Realistic or Modern Riverbrook Academy For Talented Juveniles

[sox]

June's heart dropped at the shocking confession. "Oh, fuck... I'm so sorry." He kept wiping her tears with his sleeve as they came, not entirely sure how to respond but trying his best anyways. He had lost loved ones before, but never anyone in his immediate family. "God, at 14... You've carried this with you for so long," he murmured, stroking her hair with gentle touches. "You're strong, Tori. Really, you're incredible."

Lizy

 

[Lizy]

Victoria smiled a little when June said that she was strong but still shook her head. If she was really strong why did she shut down after it all happened? It may be normal to grieve for a bit, but to completely block everything out for two years? She wasn't that strong. She appreciated his efforts though. She took minute to take a few more deep breaths and allow her tears to stop. She felt calmer than before. She was glad that she'd opened up, even though she'd earlier told herself she wouldn't. She took a tissue from the box and dried her eyes. The tears had stopped.

Victoria sat up, shaking off June's arms. "Jesus, I feel like a real idiot," she couldn't help but laugh. She knew it wasn't really a laughing matter but this whole situation was crazy. This day had gone totally off the rails.

sox

 

[tortellini]

Kailo slumped on her bed on her back, her bags putting pressure on her ribs and her stomach. She grimaced and shoved them to the side. She had broken the majority of her ribs, so they were really tender and almost always bruised. Grabbing a notebook and a pen from her bag, Kailo sat up. Time for a plan.

1. Talk to June. Maybe, if he had time after talking to Tori.
2. Call/email Donte. Then Jaxon, then Lewis and Buster. The two were practically brothers, so they were always together.
3. Set up her room.
4. Stay up until 3 planning and plotting and so and so. She would get out of this wretched school, one way or another. On bail or escaping or something.
5. Somehow, even though he was in either witness protection or prison by this point, get Ricky back.
6. Live on the run with her friends forever until her inevitable death by lung cancer or some sort of heart failure.
7. The end.

It wasn’t a very logical plan, but it was how things would work out. Hopefully.

 

[sox]

June leaned back against the wall, tilting his head in confusion. "Why do you feel like an idiot?" he asked, genuinely concerned. As he spoke, he slipped his tear-stained hoodie off and tossed it to the side, settling back in his long sleeve maroon Puma crewneck. He tended to run cold in normal temperatures and layered up whenever he could, just in case. "I don't think you're an idiot."

Lizy

 

[Lizy]

"After the accident I kind of just shut down," Victoria sighed, "I didn't talk to anyone. Not even family because they sent me to live with my aunt and she hated me. I've never..." she paused for a second trying to find the right words, "Been all emotional in front of anyone before. It's kind of the worst." She let out a tiny laugh and shook her head. She didn't plan on any of this happening today, although she was glad that June didn't think she was an idiot. She was extremely mentally exhausted but that didn't matter to her at the moment. It only meant she'd be force to get some sleep, which rarely happened, from all the exhaustion.

sox

 

[sox]

"Ah," June acknowledged, understanding a bit more of her reserved nature. To think that made her feel idiotic, though, baffled him. They were still kids; they had the right to be messed up over things that rattled their lives. They didn't always handle the trauma in the best way, but then again, no one really expected them to. "I mean, everyone copes differently. It isn't good to bottle things up, yeah, but I guess sometimes that's your only option." He hopped off the bed and stretched his arms above his head, a yawn escaping him. "For what it's worth, I think it's great that you can talk about it now. Being emotional isn't a bad sign. And you know, my door's always open if you need someone to dump shit on."

Lizy

 

[Lizy]

Victoria never saw anything but bottling everything up as an option. In fact, she still felt like bottling everything up was the safest option. Sure, she'd opened up to June but around other people she'd most likely revert back to her usual cold self. She enjoyed the feeling of getting her emotions out of the way and someone knowing how she felt but she hated the idea of everyone around knowing how she felt.

"I guess," she shrugged, "I think I've dumped enough on you today though." She felt a little bad about dumping all her shit on June if she was being honest. He already went out to deal with Kalio's issues when she ran out of the auditorium and just now he'd listened to all of her little breakdown. "Anything you want to get off your chest?" she offered, "I surely won't be able to give as good advice as you did but I can listen and try."

sox

 

[tortellini]

Kai rolled over onto her stomach and winced again, but relaxed. She groaned and rolled around her bed.
“I
Am
Insanely
Bored.”
So she walked out of her room, in her usual “I’m not drunk but I walk like it” stride, yawning every once in a while. She began to walk downstairs before Ms. Monroe saw her in the hallway.
“What are you doing?”
“Hmm?” Kailo asked, finally opening her eyes. “Oh.... just walking.” She gave an innocent grin.
“Well find a room to head to, or go back to your room.”
Kai turned the other way and walked very slowly until she saw Ms. Monroe leave out of the corner of her eye.
And then she turned around.
Eventually she just sat on the floor of the hallway by one of the doors, looking like a whole mess shuffling cards and sitting criss-cross applesauce.

 

[sox]

June chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck without making eye contact. He had been hoping to avoid this turn in the conversation, not entirely sure if he was ready to put his thoughts into words. As good as he was at listening to others, he was a bit emotionally constipated himself. "Uh, not really..." he began, but the uncertainty in his expression was obvious. "To be honest, I was never really been good at the whole 'talk about your feelings' thing, even during therapy. I don't have anything to hide, nothing like that. I just... I want people to see me as dependable, you know? And if the cracks start to show, then..." June trailed off, feeling self-conscious at the confession.

 

[Lizy]

Victoria nodded, she felt the same way. She’d never talked about her feelings before now. She’d never even been to therapy, which is something she probably should’ve done looking back on it now. She also hated when people saw her emotional vulnerabilities, which made it shocking that she felt fine after talking to June. If anyone else knew this stuff about her it would be just terrible.

“Hey, I get it,” She smiled to make him a little more comfortable, “Take it from someone who hasn’t talked emotions or been honest with even herself in years, I get it. I wouldn’t see you as any less dependable if you talked to me about your feelings. Just know that you can always talk to me.”

sox

 

[sox]

June broke out in a toothy smile, sending a teasing wink her way. "Noted," he accepted. He suddenly remembered what he had promised Kailo earlier. "Hey, if you wanna stick around, I told Kailo I would make us all a batch of watery Swiss Miss. Gordon Ramsay has nothing on this stuff, for real." He jogged over to the open door and stuck his head out, peering around for the other girl. Spotting her down the hall, he waved dramatically. "Get over here, loser! It's cocoa time!"

Lizy tortellini

 

[tortellini]

“Hey! Finally. I don’t know what y’all were doing in there, but it took a while.” She raised one of her eyebrows and winked, piling up the cards in front of her and shoving them into her pocket.
“I’ve got some stories for y’all. About the man that almost ruined my life, and then the boy that saved me and then sort of ruined my life but really it was just me getting too attached. It’s gonna be fun.” She smiled and walked bouncily towards June and Tori.

 

[Lizy]

Victoria stiffened up a bit, loosing her smile and sitting upright, when Kalio entered the room. She hadn’t really talked to her and didn’t trust her. She would’ve made an excuse to leave but oddly enough she didn’t feel like being alone at the moment. “I’ll stay a bit but I should probably check out my room soon,” she said, keeping an excuse open so she could leave any time she wanted.

“This hot chocolate better be good,” she said quietly. Tori also stayed for the possibility of hot chocolate. It was one of the only things outweighing the possibility of being made to socialize. Her mom made the best hot chocolate when she was growing up and she was excited to see what would probably rival that.

tortellini sox

 

[tortellini]

Kailo grinned happily as she walked into the room. She shot a wink at June and a smile at Tori. “Sup, lovely. Hey, Victoria.” She called June “lovely” because she could, but it was also a habit. If she was acquainted with someone, she would call them lovely.
“Yeah, man. I was playing cards with myself. You interrupted my game. This better be like, top-notch.” Kai could tell that Tori didn’t like her. She didn’t quite know why, but she would have to change that sometime. Prison wasn’t the best place to make enemies.
“Alright, so who wants to hear the story ‘Donte and the Horny Old Man’?” She asked with a toothy grin.

sox Lizy

 

[Lizy]

“Hi,” Victoria greeted Kalio quietly. She hated when people called her her full first name, “Victoria.” Her stomach churned when she was called that by someone who barely knew her. The whole reason why she always introduced herself as Tori and never Victoria was because that was an old her. Victoria was her growing up, what her mom called her, and Tori was who she was now, having experienced everything the had. She didn’t reply when Kalio asked who wanted to hear her story.

tortellini sox

 

[sox]

June grinned as Kailo joined them while rummaging through his luggage for the proper ingredients. He grabbed some of the disposable cups and the water pitcher that had been set up for him and distributed the portions, heating them up in the room's microwave while he prepared the hot cocoa mix. Once they were boiling, he took them out and poured in the mix, as well as dashes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. "All done," he announced, handing out each cup to the girls. "I normally make this in milk, but our options are limited." June took a large swig of his hot cocoa and a smile bloomed on his face before he hopped back onto his bed next to Tori. "Okay, now hit us with your boytoy story."

tortellini Lizy

 

[tortellini]

“He’s not a boy Toy! He saved my life, douche. So here’s the story.

Once upon a time, far far away, in the Philippines, an ugly lil girl was born. Her name was Kailo Zara Summers. Imma skip to when I was 12. My mother died of cancer, and yeah. She’s dead. It’s okay though.

So my father started an illegal business in Chicago since my mother couldn’t support us anymore. Because she was dead. Y’all knew that. Basically it was full of a bunch of horny old men. So they tried to flirt with me and stuff, because the “uniform” were shorts and crop tops and it was skimpy as hell. There was this one dude who was especially creepy. Tryna touch my tits and stuff. So here’s the dumb thing: we’re not allowed to turn “customers” away unless we’re on the verge of getting raped. This didn’t qualify, I guess? It was dumb. So this dude was essentially tryna take me home. I wasn’t okay with it, he was like 40 and I was like 15 at the time. Yeah, cause it was last year. So I didn’t wanna hit it with an old man. It’s hard to politely tell someone ‘please don’t frickin sexually assault me thanks,’ so it was just a lot of awkward smiles and very quickly hurrying away. So my shift was over, I was hanging out in the back, and somehow this guy gets back there? The security at the ring was trash. I don’t know. And so yeah, you get it... he’s tryna do some and I’m like ‘no thanks hoe I bet you have a wife or some’ but he keeps tryna get it and this kid, I didn’t know him at the time, he comes back looking for me because my break is over, yeah? And he’s there because his brother is an alcoholic and a crackhead and he was the designated driver since he had just gotten his first car. And he realizes I’m finna get sexually assaulted so he clocks this dude and I get the hell out of there and that’s how I met Donte.” She licked her lips. The way she approached the subject of possible rape was strange. She would have felt awkward if she was doing this seriously, she hated being serious.

“And we dated for the longest time, but we fell apart cuz... yeah. I don’t wanna talk about that. Maybe later.”

She awkwardly pulled her cards out of her pocket and shuffled them on the floor, looking down in either shame or embarrassment or sadness. She had though it would have felt good to get this off her chest, but instead she just felt... sad.

 

[Lizy]

Victoria sipped her hot chocolate in silence. June was right, it was damn good. She could taste the hints of spices, which she really enjoyed. A darker hot coca mix would’ve made it a bit better so she ranked it equal to the best hot chocolate she’d ever had.

She listened as Kalio told her story. They both had dead moms, that was something she could sympathize with but Kalio didn’t seem too sad about that part. The story got a bit personal and sad. Tori felt very awkward. She didn’t know how to deal with other people’s emotions, especially when she didn’t feel she knew them well enough.

She finished up her coca and stood up. “Great hot chocolate. I better be going now,” she said rather bluntly. She didn’t want to stick around for this to become a group therapy session.

 

[sox]

"That's really interesting," June murmured, watching her shuffle. "But okay, maybe later." He definitely sensed the awkward tension in the air and glanced towards Tori, noticing that she was about to bolt. "Oh, okay, if you want. I was just gonna see if Kai could teach us a card game or two, since we aren't gonna have much else to entertain ourselves with." He chuckled and gathered their empty cups, a bit proud that they enjoyed it but keeping the gloating to himself.

 

[tortellini]

Kailo smiled. “Thank you for the hot chocolate.” Her grin was gone now, replaced with a sad smile. Her eyes glistened with tears, but she was looking down so you couldn’t see and she wasn’t crying. She missed him.

She didn’t know why he had loved her. She had never done anything for him. She was never good for him. All she did was get herself in dumb situations and he rescued her, every time. But now he couldn’t. He was gone. Everything in her old life was gone. She didn’t say goodbye to Tori, just gave a small wave. Kailo shuffled the cards awkwardly.

“I’m really grateful to him, but at the same time I feel really bad. I never did anything for him. I just... stuck around, like a... like a parasite.”

She wrinkled her nose and exhaled deeply.

“Sorry for the sob story.”

sox Lizy

 

[Lizy]

Victoria stopped in her tracks and turned around as Kalio spoke. She was about to leave but couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for the girl she barely spoke to. She seemed like a nice enough person and looked quite upset. She also seemed like she really loved this guy. Tori had lost the person she loved too early but at least that person knew she truly cared about her and had expressed that. She didn’t want Kalio to make the mistake of letting love go. It sounded cheesy but it was true.

“Listen here,” Tori said, keeping her tough attitude. At first it would seem as if she was going to get angry with Kalio. “Don’t be sorry for letting out your sad little sob story. You are not a parasite so stop believing that you are. If you love this boy then talk to him, show him you care. If he really loves you then he’ll get it. I don’t know you or your life but you seem like a decent enough person. Just stop feeling bad about it and stop being sorry.” Her words came out harshly but they were from the heart, something that was rare. She just hopped that Kalio would take them.

tortellini sox

 

[tortellini]

Kai looked up at Tori, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms.
“Thanks, love.” She took Tori’s words to heart. She couldn’t be sure if the girl legitimately liked her, but at least she gave some good advice. Kailo rolled onto her back.

“Je ne veux, que ton ame,
Divaguant sur ma peau.
Une fleur, une femme,
Dans ton cœur Roméo.
Je ne suis, que ton ômbre,
Le souffle lancinant.
De nos corps dans le sombre,
animes lentement.” She hummed slowly, quietly, almost inaudibly. Amour Plastique. This was their song. It was sad, rhythmic, troubled.
“I’ll try and find a way to contact him, if I can. He was lovely. I miss him.”

(I apologize for any mistakes in translation)
sox Lizy

 

[sox]

June's eyes snapped back and forth between the two girls in anticipation, worried that they may argue, before relaxing the tense set of his shoulders. He wasn't their parent, and he knew he didn't need to monitor them, but some part of him felt responsible for the fallout if the two of them ever butted heads in his space. With a tiny smile turning up the corners of his mouth, he shook his head and grabbed the pencil case out of his school supplies to retrieve his dab pen.

"Do either of you mind if I take a hit? It helps my anxiety and I can't exactly do it in the hallway..." he trailed off sheepishly, hoping it didn't make them uncomfortable. It was an embarrassing part of his life, this addiction, but it wasn't something he was in the mental state to fix at the moment. Especially now that he'd been dropped into the most stress-inducing situation of his life. Maybe, potentially, he could start to wean himself off of it throughout the school year, but that was a thought for another time. Right now, he just wanted his hands to stop shaking.

Lizy tortellini


With his hood obscuring his face in shadow and his headphones laced up the back of his shirt, Devon had managed to go the entire orientation process without being approached by a single soul. Whether it was due his presence being uninviting, or due to it being nonexistent in general, he didn't really care. These people seemed loud, impulsive, and far too emotional for him to deal with on his first day here. The girl who had the mental breakdown outside the auditorium reminded him of South Park character that had been carried through one season too many, and the guy who comforted her seemed exactly like the same genus of guys who used to ask him if he was related to Kim Jong Un in middle school. He didn't really know what to make of the more quiet girl with a bit of an attitude; she reminded him a bit of himself, which could potentially be a problem if the overlap became too much.

When the staff led them to their rooms, Devon wasted no time in finding his room and locking himself inside, collapsing onto his bed with the volume of his headphones cranked all the way up. There was no telling how long he'd be here, who he'd end up having to deal with, or whether the school even had a pool. The principal had assured them that all of their talents were being accommodated, but he didn't know to what extent they'd change the layout of the premises to do so. An indoor pool wasn't exactly something they could purchase off of Amazon.

"Devon Lee," a stern voice called from outside his door, followed by three sharp knocks. With an irritated sigh, Devon stood up and answered it, staring back at his assigned staff member with bored eyes. "Due to the nature of your transgression and your particular talent, the board has decided to take extra precautions regarding your relationships with your peers. These are all troubled children, and there will be no tolerance of violence in this institution. If we catch wind of any violation of this rule, we won't hesitate to take legal measures. Do you understand?" The short, stocky lady pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, looking up at him like he was an aggressive ogre rather than a sleepy teenager.

"Yeah, I got it. Can I get back to jacking off now, or do you wanna monitor that, too?" Devon deadpanned, taking pleasure in the deep shade of red now coating the woman's cheeks.

"Get unpacked, Devon. Classes begin early tomorrow," she sputtered out in response before spinning on her heel and storming away. If he was any less exhausted, he probably would have smiled in satisfaction at the sight.

 

[tortellini]

“Mm, lovely, are you alright? Your hands are shaking...” Kailo said before he asked if he could take a hit. Her eyes widened.

“Yeah, I don’t care.”

She cared. She hated drugs and alcohol, though they were some of her many coping methods. Many, many coping methods. She wasn’t proud of my or them, but for her, becoming an addict was to easy. She was a compulsive liar, cheater, gambler. It was her life in and outside the ring. Here, she guessed, it was different. Maybe.

Kai took a deep breath and groaned, rolling onto her stomach and laying her forehead on her arms.

“Did anyone manage to sneak a phone or some in? All I snuck in was a skateboard and a deck of cards and I wanna call him. Cause, y’know, I like keeping myself in relationships that were toxic to the other person.”

sox Lizy

 

[Lizy]

Victoria glanced at June. His hands were shaking. “It’s fine with me,” she shrugged. She didn’t really mind drugs. She’d had edibles a few times but preferred to keep a clear headspace, especially around other people.

She nodded slowly at Kalio’s question, thinking. She did have something that could possibly work. “I might be able to figure out something. I brought in a few old flip phones. I mostly just use them for parts and they’re all broken in some way, but I’m sure I could fix one,” Tori said with confidence. If there was one thing she knew she could do, it was fix some tech. this might just be the simple task she needed to distract her for a while.

sox tortellini