”

[ediams]

jamesonward‌:

The moment Eden’s eyes met his over the top of his screen, he knew he was about to get the talk. Jamie had gotten used to the wary stared and well-meaning lectures. It didn’t make him want to explain himself any more than he did, but didn’t get as upset as he did when he was a freshman and still trying to make sense of why exactly everyone thought he was a threat. Having a weapon on one’s person just made sense. It wasn’t  a knife that hurt a person. It was the person who hurt people and Jamie was pretty sure that if he hadn’t stabbed Damian yet, that he was a pretty safe bet.

“Don’t worry, those idiots took it from me,” he said dismissively, returning his hands to his keys to punch out his frustration of losing what was essentially his girlfriend. He didn’t think anything of her prying, figuring it was more of the same mother henning the people around school really liked to do around him because they thought he was some kind of feral beast who didn’t know how to act in society. He knew how to act. Knife before you’re knifed, it was basically survival 101.

“It was a gift from someone.” She’d left it in him but it was the thought that mattered.

“I’ve never hurt anyone with it.” Another lie, depending on whether anyone at the table considered him a person. Jamie sure didn’t.

He typed for a while, appearing aloof about the concerned stares beaming into his forehead from Eden’s side of the table. Jamie knew it was going to pass eventually, that she’d either make up her mind about the fact that she didn’t want anything to do with him or decide that it was a risk worth taking. It wouldn’t have hurt any more than life already did at the moment, so Jamie was comfortable letting it run its course. Eden was a smart, sensible girl. Jamie couldn’t fault her for asking smart, sensible things, even if he had no intention of answering any.

“Spare me, I’m not about to JD the school. You saw those guys had no problem going 3 on 1. Anyone who tells you not to bring a knife to a fist fight has never been in a fight before. There’s no honor among thugs. That shit’s Hollywood.”

That didn’t make her feel better. Actually, it made her feel worse. Eden didn’t know who she’d prefer to have the knife in the end, Jamie or Dylan and his friends, neither of which she knew particularly well to make any judgment on who might be safer with it. Putting her hands against the table flat, she leaned back and sighed, it helped her not freak out. Oh good, it was a gift, that probably meant Jamie felt attached to it. Which only made Eden wonder if he was planning on getting it back. She wondered if a black eye and a bloody-nose wasn’t a sign enough to let it go. Something about him told her it wasn’t.

“Okay...” She said slowly, leaning forward and pressing her laptop closed for the time being, folding her arms on top of it. Declining sperm count could wait, it had only been degenerating over the last decade, it could wait another afternoon. “But what about the flaming dumpster?” She said, reverting to his terminology to make a clear point. “Like... say someone caught you with that knife, say they told the school and the school didn’t have the same dismissal as I do about it, do you really want to go back there?” Eden shook her head a little, "I mean, your grades are way above average... I have to assume you worked really hard to get here, are you really okay with being sent back? All because you brought a knife to a fight that you say you wouldn’t even use? Then what was the point?”

It wasn’t about the knife. It had been at first, but now it wasn’t. It was about the fact that he was a smart guy, the only person with a brain she willingly acknowledged and she didn’t see any point in throwing that away because of three idiots who karma would deal with eventually anyway. “Anyway, you can’t get sent back to the flaming dumpster because like it or not, I need you to keep getting those grades so that I have someone to aim to beat. If I don’t have fair competition then you’re pretty much taking away my future too, so...” Even though it was said with a straight face and a little bit of feeling, Eden could make jokes too sometimes.

[ediams]

@ofkatherinebishop  🌱

Okay, this was becoming outrageously ridiculous, Eden thought to herself as she vigorously brushed her teeth and glared at her own reflection come Monday morning. How was it that she was a good, wholesome Catholic student who mimed her prayers and ate her vegetables and yet, her dorm had suddenly become a prison? Why did Kat get to do that? Why did Kat always get to exist and exist hard while people like Eden, who politely shared a room with her, simply tried to blend in with the wallpaper? And actually, while she was on the thought-topic, what authorized her to constantly make Eden’s life a chronic buzz of Bishop Issues where she had no choice but to come back to her safe space and be exposed to it? Why? What in the Lord’s name of right and reason was so bad in Kat’s life that she’d all of a sudden married her bed? 

Foolishly, at first, Eden had thought it was a peace offering from God. A little sorry I made you deal with her for 3 years, here is a weekend of peace and quiet in return. But then, as the days turned to night and Kat hardly seemed to get out of bed except to empty her bladder, Eden felt weird about it. Was it worry? Concern? Distrust? It was all of the above, to be honest. Because Kat never stayed home on weekends, and now that she thought about it, where was Loud Mouth McMaddy, the Indian Idiot and Obscenely Over Dramatic Drea? It was about time they came kicking down their shared door and making Eden wish they were all insects she could smoke out with repellent.

Coming back into the room, Eden was about to collect her things and go meet up with a freshman before classes when she realized she needed lip balm. Despite all their chaotic differences, it was safe to say that since Stowe, Kat and Eden had actually kind of made a bit of a bridge between them. It might have been rickety and made out of the cheapest plywood around, but it was there, so Eden didn’t mind helping herself to Kat’s abundance of cosmetics. She’d said she could and Eden was not an over-abuser, so this one thing was barely even worth mentioning, right?

Going over to the shelving where she knew Kat kept her abundance of weird, organic, cruelty-free products, Eden began to rifle through them with Kat’s lump remaining in bed with barely a stir. Ignoring her, Eden picked up a small tub that had Chinese symbols on it. No, she didn’t rust that. She put it back. On her way to catching a glimpse of what she’d been looking for though, Eden frowned for a moment, reaching for a green bottle that looked like something it couldn’t be and twisting it around. Alas, low and behold, slapped across the front was a bright pink was PRENATAL which had Eden snatching it off the shelf to inspect closer. What in the name...?! Oh no. There was no way. Actually, yes there was a way, if she thought about it for a second more, she decided that she believed it. With the insane weekend of secrets being bombed over Kat and her friends that Eden heard about because the walls were only so thin and her earplugs only did so much, that crazy argument she’d caught a line from with Damian yesterday, Kat staying in bed all weekend—

Oh no.

“Kat.” Her bedsheets were stripped back suddenly, torn from Kat’s tangled sleep-paralysis state and floofing blond hair about from it’s messy top-knot that Eden was pretty sure she’d seen her tie up on Friday night and it was now Monday morning. Gross. “Kat, get up! We’ve got World Religion in an hour but first you need to explain to me why on Earth you have these.” She flashed the pill container, “Look, I know I said I don’t ever want to know your business after that thing with the bedside banana but this is serious. If something’s going on... if you’re-” Eugh, pregnant?! “If you need help, I need to know for my own sanity that this isn’t the only thing you’ve Googled about what you need to do. Because it’s not as simple as that.” Good God, she hoped there was some dumb Katherine Bishop excuse for this and that her roommate — her roommate that she’d only just finally started to build a relationship with, mind you — was not about to become a seventeen year old parent. How stupid could she be? This was really out of the ballpark figure for Kat and Eden hoped she knew that. But... she also hoped she knew that Eden cared. In her own, weird way, she did. Fertility was a big deal. Ironic enough to her current study focus, she was probably the best person to be equipped for a situation such as this. “Okay, first of all, I need to know how long. Not a physical measurement,” She clarified, “How far along. That’s important. And secondly, I’m sorry, I know you’re an animal lover but you need iron, and you need protien. This isn’t about you now, it’s about somebody else and you don’t get to dictate their diet, science does. Okay? Okay.”

[ediams]

ohnissh‌:

Sulking in the assortment of papers for all those damn classes, most of which she finished back home was like a slap in the face to her, a brand new curriculum, she’d gotten more work than she intended to back home, and to think, she’d only have to take one or two classes in New York, and suddenly she comes here and has a packed scheduled, with a required afternoon activity? A tragedy in itself, and yet another thing to hate her brother, and this school for, she was a fool for going quietly. Her thoughts momentarily, looking up at the girl. “Not at all,” she replied calmly, well, she did mind, she wanted to suffer in peace, but she’d have to loosen up some day. “Here, just let me like, make some room for you, I am a mess,” she sighed, making space for her as promised putting papers in such in the proper folder as she moved her own laptop closer to her, gesturing when it was okay to take a seat. “I don’t blame you, whatsoever, the smell of a boys lockeroom on top of what seems like the stench of death? I’d want to get as far away from it as I can, I’m surprised no one’s sick yet,” for such a rich and prestigious school, it sure had its lows as opposed to the highs, staff couldn’t nip it in the butt quick enough? “What’re you working on though? You look like you’ve had it.”

Eden offered the girl a small smile of gratitude, knowing what hard work looked like and not failing to notice that the senior was elbows deep in it. She was a senior right? Jay’s sister? Eden couldn’t be totally sure, but given that Kat was her roommate and she knew way more about Jay Foster than she ever wanted to, it was safe to say that she was pretty sure that was Nishma Foster who was bestowing her a space at her table. Go figure, she just couldn’t escape.

“Oh. Just this report for biology, it’s crazy because I could literally look into gene sequencing today and come out the end eighty years down the track with... like, more questions than I went into it with.” She sat, placing her laptop in front of her and opening it. Then it happened. She didn’t mean to but the information bubbled up like a curse. “Did you know the fertility industry is like, one of the few industries where the tech outweighs the data? How crazy is that? Like, there is literally no guarantee that IVF or something will be successful but the market knows how desperate couples can be so they just make more devices and give them a false sense of insurance that it’s going to work and boom, that’s like, a few hundred thousand dollars in their pocket per anum.” It made her angry to think about, which might have been why Nishma has said she looked like she’d had it. Because she had. It, being a short fuse with money-greedy corporations thinking they can dictate natural science. “Anyway, it’s... like my thing, so I just want this report to be really concise, you know? Gross smelling school hallways aside.”

[ediams]

jamesonward‌:

It never occurred to him that there were people who didn’t know what a gas leak smelled like and then it made him wonder if that was another thing people didn’t normally have happen in their homes. He was pulled out of his thoughts at mention of Kat, expression a little haunted that Eden would bring her up at his table after he’d gone all the way out into the gardens to avoid having to think about her and her sudden, frosty mood. 

“Right. So, about the other day. I wasn’t really going to knife the guy, just so you know.” A lie because he sure felt ready to knife Dylan, but he didn’t and if Frank taught him anything, it was all about probable deniability. Jamie didn’t believe a whole lot in dream stuff but the reoccurring nightmare where he owned an Audi and cut a ginger was haunting him every time he unceremoniously passed out in the library during study block. It was really becoming a problem that felt a little bit like a sign.

Jamie cut her a look. “Are you okay?”

Oh. Okay. They were going to talk about it. Just like that.

Eden’s mouth slowly shrunk into a close, her tongue softening as the words that were going to come next died in her throat. She looked down at her laptop keyboard and hovered her fingers there, fingers above the middle keys, touching them and sinking back and touching them again. Finally, she looked up over the rim of Jamie’s screen at him, realizing just how black and blue he looked and feeling bad for not having noticed or cared initially. It wasn’t like Eden to check in on people, in fact, not talking about scary things that happened were definitely more her speed. She’d almost forgotten about the knife. Until he’d brought it up.

“I’m fine. They’re just idiots.” She wanted to say she felt worse for him because he’d been punched but to be fair, he’d also attacked first if she was being clinical about it. Watching Jamie get flung around hadn’t been a true highlight of her week, but Eden was confident that he didn’t have to do what he’d done. It wasn’t fun like in the movies, it was just scary. And now he wore the price like an eyepatch. “Look, I know it’s none of my business but,” Eden leaned forward then, steepling her fingers over her keyboard. “I don’t think you should be carrying a knife around school.” Because the second a knife turned into something with a magazine, Eden was going to have to say something, she wouldn’t even hesitate. Strange alliance or not, that wasn’t right. She thought about what he’d told her, about the way he lived at home and the vivid dumpster park vision he’d painted in her mind. She tried to imagine being a poor kid who slept with her uncle and carried a knife. It was safe to say, her imagination didn’t do her any favors filling in the gaps. “Are you?” Okay, she should have said, but she already felt she was overextending her efforts to ask. They weren’t exactly enemies, they never had been, but it wasn’t probably worth saying they were friends either. She didn’t know enough about Jamie to commit to that. She sure as hell didn’t know him enough to think that pulling a knife on some bullies was just... oh, fun Jamie things. “If you need to talk to someone...”

[uhhcleo]

what the fffffffffffffffheck

me trying to be more family friendly (via gnarly)

[ediams]

jamesonward‌:

Hiding in the gardens was probably not the best hiding place for someone dressed mostly in black but Jamie didn’t think anyone would bother someone gloomy enough to brood in stark sunlight while surrounded by spring blooms of pink and yellow. He didn’t really know how he was feeling about everything once the dust and settlement fell into place, leaving him floundering in a big sea of bullshit like an animal who’d just shredded all the toilet paper and had no idea what to do with it. Thus, he chose the garden, hoping all the flowers would at least make the mess look pretty.

Jamie looked up at Eden, a little pleased to see her, mostly because he was getting kind of lonely and she was impartial enough to hang around. “You don’t have to ask. My table is your table.”

He moved his own laptop aside to make room for her. “It’s getting pretty rank in there. I’m like 80% sure it’s something dead and 20% hopeful that it’s a gas-leak.”

It was probably ridiculous to have thought about approaching him, then turned on her heel like a coward, before tipping her head back and biting the bullet anyway. Eden liked working in the peace and quiet of solitude, not because she liked being alone, but because it was easier to get a sentence on a page when nobody was distracting you. Given that her roommate and co. were so good at that, she’d given up trying to finish anything ever in the comfort of her dorm after classes. So, this was probably going to shove a Jamie sized wedge in her plan to finish her paper, but... at least she had most of it already done. Worst case, maybe she could ask him to revise a few choice syntaxes she was still on the fence about.

“If that’s what a gas leak smells like, I’d say more morgues would get shut down for inspection. I think you’re being generous with your 20%.” The response came out of her automatically as she made to sit down, putting her bag on the bench seat beside her and placing her laptop in the jigsaw puzzle space next to Jamie’s. The table wasn’t huge, so it was almost like they had a little computer wall between them now which she wasn’t adverse about. Taking out her glasses, she slid them up her nose. “Thank you though. Normally, my room would be a safe bet because Kat usually goes out with her friends on weekends but she’s been acting weird lately. She didn’t even say anything to me this morning so as soon as I’m done with this paper I’m going to look up the weather forecast in Hell. I think the southern Ice Age has happened. Don’t tell anyone, though, I want my luck to last before someone decides to do something about it.”

[ediams]

raqueltorrance‌:

Raquel had plenty of time during her suspension to be keeping up with the classes she had been missing, that didn’t exactly mean that she had been. One of the many bad decisions the girl had made in her previous downward spiral, which lead to her camping out with all her things in the Clary to attempt at catching up with her classes, face buried in her laptop whilst simultaneously flipping through a textbook. The gardens had always been her favorite study spot, being out in the fresh air and the cool keeping her focused. She lifted her head when she heard someone speak up, blinking and squeezing her eyes shut for a moment when her vision blurred with the strain of looking at a bright screen and small text for so long. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked, managing a tired smile as she looked up at the other. “Oh, for sure,” Raquel replied, nodding her head in answer to the question. “Lemme just get my shit out of the way,” she said, reaching over to move her notes and backpack out of the way. “Sorry, I take up space when I actually try,” she commented. She hummed when she heard what Eden said, chuckling and nodding in understanding. “I get it, I get stir crazy being cooped up in there too,” she assured with a wave of her hand. 

When Raquel made to move her things, Eden shot her a sheepish but still appreciative smile. It was strange to be welcomed at “the dumpster table” as Jamie had dubbed it, and even though she might have shared flat smiles with Emma and him across the hallway provoked by the shared trauma of what had happened in the hallway at the beginning of the week, it still didn’t mean Eden felt comfortable sitting with the group of misfits just yet. Perhaps one day she might, maybe when there was only one or two of them and not an entire posse. Still, she wondered how much Raquel knew about her, about her brittle best-friend breakup anyway.

“Then I suppose it’s a good sign you’re moving so much stuff,” Eden felt the tutor come out in her, eyeing off all the belongings that Raquel put away, wondering if she really was trying or if that was just a cover story for being messy. Eden knew messy. She slept in the same room as Kat Bishop. 

Sitting at the table, Eden took out her laptop, her document paper still up and paused where she’d last decided to put a pin in it until she could breathe again. “I actually really like being inside so the sewer issue or whatever it is is really cramping my allergic to UV thing.”

[besttvgifs]

[exco]

i’m a horrible texter but i’m also really bad at talking to people in person so i really have nothing going for me