fortune favors the brave.

Jason A. Mckenna. 17. Junior House Melleray

[hexed-existence]

Fresh Beginnings: Open Starter.

[jjmckenna]

ethan-harris‌:

Starting off with being asked if he meant a joint of weed didn’t make Ethan any more confident that he had asked the right student, nor did the inched up eyebrow. Although the fact that he now had continued to ramble on and on about knowing a guy who, might possibly know a guy, who knows a guy gave Ethan faith in the fact that he might not turn him in to the headmaster straight away.

“Well I mean, it doesn’t have to be weed. I mean any kind of herb or spice will do, you know. Oregano, parsley, PCP. Anything really, I’m not that fussed.” Ethan joked, a friendly smile on his lips as he did. If he was gonna go down for trying to buy some weed in his second week of being on campus, he might as well do it having fun he thought to himself.

“I’m kidding. Yes of course I mean weed” Ethan confirmed, worried that maybe the other student didn’t have as much of a sense or humor then Ethan had assumed.

“Really. I mean if it’s no hassle” Ethan replied, a little shocked that the other would simply do that for someone he just met. “Yeah, I just started a couple of weeks ago. Names Ethan” he said, stretching out is hand to greet the other student. 

“I didn’t know you could smoke oregano,” JJ replied. Whether he was returning the joke or if he’d simply took it as new information was up in the air when the vacancy in his eyes didn’t seem to ebb away the longer he bobbed his head like an etch-a-sketch. He brightened when Ethan clarified. 

“Sure. I’ll send him a text,” he said. There was no guarantee that Jay would have any but after he’d lost his last contact, there weren’t that many other options to turn and JJ really wanted to make a friend. He shook Ethan’s hand vigorously when offered. “Nice to meet you, Ethan. So where’d you come from? I can tell you’re not American. It’s really hard to tell what you’re saying.” He liked to think that he had ample experience after clumsily navigating around Flick for the few weeks he and Gwen were dating still. Not only was she hard to understand but she also said all kinds of weird stuff. JJ liked to think that he was pretty cultured but...

“I’m kind of new too. It’s a tough transition from my last school but I‘d say the people are pretty nice. Lots of rules, though,” he gestured a little as he spoke as if his hands were trying to communicate a story of their own too. JJ stuffed his thumbs under the straps of his backpack to keep them in place, but it didn’t help much. “What do your folks do?”

[jjmckenna]

dylancrane‌:

Now that was something she could get on board with. She had always been interested in competitive sports and she had been in a swimming team of her own back in Roxbury, but it seemed like even though it was the same state, she was a million miles away from that place and the old tired swimming baths that were open all summer long. It was not summer now and she was somewhere else, standing in her new school in front of a boy she had never seen before and she was yet to even register that he was fantastically good looking – although that seemed to be a trend around here. 

“That’s good,” she slipped the note into her back pocket, deciding that she now had enough information. She had read someone else’s name on the list for swimming captain but she hadn’t had any luck in locating them around here. Now, it made sense. “Stand in captain,” she said, her voice full of humour, “Meet your newest try out. Do you do try outs here? Because I’m an amazing swimmer, almost as good as I am at running. I want in on the team.”

JJ grinned widely when she put the slip away, taking it as a sign that she’d made up her mind. Prospective members were better than none and JJ never refused a super awful swimmer before if it meant more opportunity to save them. Granted, it would’ve been a good time to tell her that the regular captain was relieved of duty temporarily due to like, vicious battery and an open case of bullying but he’d remind himself later to mention it. Damian was a good guy somewhere deep down, he could feel it.

“Awesome,” he chirped, looking like the cheapest tour guide the school could afford. “Um, well, not here here. But we do have a pool. There’s practice after school on most days so just come on by and we’ll see what we can do. Can I get a name?”

[jjmckenna]

dylancrane‌:

Despite only having enrolled that week, Dylan had managed to somewhat escape socialising with other students. It wasn’t because she was nervous that she avoided the flocks of Broadripple students that seemed to appear around every corner, it was because she was sure that like her old schools they might be rather interested in fresh meat. Flying under the radar was nothing to do with fear or concern, it was simply easier to camouflage and eventually make it seemed like you were always there than clamber to find a place in whatever pre-established social groups were already in place. She had came here for education and freedom from strangers, not to make a bunch of friends she’d probably never speak to again outside these walls – although of course, eventually she would entertain them and pretend she thought they’d be friends forever.

She had just finished reading up on the agriculture project she was meat to be starting shortly and she was sure that it would be interesting but she had other things on her mind. Finally, she approached someone that she saw on campus, “Hey,” she paused, a slip of paper in her hand, “Are you in any of these clubs?”

JJ was no stranger to a pretty face and he liked to think that he knew most of them in school at that point after they all shut the door on his post- Gwenapocalypse. He started making school a priority again, or at least the things about it that mattered to him, so he wasn’t keen on looking at girls or anything but he was always open to more pals and what a better way to make a friend than to recruit them into a club?

His eyes glimmered with the prospect of having a girl on the team again after he realized the last one was actually a guy he mistaken for a liberal European with a lax stance on nipple nudity. JJ smiled brightly at her, dimples creasing his cheeks in a way that would’ve given Freddie Prinz Jr. a run for his money. “Kind of. I’m on SWAT and pretty much all the water sports teams,” he supplied cheerfully. 

“Actually, I’m stand-in captain right now for the swim club. You should join. You’re new, right? I’m Jason. Everyone calls me JJ though.”

[hexed-existence]

Fresh Beginnings: Open Starter.

[jjmckenna]

Seeing the other student spin around with the overly eager smile on his face, Ethan stood silent for a moment as he tossed up if it was worth the risk asking someone with such an eager smile where he could break the school rules or if it was better just to find someone else. Then again, it wasn’t like he had anyone else to ask and aside from the rather offsetting, eager looking grin the other student didn’t seem to be like the kind of person who would run off too the headmaster.

“I was actually wondering if you knew anyone who might be able to hook me up with a joint or two…” Ethan replied, a small friendly smile making its way onto his face in an attempt to make the conversation less awkward.

This was one of the only disadvantages of being in in a completely different county. Back home in London Ethan had a couple of friends that could hook him up, no awkward asking around involved. Over here in American he had no one.

“Of weed?” JJ’s brows inched up his forehead, impressed with the new kid’s audacity, even if he didn’t really have a good response. All of his hook-ups had turned their backs on him following Gwen’s tirade on his reputation and with the influx of security, he had to wonder who at school had the wherewithal to brave the town to sneak in contraband. 

“I know a guy. Kind of. I mean, I know a guy who knows a guy. Probably.” He waved a hand as if it might help his explanation come out easier. It didn’t, but JJ didn’t look any less joyed to have provided it. “I could ask him for ya. You’re new, right? I’m Jason. Everyone calls me JJ though. What’s your name?”

[jjmckenna]

jaysster‌:

It wasn’t alright and somehow, even Jay knew that as the response reverberated around his teeth but never reached the light of day. He just looked at JJ with guilty eyes, wishing he could just transmute his thoughts into a handshake or something and be done with the whole thing. He’d never really cared for swimming anyway, not how Damian or JJ did. It only made sense for the captain role to go to the other boy in the meantime. “Oh cool. Nice, man. That suits you.” Jay reached out and slapped a touch to JJ’s shoulder, giving him a sincere grin about it. Hey, who knew? Maybe the team would start looking up not being run by a literal sociopath.

Jay decided to skip right over Damian’s suspension, which in hindsight, was probably not the best idea if he wanted to seem apathetic about it. Normally, should he have nothing to do with any of it, he probably would have been concerned. Before the party, they’d been friends. “Yo, that’s heaps good.” He agreed. Getting dumped sucked, but if good things happened in its wake then maybe it was one of those blessings in disguises that people always talked about? “What? Oh,” He laughed suddenly at the mention of Flick and Co. “Nah, man, you’re fine. Seriously, fuck her,” He meant Gwen, not Flick, he still liked Flick. “You’re a good guy, who gives if they hate you, you don’t need that kind of crazy. Flick’s really cool, I appreciate it, but I think… you know, I think I’m just going to stick with the friends I’ve got. You should too. There’s just like, something not right about all those guys. You’ll be better off when they all graduate.” He admitted, trying to ignore the fact he’d be going with them.

JJ responded to the friendly pat with a pinched smile. It was odd how something that he used to be assuaged by felt so empty all of a sudden, like a huge chasm had opened up between them and he discovered that an arm made for a flimsy bridge.

“Heaps,” he repeated. If only his improving Biology grade would give him a leg up in this popularity contest but after trying to sidle in with the super smart juniors, he found himself getting shunned by Jessica’s little leather gang and he found it rather deserving considering how he contributed to that mess like, two Wednesdays ago. 

“Am I though?” he asked with a laugh, cocking his head a little as if the compliment were a bullet to be dodged. JJ certainly hadn’t been feeling like a good guy lately, just a dude haplessly trying to wade his way through a mecca of high school stereotypes and finding himself unable to fit in anywhere. Too gay to be a jock, too stupid to be a bookworm and too handsome to be a loser. It was like he couldn’t win no matter where he committed.

“Yeah, sure. I mean, they’re just-- like... all my friends,” he said a little bitterly. Gwen had dove in and swept him up fast, surrounding him with all of her buddies until he realized everyone he knew was a senior. Kind of made him wish he was one too so he’d be done and over with it in a couple months, not that he knew what he was going to do when he graduated either. JJ found it difficult to keep up his sunny beams with talk of graduation and friends all of a sudden. Ironic how that all panned out.  “You’re like, the only person who’ll talk to me anymore and soon you’re gonna graduate too.” 

[hexed-existence]

Fresh Beginnings: Open Starter.

[jjmckenna]

ethan-harris‌:

Having arrived only two weeks ago, Ethan was still relatively unfamiliar with his new surroundings. Normally something like this wouldn’t be a problem, but since he had arrived at Broadripple half way through the semester, he had been burred under weeks worth of school work to make sure he was caught up with the rest of the students… well that’s what they told him anyway. Ethan on the other hand, was still convinced that it was his Stepfathers doing. A final ‘Fuck you’ from his c**t of a stepfather as he shipped him off halfway around the world.

Having spent more then enough hours slowly working through what seemed like a never ending pile of school work. Ethan had decided it was maybe time for him to remove himself from his dorm and actually learn the layout of the school grounds and if he was lucky, find someone who might know where he could get a smoke.

Stepping out from the boy’s dorms and out into the school grounds, it didn’t take long for Ethan to find himself in the Cloisters. Looking around he could spot a few students here and there. Some enjoying the small amounts of sun that made its way into the open court yard, others simply using it as a short cut to somewhere else.

Ethan’s quest to find someone who looked like they might know how to get their hands on a joint in this school had quickly taken priority over learning the layout of the school itself. Looking around, it didn’t take long for Ethan to spot a single individual who fit the description of what he was looking for.

Making his way over to the individual Ethan’s mind began to buzz. He didn’t know anyone at Broadripple, knowing his luck he was about to ask a house captain where he could get a joint.

“Hi… uhhh. I’m new around here and I was wondering if you could possibly help me out”

‘Christ. Really Ethan, that’s what you are gonna open with. You deserve it if you get busted’  he thought to himself as he gave a small, friendly smile and waited to the other to reply.

With the steady decline of his popularity lately, JJ didn’t expect many people to come ask him for things, but that was the joy in new students: none of them knew about the crazy weird stuff that happened around school and even less about the crazy weird rumors from crazy ex-girlfriends who were crazy weird. JJ saw it as a shining opportunity to rake some favor onto his side and maybe make a friend too, because eating lunch by holding the dwindling members of swim team hostage was making him feel a little bit like a tyrant and he didn’t love the feeling.

JJ spun around and smiled a little too eagerly at the new face, hope leaping at the chance to make a good impression before the rest of the academy made a killing swoop on him and told him about what he did last month. “Sure. I just got here this semester but I’ll do my best. What’cha need, buddy?”

[jjmckenna]

jaysster‌:

When his eyes landed on JJ, Jay made the conscious effort to exhale all his negative energy before the other boy came close and started readjusting his tie. He felt so dumb being handicapped by his own accord, but it paid to have misfortunes in public and see who rose above the rest to help out. It was nice. Maybe one of the few nice things that rose out the steaming shitpile of not nice stuff that was going on at the moment. But JJ was a good guy, he always had been, to Jay anyway. Who knew, maybe he’d closed his ears to the rest of the school’s whispering just like Jay had closed his when the gay jokes had started. Life was about more than who was doing what with who, and he didn’t care what JJ did in his spare time, as long as it wasn’t hurting anyone. Whatever his preferences were… power to him, Jay didn’t care. 

“Thanks, man.” He gave his friend a smile that took way more effort than it should have, glancing down at the splint for a moment before going through the list of things he’d been telling people who didn’t already know the truth. He wondered if JJ was just being polite or not. He also wondered if Damian was telling people, or if Gwen was, maybe even Flick… Maybe all of the above, just different versions? Either way, if JJ didn’t know then selfishly, Jay didn’t really feel like telling him either. “Oh. Just dumb shit as usual. Anyway, sorry I ditched the team, it’s just, like,” He didn’t want to be put in a small shower room with Damian ever again for the rest of his life? “I’m failing loads at the moment. I kind of need to pull my head in and focus or whatever, I don’t know, that’s what my mom said anyway.”

JJ looked Jay up and down, assessing him for sincerity before he really thought about doing it. He didn’t like the feeling of doubt but he also didn’t like it when self-awareness pierced through the thick veil of denial he covered himself with either but it was hard not to latch onto the little things. He smoothed out Jay’s tie before scrubbing his palms onto his trousers, feeling a little sweaty and nervous about their interactions in a way he never really felt before.

“Oh. It’s alright. T’is the season, I guess. We lost a couple members but the team’s still doing okay. Damian made me captain while he’s suspended so that’s been... fun.” JJ’s fluctuating expression struggling to stay afloat as he talked about the swim team said everything his face didn’t. The team was dwindling for a number of reasons that he suspected had a lot to do with him and a little bit to do with Damian, whose shining reputation took a literal and proverbial punch to the face recently. JJ didn’t think it was very odd, just confusing that he didn’t know where to sit at lunch anymore. 

“You should get a tutor. I’m getting a C- in Bio which is an improvement, I think. After getting dumped by Gwen, I just wanted to take my mind off of stuff so... I dunno, I guess she kinda helped me out in way.” JJ made an effort to look optimistic about it, even if he still looked a little wounded over the affair. “Sorry I couldn’t get you in with Flick. Pretty sure they all hate me now.”

[jjmckenna]

damianfitz‌:

Damian responds to JJ’s retort with a narrow-eyed glower and the clench of his jaw. He’s not bickering with him over this. He’s not depressed and that’s final.

But of course, it doesn’t end there. JJ, much like his puppies when they were say… 4 months old, doesn’t know when to stop. He comes in with words Damian thinks are supposed to make him feel better but they really don’t make much sense – at least to him. He assumes that in JJ’s head they mean something profound but it means nothing to Damian. It might as well be just a bunch of unrelated words sewn together.

“You don’t understand,” is Damian’s tired reply to the boy across from him, sat in his swivel chair with no care in the world. “My last name it… It means something. To a lot of people. There’s responsibility when you carry it. Expectations.” All of which are things Damian hasn’t been mindful of lately. It’s his final year at Broadripple and he should be investing every ounce of his energy into lifting his GPA and gathering as much points as he can for Fenwick. But no, that isn’t what he does. Instead, the one thing on his mind when he returns from break is Katherine Bishop and soon after, he let Jamie Ward whisk him away into a whirlwind of trickery and stress.

“In my family, mistakes are something that’s… they aren’t just forgotten. We don’t take lightly to imperfection. You’re expected to be this… ideal version of someone from the moment you’re born. Even if that someone might not be you.” He swallows hard, growing to realize his family’s way as he speaks. There’s a flash of Joseph telling him something on the platform of the trains before his weekend trip to New York comes to a close, and another of Eliza sobbing into his shoulder and gasping about how she feels like she can’t breathe before he talks her through it and they put on their outfits for the evening so they can show their faces at the party being held downstairs.

“What I’ve done… it doesn’t just disappear.” As much as his parents might want it to. He’s sure they’re talking up their lawyers right now, trying to figure out ways to keep this from spreading despite the sentence already being given out. “This will follow me. Be a cautionary tale for however many future generations.” It will be talked about by his uncle, his grandparents, everyone Elliot Fitzgerald once proudly boasted in front of. “Power comes with a price and I just played with it,” Damian admits with a shake of his head, echoing his father’s words. “I was given an opportunity that not a lot of people get and I just spat in its face.” It’s an honor to be a Fitzgerald and look what you’ve done!

“I’m shameful. It’s not right. I should be taking this more seriously.” He’s mostly speaking to himself now, lost in a cycle of his father yelling at him in his own head.

JJ bobbed his head as Damian explained, understanding some of his plight with the family legacy and all. As for as he knew, he’d be the first person in his family to not enlist in the US forces and it was hard thing to come to terms with when he realized it wouldn’t be possible with how much of his hearing had disintegrated. Everything he’d dreamed of and looked forward to in the future dispersed with a single diagnosis that could’ve been avoidable if they’d just been more diligent with firearms in the household, but JJ also understood that lamenting the loss didn’t fix the problem either. 

What he didn’t understand was all the pressure and the weight of expectations, or blatantly shaming their kids for one mistake. Maybe JJ was really naive and came from a broken family, but his mother had always insisted on forgiveness even if they were all working on forgiving each other everyday. That was the point, wasn’t it? Perseverance. It was the effort that made them people and differentiated them from animals who rejected their babies.

“I mean, you’re right. I don’t understand having a powerful name or like, ridiculous amounts of money or whatever but like, that means not a whole lot of other people do either,” he said, trying to think of a way to be relatable and get his point across. It was hard, but JJ had written an essay before sometime in like, the 7th grade. Or something. He could do this.

“What I’m trying to say is like, power’s nice, but I think happiness is worth more and it sounds to me like you’re just like, putting yourself into this mold of what other people think you should be, and it’s making you super unhappy. And like, who even cares? Do you? Like, does it make you happy to live for other people? My mom told me when I was little that only I have to live with myself forever so I should do things that make me proud.”

JJ chuckled a little to himself at the memory. It was one of the few moments he really remembered having with Mom while face-to-face and not over a computer screen. “It made me cry for like, seven days straight knowing she wasn’t gonna be there anymore one day but like, it made sense. I try not to do stuff I can’t live with and like, yeah, I make a lot of mistakes but we’re like, seventeen, dude. Shit happens. It shouldn’t like, define your entire future if you feel bad about it.”

Sighing, JJ scooted his chair over to Damian’s side of the room, a risque move considering the last time they were within proximity but he was a tactile creature and Damian looked like he needed a hug. He rubbed his shoulder consolingly. “Just forgive yourself, man. The sooner you get over it, the sooner you can start doing better is what I think. It already happened. Thinking about it doesn’t change it.”

[jjmckenna]

damianfitz‌:

“I’m not… depressed.” Damian doesn’t really know what he is right now. He can’t put a name to it. It’s something he’s never experienced before. He’s just… very sad, very upset, and very tired of how it’s been thing after thing for the past couple of days of his life. It’s Jay then it’s Gwen then it’s Kat then it’s Jamie then it’s his parents, and then who else? Who else wants to come and stomp on the splinters his father made of him? Really turn him into dust.

It’s odd to think that the boy who got familiar with his privates without his desire is closest thing Damian has to a friend right now. He’s certain it’s due to his ignoring JJ for the better part of a month but he forgets just how… sincere the boy manages to come across. Maybe it’s part of why Damian trusts his decision to leave his team with JJ. There’s a lot of good in the boy under all of inappropriate behavior.

“To save you from the trouble of asking around: I just got suspended. An internal suspension but still, a suspension nonetheless.” Something that goes in his permanent record. A thing his father couldn’t stress enough during his berating of Damian. “Generation after generation of Fitzgeralds attending this school and I’m the first to be written up for anything.” Another thing his father couldn’t stop repeating when he wasn’t reminding Damian of how his older brother had a spotless four years at Broadripple and walked away with honors and medals – a flawless reputation. 

The amount of times Damian felt the desire to snap and expose Joseph’s flaming homosexuality in their face during that conversation. But he didn’t. Because maybe Joseph deserves to be happy in New York and for once not worry about their parents’ wrath. Not that he and Joseph are close by any means but Damian doesn’t need to set that rickety bridge ablaze by being impulsive.

“So… if you’re wondering why I’m not up to par at the moment…”

“You definitely look depressed,” JJ insisted unhelpfully. The whole school might’ve thought that he was stupid, but nothing could take away the experiences he had with sullen faces and thousand yard stares. Damian didn’t have the grit of a soldier who’d seen too many things, just the lost gaze of someone who was overwhelmed with responsibilities. 

A suspension wasn’t really something he thought Damian would get considering his family’s status. The Fenwick paraphernalia decorating their room and Broadripple itself rarely let him forget who was the bossman around these parts but he was glad Damian got suspended if he really beat up some kid in Bart Wing. JJ had been to schools whose cavalier attitudes towards bullying made everyone super nice and quiet, which JJ had foolishly believed was a good thing until he realized it wasn’t. People were chaotic and messy things. It was ridiculous to expect a bunch of teenagers to fall in line when a lot of adults couldn’t manage to make phone calls without avoiding them for three weeks first.

“It’s not the end of the world, man. It just means you’ve done the most.” Maybe not the most profound thing to say, but JJ thought it was true. With the amount of mistakes under his belt, the very least he could say was that he’d lived a pretty good life.

“Why’s that so important to you? Like, having a clean record or whatever. ‘Cuz I’m pretty sure no one’s gonna look at what you did in 12th grade like, twenty years from now.”

[jjmckenna]

gwescott‌:

The first time he called her a name, Gwen had almost missed it. Frankly, she was too busy being aware of all the eyeballs that were boring into them, her own gaze flitting around the lockerroom nervously, wishing they would all just go away so she could commit a murder in peace. But every so often, when the tides decided it and the stars were aligned just right, Gwen didn’t get what she wanted. It was just a shame she didn’t know how to handle it very well.

“What are you, a people expert? Last time I checked, people don’t even look twice at you, nobody even wants to talk to you. The only reason you’re a captain is because someone literally had to be removed before they even chose you.” It was a weak argument to bring to the table, but she was feeling attacked. Relationships were barter and trade! They were a partnership of mutual benefit and if he thought that was wrong then Gwen couldn’t imagine he was ever going to find somebody that completed him. The more JJ seemed to find the confidence to stand up to her however, the more Gwen hated being seen. How dare he even think he knew her well enough to call her out like that? How dare he call her the one thing that could singlehandedly disarm her like it was nobody’s business…

She didn’t mean to do it and for once, that was the truth. But when JJ had dropped the c-word in front of her with reckless fervor, Gwen closed the distance between them and her hand came whipping at his face faster than a viper’s sting. And it stung. Her palm vibrated with pins and needles as she clapped him straight across the cheek, flat-palmed and with feeling.

“I’m not crazy.” She hissed at him, ready to do it again if he wanted to argue about it, a fire ablaze inside her that was so white hot, she’d threaten to burn the whole school down if he needed to see it to believe it. Obsessed. Crazy. These words were her greatest triggers. Yes, she’d sat in the leather chair, she’d shredded scripts until her mother started intercepting them, she’d learned the choreography and danced it too. But she wasn’t crazy anymore. She was good now. And she hated when people talked to her like she wasn’t.

Taking a beat though, Gwen recomposed herself, almost like the last ten seconds had never even happened. A shift of mood, so sudden, it could slice their moment in half like a hot knife to a stick of butter. She took a step forward again and lowered her voice. “But go on… Call me one more name and see what happens.”

“What’s it matter? I don’t know any of you and I’ll be gone by next year. I’ve been to eleven schools, that’s basically my brand.” It was hard to admit to but JJ didn’t feel like being deluded anymore. It was his own strange delusions of fulfillment through popularity that got him stuck between a rock and a crazy ex-girlfriend anyway but now that he had neither, what did it matter? He had no attachments to Broadripple and Gwen made sure of it, so what did he care about what she thought anymore? The sooner he dissolved it, the better. Military school never looked more enticing than it did then. Maybe that was the plan, to push him through the psychocycle of Catholics and scare him into the arms of Protestant Jesus. Well, it was working.

The slap rang through the locker room, eliciting a unified sharp gasp before the squeak of rubber necks followed to watch what JJ did next. He disappointed them and did nothing, choosing instead to take a step back.

“Right. What are you going to do, Gwen? Frame me for murder? Leave dead animals in my bed? Chop me up in a basement and feed me to the bears you keep down there? All you’re doing is proving me right. You don’t even care. You’re proud of it,” he said, throwing his hands up in exasperation as red bloomed a hand print into his cheek like a Rorschach ink blot. Mama always taught him not to fight a girl, not because of antiquated chivalry but because there was no winning with crazy. 

“Well, good for you, but this has nothing to do with me anymore. You and this whole school is nuts. I give up.” JJ paced backwards towards the entry to the pool. “Get out, don’t get out, lurk outside scheming, I don’t care. Do what you want. You’re going to anyway.”

[jjmckenna]

jaysster‌:

He didn’t know it was possible to feel like even more of a delinquent than he already did on an average day, but when he’d accidentally snagged his arm on his tie which got caught under the strap of his bag, a whole tournament of fuckery was quick to follow. Accidentally wrinkling up his uniform, Jay cussed under his breath and watched as his tie skewed itself to the side and knotted up something angry. Darting towards a reflective surface, he tried to fix the problem he’d created but he wasn’t prepared on doing so without his two usual flanks around to help him. Right hand in a splint, he struggled to do anything but thumb at it limply while his other fingers pinched at the tie, trying to get it untangled but failing. It was then that he met someone’s distorted eyes in the window and laughed at himself, embarrassed. “Sorry, I’m such a gimpy fuck at the moment,” He apologized for looking like a grand idiot, twisting to finally see who it was who was watching him struggle. “Hey, could you give me a hand?”

“Here, I got it, bro.” 

JJ reached out and undid the tangle of cloth around Jay’s neck, carefully re-tying the knot the way mom taught him how. Nerves prickling a little at the sight of his friend, JJ’s expression waded between friendly and uncertain. He’d lost track of him on Stowe mountain after promising a lot, lost him at a party, lost him on the team. JJ didn’t know if that was a sign of a public break-up or if Jay had caught whatever was going around Broadripple lately but it was hard not to feel the tension of it when everyone else at school was turning their backs on him like it was the 80s and homophobia was back in style or something.

“Feels like I haven’t seen you in ages,” he said, trying to sound more chipper than sad.  “What’s going on? What happened to your hand?”

[jjmckenna]

damianfitz‌:

Damian doesn’t have time for wide-eyed wonder. He just wants JJ to take the damn whistle from him and for it to be over with. But despite himself, he understands how confusing it all is. How especially confusing it might be for someone like JJ even, with where he and Damian stand at the moment and the fact that the boy is still fairly new and there are members more senior than he is on the team. So he digs deep, wills himself to find the patience and go about this without snapping immaturely because he’s essentially handing over the last thing he cares about to some boy everyone would assume he doesn’t hold much respect for. Then again, Damian forgets that not everyone knows JJ has… Anyway, the point is, “You’re a good swimmer. Great, even. In the short time you’ve been here, it’s undeniable that you’re my best. What you have doesn’t come from practice, it’s innate. And I want my team to be led by someone strong while I’m gone. Something they can aspire to be.” He takes a half-step forward and reaches for JJ’s hand, putting the whistle in it without his choice. “So please. Just do this one thing for me.” Not that Damian feels like he deserves much of anything at this point, but JJ owes him for that– thing he did to Damian. 

He moves away again, unsure what people have heard about him, but he assumes rumors fly fast around here and with the show he and Jamie put on in Aloysius Wing, Damian wouldn’t want JJ to think he might… Anyway–

His brows knit together at the mention of a suicide hotline. The word ‘what?’ is clearly written all over his face with the way it twists in bewilderment of that offer. Christ, this kid… “No, JJ,” Damian relents, sighing. “I don’t need a suicide hotline.” He feels terribly right now, arguably the worst he’s ever felt in his life, but he’d never– Jeez, he doesn’t understand JJ’s brain. It makes him regret pressing the whistle into JJ’s palm but what’s done is done. He walks over to his bed and sits, fully looking forward to shutting his eyes and checking out of the world for a couple of hours. He completely understands Eliza’s desire to sleep a day away now. Nothing bothers you when you’re asleep, you don’t feel or think about anything.

“Remember, you have to get to the pool 30 minutes before anyone else and leave well after everyone’s gone. First there, last to leave. It’s important.”

JJ’s chest swelled a little when Damian said that he was his best, proud that all his ambition to pass the physical entry tests for the Navy SEALS hadn’t been entirely squandered over lost hearing. A pool was a lot different than a freezing cold ocean, smaller and more forgiving, but it just made him a big fish in a small pond. He accepted the whistle happily knowing that he was but a mere fledgling junior who’d gotten bestowed a great honor and looked down at the thing gleaming in his hand with renewed vigor. Maybe if he blew this, the guys on the team would like him again-- or at least have no choice other than to obey him.

“Yes sir. Consider it done,” he said, straightening a little now that he’d been given direction and duty. He could work with that, but the question still stood: was everything okay?

There were a lot of things he wanted to ask, but none of them came to him intuitively. Like, ‘why did you stop talking to me after I sucked your dick?’ and ‘did you really kiss my exgirlfriend?’ but neither of those things came in a hot-to manual or got taught in a school full of guys. So JJ swiveled his chair a little in awkward silence, stealing fleeting glances at Damian at the other side of the room until curiosity got the better of him.

“I gotta ask, though. Are you okay? You look upset and like, giving away all your stuff and moodiness is a sign of depression.” JJ looked proud to have remembered that out of health class like, three schools ago.

“I dunno what happened exactly, but you can talk to me.”

[jjmckenna]

flick-fortescue‌:

“Yeah,” she spoke assertively, radiating confidence in response to JJ’s questioning, assuring him that she was indeed telling the truth and nothing but. “Now, let me think here,” she genuinely had no idea who the fuck was in the Sacristan club nor did she have any interest in finding out but she wanted to appear helpful in the face of JJ’s tribulation, appearing to have put aside their differences for the sake of helping her fellow steer away from meeting inevitable tragedy. “Faith McKay, she’s one of them and my roommate, Maggie-” what the fuck was her last name? She paused a moment, she could almost visualize the name written on the front of the other girl’s text books and it was on their bloody door for God’s sake. Nope. “-Magdalene, that’s short for,” nice cover, “I’ll have a chat to her, shall I?” surely the younger girl would leap at the opportunity to perform some sort of freaky voodoo shit on Gwen’s ex. It was the perfect plot, not only would she be fucking with JJ but it would give Maggie something to do other than sitting around in their room like a living doll or God forbid, playing that fucking flute of hers.

“Well, the documentaries,” she reminded JJ that she was no expert, as much to say that she was pulling this out of her arse completely, “-odd behaviour, that’s how it starts, mood swings and the like- have you been feeling unusually down about things recently?” she suspected he would have given the fact that Gwen had put him at the top of her hit list and his roommate was a certified psycho, “-or trouble concentrating in class? That’s another sure sign,” he was as dumb as a doorknob, if he’d ever paid attention in any class since kindergarten, she’d have been shocked. “Really, I’ll have to ask Maggie,” she insisted, hoping she’d started with enough to plant the seed in JJ’s mind that he or at least Damian might be cursed by some sort of supernatural presence aside from subhuman levels of testosterone and stupidity. 

It wasn’t that JJ was bad with names because it was kind of difficult not to at Broadripple when there was two kids named for every book. Faith? Magdalene? Yeah, he should’ve made the connection that they were super into Church stuff by name alone but if he could make connections like that, he wouldn’t have been so bad at algebra. “I don’t want to be a bother... Maybe I can ask one of the sisters? They can exercise, right?”

JJ stared blankly as Flick rattled off a list of things that all seemed to apply to him, draining the colour out of his face as he recalled the last time he handed in bio homework in history class. It wasn’t his fault that the sheets looked similar. Like, that was a common problem among teenagers with massive workloads, right?

Swallowing hard, JJ raked together his books, looking a little shell-shocked at the new revelations. It all came together so neatly that JJ didn’t think to question the validity of ghosts or give life to the more plausible explanation that Damian was just a  bag of dicks. “Does that mean... if I get expelled, I’d bring the ghost with me?” he asked, rearing his head slowly like he was afraid of looking at Flick for the answer. For all he knew, he was about to become the next episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. “I should tell Damian.”

[jjmckenna]

gwescott‌:

Gwen’s lips parted in unexpected surprise when he finally answered her question with a most thorough of answers. Suspended? What in the world for? Were they even talking about the same person? No, Damian was a house captain, a member of the student council even… People like that didn’t just get suspended. It was only Tuesday, what had happened between now and Saturday night? Okay, so really Gwen had tried to drive a wedge between the rest of the school and herself yesterday in embarrassment for having a sucky party and skipping dinner had felt like the best way not to have eyes on her. But what did he mean he was the swim captain now? What was going on?

Her plucked brows drew in further as if she was trying to solve a math problem far beyond her intellectual ability, cheeks turning pink with frustration because no memorized formulas were helping her with this. But soon, it didn’t even matter anymore because the size of JJ’s sudden gal became Gwen’s next acute problem. Suddenly, her heartbeat was hammering with panic while her face screwed up in a glare so cold if she blinked, the ice would surely crack her porcelain features down the middle.

“I’m not obsessed with him!” She shouted at JJ all of a sudden, hormones screaming through her system like a pack of school girls on a rollercoaster. Turbulent and loud, impossible to ignore and the kind you wanted to smack their teeth on the safety bar just so they’d shut up for a minute. But Gwen couldn’t shut them up, and her fingers started to turn cold with adrenaline, preparing for a fight. Especially as JJ walked closer to her, her senses obscenely aware of the fact that half a swim team was still watching on like this was some boxing ring bet.

“Used you? Okay news flash, I didn’t make you do anything. I asked you for one thing and you practically jumped at the chance to screw it up.” She threw back at him after he’d had his little moment to shine, dragging her name through whatever he seemed to be able to think of and hoping it would do the trick to make her look bad. But her bark was just as tough as her bite, or so Gwen liked to think, so she wasn’t about to roll over and confess her sins to some ape that didn’t even know the half of it. 

When he posed his question, Gwen could only laugh. A single exhale, something bitter on its coattails. “Of course I liked you!” Gwen wasn’t a time waster after all and okay, maybe it was the idea of him but who had the attention span to be so specific right now? “I liked you because you were sweet and you didn’t look at me like I was this fucking abominable wrecking ball that everybody else thinks I am and sue me that it felt nice to be liked back.” Gwen spat, hatred flaring through her for having to admit any of it. “For the record, the only thing I’m obsessed with is the fact that, after everything I did to defend you, you humiliated me in front of the only people I care about. I stuck my reputation out for you, I put out for you, I even… read some stupid Wikipedia page about cochlear implants and asked someone about their ASL units once which I didn’t have to do but I did it because for once it was actually kind of nice to care about something other than myself and you shit all over that.” Gwen was fired up, the avalanche of scorned feminine hatred snowballing down a hill aiming straight for JJ. There were better, more realistic versions of her stories about JJ but the fact remained that she had tried to make him into something for herself all while keeping an eyeball placed on Damian. Clearly, though, she’d failed abysmally at handling both and she wasn’t sure if that was the embarrassing part or not. That she’d tried and failed, or that he’d gotten on his knees for the one person that could break her.

“You can’t handle people lying to you? Okay fine, I thought you were easy.” She seethed at point-blank range, “I thought making you like me would be easy and just when I thought it was starting to work, you went and-” Gwen swallowed suddenly, side-glancing at the crowd and finally choosing a moment to be kind. “You ruined it. You took the one thing I needed and you ruined everything with it.”

JJ cocked his head witheringly at Gwen’s outburst. He was deaf and a little dim, but not even he could’ve missed the blatant denial in her tone as it echoed through the lockers like harpy’s mournful shriek. He was getting pretty sick of people thinking he was stupid enough to get the wool pulled over his eyes a third time. 

“Normal girlfriends don’t ask their boyfriends to take pictures of other people naked for funsies. I’m glad I screwed it up, you freaking weirdo,” he snapped back, inflating with indignant fury. The room erupted into gasps at the mild insult as if he’d just sucker punched her in the solar-plexus. People didn’t just come to Broadripple, fuck Gwen Prescott and then call her weird. They just didn’t. Scandalized looks rippled around among the students, summoning others and cellphones to capture what they thought was going to be some kind of legendary death match between reigning champion and bright-eyed newcomer. 

Up until that point, JJ appeared to be relatively mild-mannered but he’d never been up against the kids at a catholic boarding school before. The accumulation of frustration was compounded by the fact that it didn’t seem like these kids had any  kind of sense to them. Their lives revolved around vendettas and hauntings and woodland creatures, house teams and colours and stuff that all just didn’t really matter when none of them seemed capable of talking to each other like human beings instead of characters in telenovellas.

“I do like you, Gwen. Or I did, but you’ve got some problems. I mean, we all do, but you looking at relationships like some kind of barter-trade agreement is exactly why we didn’t work out. I’m sorry I humiliated you but I didn’t do any of that to hurt you. You, however, all you think about is how to get back at others. How to get revenge. How you’re going to ruin this person’s life or disbar them because of one, trivial thing. What kinda life is that? People aren’t things, Gwen. You don’t just put a quarter in and expect to get a gumball out. That’s not how relationships work.”

JJ crinkled his nose at her, scoffing. “For the record, I would never get a cochlear and I don’t need you to pity me to make yourself feel better. I’m fine as I am. It’s all of you who are freaking crazy.”

Her confession punctured his bravado, squeezing hot air out of him but not like it had before. JJ understood now once she verified everything he believed to be true. Gwen didn’t really want him, just a boyfriend. Another tool to add to her belt and push her agenda. He stared at her, eyes glassy with remnants of betrayal but he didn’t cower. “Thanks for clearing that up. Now, get out  of my locker room.”

[jjmckenna]

gwescott‌:

Gwen’s gaze darted to the side instinctually, admitting immediately to any mentalist paying attention that she wasn’t being truthful about something. Still, she did it so quickly that she made it look effortless as if she was bored of standing amidst the locker room like some show pony on display, kicking her hoofs in the wet. “Well, that’s because I was the one who came here with questions first,” And so far, he’d answered them. Not well, but that was beside the point so Gwen had to keep speaking just so that JJ didn’t. “So I feel like I should be getting the proper answers first.”

The Seton captain would have easily predicted an apocalyptic end to life as they knew it before she’d forsee JJ growing a set and standing up to her. But she could feel it happening in the air around her before he took the first step forward, like the smell of rain before a thunderstorm, clogging her senses. Gwen’s innocent expression faltered as JJ moved closer, his shoulders squarer than before and wow, when had he gotten so tall? Was that a spine?

She glanced around at the bystanders who now, evidently, were watching on guilt-free. For the first time since she’d stormed in here, Gwen suddenly felt like she was no longer on her turf anymore. Was this how it felt to be a worm wriggling on a line surrounded by piranhas? No. No, she had a right to be here and this was her school before it would ever become JJ’s. If he forgot that, she’d make it her personal duty to remind him.

“Been there, done that.” Was the first cruel thing to spill from her lips, taking his words in a literal sense rather than the way she knew he was intending them. “Clearly, you’re not my type. Sorry if Damian had the decency to tell me what you did while you were too busy batting for both teams and being an arrogant liar about it.” She sneered, wanting him to get the picture that she wanted him to butt out of it. “So whatever he and I have, which is none of your business, by the way, at least he doesn’t lie to me and I don’t lie to him. Because sometimes, the truth matters. So like I said. Obviously, you wouldn’t get it.”

“He’s suspended from athletics. I’m swim captain now.” JJ inflated with the declaration, finding some power in the title that felt left-field when Damian gave it to him. It had to be an admission of guilt to give it to him and not another senior who’d been there longer. Him, a fresh-faced nobody junior. The pieces of the puzzle started coming together then. Gwen, choosing him. Damian, choosing him. They didn’t really choose him, it was just a ploy. He was the chick in a crappy rendition of Cruel Intentions. He’d seen that movie like twelve times. He knew what it was about.

“Right, so, me saying I don’t like guys isn’t at all comparable to you saying you don’t like Damian? Why, because you didn’t suck his dick? But you wanted to, didn’t you? You were obsessed with him and you still are now only now you have a reason to side with him because he’s ‘not a liar’.”

JJ paced closer with every intent of knocking her off of her pedestal and onto somewhere less righteous to see how she’d fare. “The more I think about it, the more it sounds like a set up so you didn’t lose face. The enemy of your enemy is your friend, right? I can’t believe I spent all this time feeling guilty for what I’ve done when you’ve been lying right to my face, outed me and used me because you couldn’t get over some stupid school tradition.”

He stopped in front of her. “Did you ever really like me, Gwen?”

[jjmckenna]

flick-fortescue‌:

Flick narrowed her eyes slightly, half trying to figure out what the fuck JJ was on about and half trying to determine whether he was actually impaired or just dim. “Yes,” she confirmed, regardless of whether she fully understood what he’d meant by his question. She was so wholly committed to fucking with him that it didn’t really matter all that much, she determined. “Why?” she asked, raising an eyebrow “Have you-” she sighed heavily, as if she was weighted by the revelation and concerned for her fellow, “Look, if you’ve done anything that you think might end up with you being possessed, you’ll have to do an exorcism ritual,” she insisted, “Now, I was never baptized,” false, “ So I can’t help you with it, I’m afraid but I’ve watched plenty of documentaries,” or episodes of Ghost Adventures, more specifically, “- to know that it’s the only way to get rid of it, to protect yourself that is,” she instructed confidently, hardly missing a beat, “Best not to alert the school though, they’ll likely send you ship you out on the next bus to Boston if they find out how you’ve gotten yourself in this condition. You’ll have to find help elsewhere, maybe ask the Sacristan club, I’m sure they know the drill,”  

"What?” JJ’s brows rose to his hairline as he watched Flick for tells of lying. It sounded ludicrous but again, so were bears dying in basements and Damian’s sudden erratic behaviour. It explained everything and made him feel a bit dumb for assuming that his roomie just needed a pal and a crisis hotline. He’d nearly forgotten entirely about the rumors of the weekend party that went on without him if it hadn’t been for the cold realization that Gwen could be possessed too.

JJ touched his neck at the vague recollection of The Exorcist, spine crawling at the thought of his head spinning around like a top and projectile vomiting all the protein he had for lunch. Could’ve sworn that he’d seen Gwen do the same thing during one of her rampages.

He knew he shouldn’t have blown Damian’s whistle. Swapping spit was like, oral sex, right?

“Who’s in the Sacristan club?” he asked hurriedly. Then, “How am I supposed to know if I’m-- or someone’s-- possessed?”

[jjmckenna]

flick-fortescue‌:

“Can you not read, either? Can’t read, can’t hear, can’t keep other people’s genitals out of your gob- what exactly can you do, JJ?” She had absolutely no patience left for the male and it was abundantly clear. First she’d thought he was cute, then she’d thought he was a royal pest and now she didn’t think much of him at all unless she had to; when Gwen was whining about her or he happened to manifest in front of her like this. He was still as much of a imbecile as Flick had pegged him from the very beginning it seemed, “Are you having a laugh?” she asked, almost wishing he was playing dumb to irritate her, rather than because he was the human embodiment of a single brain cell. “There’s an email been going ‘round explaining the dead bear in the basement. That was what the big stink was- unless you’ve not noticed that either,” perhaps he couldn’t smell either, adding that to the enormous list of things JJ McKenna was utterly incapable of achieving. “We’ve been smelling rotting blood and guts for a week while that foul thing turned to mush right under us,”

She rolled here eyes and rubbed her temple with the tips of her finger, as if to comfort her poor brain while it had to deal with JJ’s idiocy. She parted her lips to explain herself to the male but before she could get the words out, she found herself inspired. “You haven’t heard?” she said dramatically, leaning in a little as if she was about to tell some sort of a scandalous secret, “There’s a ghost been spotted ‘round the boys dorms,” she paused a moment for dramatic effect, “Well, I say ghost but what I really mean is there’s a poltergeist. It’s up to no good you see, wants to hurt people, really scare ‘em,” she delivered the words sincerely as she pulled them out of thin air, “You know about Damian?” of course he did, there were probably blood stains on their dorm room carpet still, “That was the poltergeist. Yeah, it was.  Father Doheny said it during morning announcements, didn’t you hear?” she took another beat, as if realization had struck her, “Oh,” she pointed to her own ear, referencing his, “I suppose you didn’t. Well, it possessed him, made him crazy. He’s never done a thing like that in his life,” conjecture, she’d just made it up, in fact, “-but this thing, this ghost. Well, I don’t know what it wants but I know it can’t be good, not for anyone,” she insisted, shuddering as if the thought spooked her to her very core, “All I know is that Damian is not himself, you can’t trust a word he says anymore. It might just be the demon trying to get inside you and you’d never know,” she’d gone from ghost to poltergeist to demon fairly swiftly but who was keeping score?

JJ didn’t have a good answer for her so he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t good at a whole lot outside of sports and sex stuff, though the sex stuff was to be debated upon since it only appeared to ever bring him trouble. “Oh,” he said, after she clarified. It made a lot of sense and though if JJ had been more curious about it, he’d have checked his email but between dodging the internet after seeing Gwen’s boobs splashed out all over her Insta and pretending like all the clubs and afternoon activities he joined really needed him, JJ was kind of a busy student. The smell wasn’t that bad, anyway. He’d been in worse locker rooms for sure.

He could feel the negativity radiating off of Flick in waves but JJ was at a loss of how to help her with it, still half-afraid she’d hit him or something equally terrifying. After spending a whole afternoon trying to find his hearing aid, he was learning to tread more carefully around the prickly ones. 

JJ gaped when Flick confirmed a ghost. He was pretty sure those weren’t real but like, he was pretty sure bears didn’t just crawl into schools and die there. He was so enraptured by the story that he missed the jab at his hearing entirely, the slow dawning horror that he’d had a ghost phallus in his mouth compounding the fact that he’d just spoken to Damian that morning casually about swim stuff. 

He opened his mouth and then closed it. Opened. Closed. He looked like a fish out of water, unsure what question to tackle first before he came up with a genius, “Can ghosts be sexually transmitted?”