May 13, 2025
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Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
Back up.
If YOU aren't the cheater, who is?
Thank you for your faith in me, you sound really convinced. I do not know. Who do you think is the cheater?
"Doesnt matter to me. I wouldn't mind being pushed. Only if I get to push you afterwards though," Kay teased playfully as she approached the swing on the left, turning to gently lower herself into it and pushing herself back with the balls of her feet happily.
“I’ll get ya started before I get on my own swing, how ‘bout that? Once we stop, you can push me first.”
Bones gets behind you. “Hold on tight, kid. Here we go!” He takes the chains in his hands and pulls you backwards, not too fast or too far. Just enough that he can let go and give you a gentle push on the back. The next time you look at him, he’s on the swing next to you, pushing off with his feet. He times it so that you’re both going up at the same moment.
I think the biggest annoyance I have right now is the lazy writing in the last episode of season 2. It was bad enough to create a weak conflict out of Midge going on tour and how it’s going to affect her relationship with Benjamin, but the fact that they don’t even BOTHER showing his reaction. Or them having a conversation about it. Because of course you can get engaged to a man but having an actual discussion about something before swearing off your relationship? Absolutely not. And then to have it end with her going right back to Joel. I’m so. Irritated. I have no problem with well written conflict that makes sense but that was a total joke.
The Cheater, chapter 3
university AU // fluff // inukag // wc: 637 (she’s a shorty)
So y’all, it has been *deep breath* a minute since I’ve been on here and updating stories. Why am I back? I have no idea what got me out of my funk, but I AM BACK and ~~almost~~ finished with this fic! It’s been sitting on my computer for MONTHS and I only had a few things to add to it and I never got around to finishing it. Until today.
This chapter is dedicated to my darling friend @lacyjaybird who turns 24 today. I’m pretty sure it’s still July 9th in Tennessee - it’s hard to remember the time change since I’ve been in so many different ones this year!
Here is part 1 and part 2 of this story. You can also find it here on ff.net if you prefer that format (which I personally do). Arigato in advance to those who read it!
commence chapter
The professor dismissed class, and Kagome waited anxiously for her midterm results. She thought that maybe, if she were lucky, she could pull out a B- for her midterm.
“Higurashi!” The TA called.
Kagome took the paper from her instructor’s hand, and slowly turned the page over.
37%
Frantically, Kagome asked the TA, “Is this number out of 50?”
The TA just glared at Kagome. “No. It’s out of 100, like all percentages.”
LOGAN ASHLEY, 21 UC SAN DIEGO CLASS OF ‘19
———————— “What if shooting stars are just people falling from Rainbow Road?”
Crash Bandicoot was released in Arizona on September 9th, 1996. So was Logan. Her parents were young— practically teenagers, edging over twenty years old in a relationship that barely spanned a year. They were arguing when the contractions started. He was gone before they were over— shouting swears in the delivery room. Called her mother a “bitch” and left the hospital. He didn’t want to miss out on the game. She didn’t deserve his support, he said. Told the midwife he’d be back before the delivery. Promise. Not missing out on the game meant missing out on the baby being born.
Her mother retaliated by calling their daughter Logan after her ex-boyfriend from high school.
Her father was present, but always absent. He was unemployed— a “stay-at-home” “father.” Parenting, for him, meant parking Logan in front of the TV set to keep her entertained. To keep him entertained. Conker’s Bad Fur Day when she was four years old, and she got rid of all her teddy bears. Ran away every time she saw a squirrel outside. He never let her play any of the games. No touching, no playing. Only watching. If she distracted him, or cried, Logan got strapped with his belt buckle.
Logan’s mother was a flight attendant. Trips home were few and far in between. Layovers were to get laid over. It must’ve been the only time her father left his recliner. It had a dip in the cushion, y’know? As she got older, she wondered how he could squeeze out of it. How his legs hadn’t given out.
When she wasn’t watching her father and his video games, she was outside. Without her father’s “supervision” she was allowed to play. There were no limitations. The first game she was allowed to play, the first game she was given, with a Gameboy Advance from her mother, was Pokémon Sapphire at six years old. 2002. She’d been following the show during Saturday morning cartoons— before her father woke up; snoring with the recliner back. She’d have the volume on low, and sit with crossed legs in front of the monitor. All Logan ever did was watch, ’til now.
Misty had always been her favorite. Maybe it was ‘cause Arizona was landlocked, and she’d never been to the beach, or a pool— but she liked the water types. Horsea and Seel and Poliwag and Vaporeon. Mudkip, when she finally got to play for herself. Didn’t know much about the sea, but she knew it was bigger than Arizona. Friendlier, too, with Free Willy on late night TV. Logan knew from a young age that she wanted to work with animals— with sea creatures. She just didn’t have a name for it.
Logan was good at school. She liked doing the work— liked the praise. It was the only sort of positive reinforcement she could find, the only thing she could point at and say “I’m good at this.” She got to school early, and left school late. Stayed at after school care, even when she didn’t have to— even with her Dad at home. She brought her Gameboy, and traded with the others. Watched them play with Yu-Gi-Oh cards, until one day they asked her if she wanted to join in and play, too. She must’ve gotten her competitiveness from her father— from him screaming at the console every time he failed a level, or died. She liked a challenge. She liked winning. Anything for some sense of empowerment and a raise in self-esteem.
Logan didn’t know much about loss. Logan didn’t know much about family.
Her best friend, Scarlet, died of leukaemia her freshmen year of high school. People were normally here and there– gone, or barely around, and Logan didn’t know how to deal with it. You imagine loss, but you never really know what it’s like – what a caved in chest feels like – ‘til it happens.
She only started seeing her cousin, Dean, when she started high school. Never saw much of her relatives growing up — barely even saw her own mother, okay? They lived in the same street. And they waved in the halls, and ate lunch together sometimes. Carpooled to school with her neighbor Marcia. She cheered for him at the Varsity soccer games. Owned his ass at pool and Super Smash Bros. She helped him with his science homework, too. Logan wasn’t sure if she could call them “close”— they were distant cousins. Distant, but somehow all the same.
She’d been tutoring someone in study hall when news broke of his suicide. She got to sit in his bedroom, after the funeral. Someone had to take the posters down off the walls. Someone had to clean off his desk, and box up his clothes. Heard her mother and her mother’s sister talking about it— the college rejection letters. Logan swiped one, and tucked it into her back pocket. A reminder she could tape onto the walls of her own bedroom. If she didn’t get into college, if she didn’t get out of there, she’d find another way— like Dean did.
It was about putting in more work, after that. All of her effort went into school. What was she without it? Without it, Dean was dead, right? Logan was top of her class. She wanted to make Valedictorian. She needed to feel important and successful.
At least Dean had something— lots of things. Soccer and the lit mag and the whole school, if he wanted it. He was good at things. He was good at everything.
Logan was nothing without school.
She hated Sea World, but she loved San Diego. UCSD, and a bachelor in Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences (minoring in Marine Sciences) (it had a name, now) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Logan never really had to try very hard in high school— she could go slow with the homework, or slack off on pre-exam studying when Bioshock: Infinite came out, or her boyfriend wanted to hang out. When he, or anybody else, needed help or tutoring.
What do they say about being on top of the world? It gives you a long, long way to fall.
It’s not like she never cheated before. Games of Clue, where she’d rig the file cards. The racecourses on Mario Kart: Double Dash that had shortcuts, or glitches. It was hard on her— going from the top 1% to the bottom of the heap. What was she good at now? P’s get degrees, but Logan couldn’t get by with a pass. Passing meant failing. Passing meant “see me after class” and criticism, and nothing to boost her lack of self-esteem. Maybe Dean was right.
She couldn’t make herself smarter. So she thought of other ways: reaching out to other students and offering money for upcoming exams, sneaking glances during quizzes, installing information on her TI calculator. Even thought about propositioning her professors for higher marks. It’s not like it wasn’t something her and her ex-boyfriend hadn’t done before. Student/teacher (tutor) roleplaying. And it was a win-win, y’know? Higher marks, and praise, and an endless stream of compliments. She learned that she was good at other things, besides school. And when that started taking up more of her time — when he started taking up all of her time — Logan got a tutor, and made copies of file cabinet keys, and started stealing the exams she couldn’t quite understand.
Logan has a starfish tattoo on her right forearm, and a tattoo of the Pokémon Horsea on her left leg.
She is halfway through her junior year of college. With tensions rising with her professor/boyfriend, she’s struggling to stay. Maybe she could do something else— be good at something else. People make plenty of money playing video games online. Maybe she could write her own video game, or find her way into that industry. Anything had to be easier than this.
It was this reason that she jumped at Sam’s Facebook message. It wasn’t common that her ex-boyfriend talked to her. A trip back to Arizona? To the mountains, where they’d planned to go? Logan should’ve been the one to start the group message. Dean was her cousin. That was probably an excuse. She wanted to get out of San Diego— she needed to get away.
Her favorite band is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
In her freshmen year of college, her parents finally separated. (Were they ever really together?) A few months ago, her mother had another daughter with her new partner. Logan’s half-sister’s name is Jaime.
She absolutely kills everybody at Mario Kart: Double Dash. She plays as Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. Her favorite racecourse, besides Rainbow Road, is DK Mountain.
Her hat obsession comes from Pokémon, too. May, and the female characters in the games, always wore one. She liked it. Before high school, she never really cared about her appearance. Her father was a slob, and overweight, and clothes were almost a luxury— even though they weren’t poor. Clothes and pretty things were only presents received when her Mom came home from work.
Logan only learned to swim the summer before college, with the help of her friend Javi.
Caroline on the game show "Le Tricheur" (The Cheater) for the charity Passages in March
New chapter (? With the cheater…he checked my insta, BUT another guy -who tried to asked me out- before liked the story 🤐