don't stress my stride, no rush.

when your stitch comes loose, i want to sleep on every piece of fuzz and stuffing that comes out of you.

[gideonsjames]

tclbott‌:

@gideonsjames

Andy watched incredulously as Coach Hart piled on shit for Gideon to do that day. The soccer team had been gathered into his office to watch a VHS (of all things) on sportsmanship and good character. Andy sat in the back row with an earbud in, trying to avoid drawing Hart’s eye, and dozing off until the male walked in.

Gideon stood by the half-open door, seeming eager to get out of there from where Andy sat. When Hart finished with the laundry list, he almost immediately got up to follow Gideon out the door, muttering about having to go to the bathroom. 

“— Dude.” Andy said, as the coach’s door swung shut behind them both. “This has gotta be worth at least like, minimum wage.” A chuckle fell from his lips as he fell into step with the other. “He even agree to the rec letter yet?!”

Gideon took careful notes on whatever it was that Coach Hart wanted him to do, and he couldn’t help but scoff, shaking his head once he was done rattling off his list of busy work today. He pressed his lips tightly together as he just decided to bite the bullet and get everything done. It wasn’t like he had much of another choice. 

Walking out, he was still shaking his head to himself when Andy called after him, turning around with his eyebrows raised.  “Yeah, you’re telling me,” he said, scoffing. “I don’t think he realizes that when I offered to help, I meant, like, once in a while. Now, he got my freaking cellphone number, dude.” 

He sighed. “He says it also depends on how the team does this year,” he said, shaking his head again. “I got roped into this for nothing.”

[gideonsjames]

@ffs-austin liked THIS for a starter!!

Gideon groaned in frustration, shaking his head. “I give up, dude. I’m never going to learn French, I’m going to just be content with my C in the class and be done with it,” he said, shaking his head. “This is ridiculous at this point. When am I even going to use this? 99% sure I’m not even going to move out of California.” 

He frowned at his textbook before leaning back completely and rubbing a hand over his face. He was tired from too many things, and mostly, he was starting to feel, more and more, that he didn’t really have a purpose. He didn’t know what he wanted to do, and as the end of senior year drew close, he started to realize that this was a serious problem. 

[gideonsjames]

@miaxcs liked THIS for a starter!!

Gideon didn’t spend a lot of time in the art classrooms, mostly because he knew he was terrible at it, but, of course, Coach Hart had sent him on yet another fool’s errand, it seemed, trying to poach sharpies from one of the art teachers. Of course, when he showed up, the teacher in question snapped at Gideon about Coach Hart being a freeloader before disappearing into a supply closet, still grumbling.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, looking around as he awkwardly rocked back and forth on his feet, trying to find something to do with himself for the few minutes the teacher was gone. “That’s, uh—” He stepped up closer to one of the students. “That’s really cool,” he said, gesturing at her canvas. “I mean, to me, who knows nothing about art, it’s cool. I don’t know if I’m, like—viewing it right or whatever.”

[gideonsjames]

kinseyhardman‌:

Kinsey finished gathering her things as he did with his own, her hands stuffing her things roughly into her bag. She just wanted this moving in shit to be over by now. It was probably one of her least favorite times of the entire year , however, it was necessary. “Listen, you and me both trust me. I’m a mess today.” She laughed a bit as she leaned herself up then slinging her duffel bag over her shoulder and grabbing her suitcase handle.  

Kinsey smiled grasping his hand in hers, “It’s nice to meet you, Gideon–” she laughed a bit, “not too hard to pronounce i don’t think.” She winked a bit. “Oh, are you sure?” She looked down at her couple of bags then back up at him. “I mean you have stuff of your own too,” she smiled lightly but extended one of her lighter bags out to him, “i can’t resist help though, can I?”

Gideon shook his head, waving a hand. “It’s the least I can do when I sent you sprawling. You’re right, no one takes care of the small blondes during move-in. We should start a campaign to change that,” he joked with a crooked grin. He picked up her bag and slung it over his shoulder easily—after a full summer of almost nothing but volleyball, he had found himself much stronger than he had been as a junior. Carrying someone else’s stuff for them? Piece of cake. 

“Especially not when I’m insisting,” he replied, nodding once. He started walking back with her towards the girls’ dorm, making sure to walk a little in front and clear the way—at 6 feet tall, Gideon cut a path through the crowd easily. Everyone noticed him. “I think I’ve seen you around,” he mused, pausing for a moment. “GSA, right?” 

[gideonsjames]

michael-pl‌:

“Hate to break it to you, pal, but I’m always late. Looks like we’re partners.” Michael shrugged his shoulders, completely unbothered. He liked Gideon— a lot, so freshman year he went and kissed him and when Gideon pulled away, Michael never thought much of it. He would’ve understood if Gideon wasn’t like that, but Michael noticed the lingering stares and the fact he always got nervous when they were close. 

Michael wasn’t going to just stifle his crush when he noticed the same antsy tendencies he had were also in Gideon. No one else had exactly stepped up to the plate of wanting to be anything more than a drunk party hook up. So he planned to keep a careful eye on Gideon and how his relationship with Yvette was going.

“We could ditch class.” He whispered with a grin. “I mean, the points we lose in attendance make up for what we’ll gain if I help you with your homework.” Michael offered. Clearly he knew enough to even get a head start on the first couple of lessons. He always liked to just do all the homework early so he didn’t have to worry the rest of the year.

Gideon pursed his lips off to the side slightly as he tried to focus on what the teacher was saying, but the words seemed to come to him all hazy and through a fog that only cleared to allow Michael’s voice through. His heart rate was picking up, he was sure—hell, he could feel it. He swallowed once, glancing up at the teacher and trying to keep his attention there, but it was growing increasingly difficult. 

He raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable but also not telling Michael to stop. He couldn’t find it in himself to say anything to him one way or another, couldn’t find it in himself to pull away completely. Some part of Gideon hoped that they could go back to when they were younger, go back and do it all differently. 

“Yeah, but when I bomb the test, I’m going to really wish I went to class,” he replied, his jaw shifting slightly uncomfortably. He paused for a moment, biting down on his lower lip as he looked down at the syllabus. “But—” He sighed, shaking his head. “I know I’m not going to get this unless I have help.”

[gideonsjames]

tclbott‌:

Andy raised a brow at the prospect. “The Coach Hart? Like the one that could barely remember my name until my junior year of playing for him?” True story - one Andy still bitched about to this day. “Dude, not for nothing, but I doubt Hart is keeping tabs on who’s doing his dirty work. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even remember that he has to do that shit anymore. I’d be careful how much life you sign away to him. He might not fuckin’ remember it.” His eyes landed on the clipboard Gideon was holding, full of meticulous ticks and chicken scratch. All of it was no doubt tedious. And Coach Hart was the exact type of asshole to take it all for granted. 

“I say you just write the letter yourself, and have him sign it when you’re both in the office together next. But anyway,” - and suddenly Andy was ready to roll topics as quickly as he’d gotten into it. He was done for the day with the sage life advice. “You got a jersey for me?”

“Yeah, the one who still calls me Gordon instead of Gideon,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m mostly doing this so I can catch him when he’s not being gross for once and guilt him into doing the rec letter for me,” he replied. He tapped the clipboard twice with his pen. “And this is just proof that I did it.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know, I don’t mind it all that much,” he said, looking around at the general disarray around him in the office. “I like it when things are organized. And if I’m in here, then I don’t have to deal with—” he gestured vaguely towards the door of the office. “—anyone,” he finished. 

He huffed out a laugh before shaking his head. “I’m not as good at that kind of thing as you are,” he said, rummaging around for the jersey as Andy spoke. “Yeah, somewhere. What’s your number again?” he asked, sorting through the soccer jerseys he had stacked off to the side. 

[gideonsjames]

fxkstasia‌:

At the sight of Gideon heading towards her down the hall, she stuck out her Chanel boot-clad foot, hoping to send him tumbling to the floor. Normally, she didn’t go out of her way to do too much damage to Gideon, but for whatever combination of reasons, whether it was her personality shift last year or some emotions that she didn’t want to look at too closely, she didn’t want to consider the why. She was done with the why. Now, she was all about action and what felt good. And bullying the poor boy definitely felt good. 

@gideonsjames

Gideon, generally, was good on his feet, but it also didn’t take much to tip him over. Being so tall, it was like his center of gravity was shifted way up, leaving him somewhat wobbly—not unlike those big, floppy things that blew around in the wind outside of car dealerships. And so, it only took a moment for Gideon to be sent sprawling across the floor—and, of course, all that volleyball training meant nothing when Gideon couldn’t get his ass together to use it, so he face planted against the floor, the books he was holding sprawling out in front of him. Immediately, he got red in the face, trying to gather the mess of papers in front of him before anything else could serve to shame him. 

[gideonsjames]

like/reply to this for a starter!!

[gideonsjames]

ccarvahlo‌:

“Gideon, you need to understand something,” Catalina spoke almost defensively, though she felt calm in her head. “You’re in a position where you simply can’t give an accurate, unbiased statement about your parents. Because they’re your parents. I’m not expecting you to agree with me, but to understand that maybe, because you’re related to them, you can’t be unbiased.”

She rolled her eyes. “You wanna throw a fit? That’s fine. I published my facts on the matter and I’m giving you the chance to have people see the other side. If you say no, that’s on you,” she shrugged.

Catalina smirked, shaking her head. “I’ll be sure to save a seat for your parents,” she called after him, rolling her eyes at him.

[gideonsjames]

ccarvahlo‌:

“Your parents are bad people,” Catalina shrugged. “They do bad things, and the world deserves to know that. It’s not my fault.” Catalina truly believed in the truth, and the expression of the truth in all forms, which was why she didn’t think what she was doing was wrong. Sure, she liked Gideon and felt bad for him, but she didn’t regret what she had done.

“I don’t control what other kids do and say,” she shrugged. “My blog isn’t a Redwood centric thing, people from all over the country–no, all over the world–read it. I have an obligation to to report what I know, fully, without holding back.”

Then, an idea came to her, and a smirk appeared on her face. “Okay, let me interview you then,” she nodded. “Let the people hear your side of the story. It’ll clear you name and give me an even bigger readership. Win win, really.”

Gideon scoffed. “You say that, have you even met them?” Gideon had his issues with his parents, but they were his parents, after all. He wasn’t going to pretend that he didn’t have any loyalty to them, especially not in the face of someone like this—who obviously only cared about the sensational part of the story, not the whole truth. 

“If you wanted the full truth, you would have reported it. You didn’t do that, so don’t tell me this is about the truth. Even if you’re not Redwood centric, you’re here now, and everyone here reads your blog.” 

He swallowed, looking down for a moment. He had always been taught to turn the other cheek—thank you, church upbringing—but he felt the words coming up in his throat like bile. He didn’t meet her gaze. 

“I actually believe in this stuff, so trust me that it’s serious when I tell you to go to Hell,” he said quietly before shoving past her. 

[gideonsjames]

tclbott‌:

“What up, what up.” Andy grinned, strolling through the coach’s office like he owned it. The normally too composed male actually found himself excited when he’d received the email that soccer’s pre season was beginning. He’d been Red’s varsity goalie for three years now, and loving it. It was one of the few things he did with his whole ass; an outlet to push frustration away, and to keep his parents from thinking he was wasting his time at Redwood. 

“The line ups pretty fucking solid, dude. Have you seen it?” Andy asked. “Aaron, Samuel, Gabe: all starters again this year. It’s gonna be good.” He folded his arms across his chest casually, eyeing the clipboard in Gideon’s hand. Truth be told, Andy had very little idea what he did for the clubs, other than the fact that he was constantly seeing the dude around Coach Hart’s office. “ — What’re you up to before season’s even started?”

Gideon hugged the clipboard to his chest, shaking his head. “Seriously? That’s some pretty good turnover. I hear about...half the varsity men’s team is revolting. Drama’s out of control over here,” he said, shaking his head as he put the clipboard down on the table, leaning against it with one hand as he opened up one of the desk drawers and rummaged around in it for a pen, his already going dry after just half the inventory that he was supposed to check off and complete paper work for that day. 

“I’m sucking up to Coach Hart so he’ll write me a rec letter,” he said. “USC has been sniffing around and if I’m good enough, I’m hoping they’ll recruit me for their team.” USC was kind of a dream—he didn’t want to leave California, not when it had been his home for so long, but he knew that if he was going to stay here, he was going to have just keep pushing his life forward. “So, I’m doing all the inventory he’s too lazy to do.”

[gideonsjames]

michael-pl‌:

Michael’s brow raised at him as he started pulling stuff out of his backpack. “You wanna come wake me up when I don’t hear my alarm, be my guest. Otherwise— no need to be a bitter little Betty.” He nodded, shoving his backpack off his desk as he started aimlessly sketching in the margins of his notebook. He never focused in class, he didn’t need to. He already took an advanced version of the course for fun online over summer. This was just to satisfy some stupid requirements.

It’d been four years since Gideon brushed Michael off and honestly, he hadn’t thought much about him since. He had other things to worry about than another boy crush who wanted nothing to do with him. He didn’t forget about him immediately, it took a few emotional talks with his moms to realize someone better was out there. But when Michael sat down next to Gideon again, he started finding his talks a little untrue.

“Did you know he didn’t go to school for this?” Michael whispered quietly as the teacher went on. “Like… he barely got his masters in Statistics. Barely. I took a class with his old professor this summer. Now that dude actually knows some shit.” 

“If you weren’t late, maybe you wouldn’t be sitting here,” he said sharply under his breath, letting out a slow sigh. He wanted nothing more than to figure out whatever it was that had stirred in him as a freshman, but he had spent so much time repressing who he truly was, he had never stopped to really think about how much his friendship with Michael had meant to him. It had been the only time he had felt like someone had really seen him and understood him, the only time he felt like he could truly be himself. Maybe it wasn’t so surprising that they had kissed—maybe he had mistaken friendship for romance. 

Regardless of what the truth of freshman year was, it was now too late for all of that. Gideon had made sure of that. He had looked away every time Michael had tried to catch his eyes. He had walked down inefficient routes through campus just to avoid seeing him on the quad and going weak in the knees. There was so much that Gideon hadn’t unpacked about that experience, and the more time passed since it happened, the less likely it was that Gideon would face it. 

Now, however, it wasn’t too late. He could still do something right. Gideon shook his head. “Still knows way more than me,” he said quietly, unable to take notes with how distracted he was just by Michael’s presence. Now he was sure that he was going to end up failing this class. 

[gideonsjames]

ccarvahlo‌:

Catalina was speaking to a sophomore when Gideon approached her (the two were speaking about her blog, which had gained so much ground over the last year that people wanted to work for her, free of charge. She wasn’t going to say no to that; sure, she loved running it on her own, but something successful needed more support.)

“We’ll talk later, Cassie,” she told the girl, motioning her away and turning to Gideon. The two had been friends for a while, until Catalina decided to post a blast on his parents. Sure, she knew that the two would never be friends like they were before, but Cat’s only allegiance was to the truth. She didn’t mind losing a few friends if it meant being honest with her readers.

“Why would I take it down?” she asked, tilting her head. “Gideon, I’m not sure if you know this, but not everything is about you. In fact, I didn’t even mention your name. What people assume is up to them, not up to me. I just post the truth.” She shrugged her shoulders, taking a sip of her coffee.

Gideon paused, listening to her with his jaw dropped in an incredulous expression. He paused, as if he was waiting for her to continue, before he scoffed, shaking his head. “They’re my parents, you knew what this would do to me,” he said, looking at Cat with no anger in his gaze, just confusion and betrayal. 

He thought they were friends, but it turned out, the scoop concerning his parents had been more important than that. Desperate for people to like him, desperate for people to notice him, he had latched onto the friendship they had because he thought that he could trust that nothing like this was going to happen. But then—it happened. And he was left scratching his head like an idiot wondering what he had done wrong. 

“The truth is just an excuse for treating me badly,” he said quietly, shifting his jaw. “If you really wanted to report the whole truth, you would have interviewed me. But instead you hung me out to dry in front of the entire school.”

[gideonsjames]

@issateddy liked THIS for a starter!!

The two of them were manning the table for Christian Club that afternoon, while the school was out for field day, as they tried to recruit more members—though, honestly, Gideon didn’t really see the point of recruitment. They could all see on the freaking website that there was a Christian Club, if people wanted to join, they already would have joined. 

Gideon sighed and leaned back in his seat, tilting his head back. “This sucks,” he said, shaking his head. “This is cruel and unusual punishment and I think that Yvette put me here because I didn’t know what burgundy was,” he said. He glanced through his phone—still no notifications in the last thirty seconds, since he had last checked his phone. 

[gideonsjames]

@jacq-harlem liked THIS for a starter!!

Gideon was supposed to be handing out fliers for Christian Club. Key word: supposed. He wasn’t actually doing that good of a job, especially considering the main reason he was in that club at all was to make his parents happy, not to make himself happy. The fact that he was vice president didn’t mean much. He was sure he had only gotten it because of his relationship with Yvette—and frankly, it didn’t feel so good to always be thought of in terms of her. 

He put the stack of fliers down on the table, weighing it down with a stapler as he checked his phone before he finally looked up. “Listen, I’m not going to try and fight anyone else today,” he said. Someone had already come by to lead a one man protest, though he had been ushered away quickly. “If you like the Bible, feel free to take a flier, but if not, no skin of my nose. Okay?”

[gideonsjames]

@tclbott liked THIS for a starter!!

“Yo, Andy, what’s up?” he asked, reaching a hand out to slap his hand three times before he shook it once. Gideon was already deep into the athletic program for the year, helping the head coach out with inventory and other random jobs that needed to be done. Most of his time these days was either spent in the athletic office—because he really, really needed that letter of rec from his coach—or in the band room, working out the kinks for the marching season. 

He was helping assign jerseys for the new players—literally, all the new players—for the year, his mind already starting to go numb when Andy walked in. “How’s the soccer team looking?” he asked, checking off a few things on his clip board before he flipped all the pages back to the front. 

[gideonsjames]

iMessage 📨 YVETTE & GIDEON

yvette: scroll back i did say please!

yvette: yey! love you !

gideon: ya but i just want you to say it again ;)

gideon: anything for u