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youngerdrgrey · 3 years

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the only way to get over someone... // a Batwoman fic

About: SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON TWO FINALE / post-2x18 / season two finale — After the s2 finale, Ryan tries to be a good 'friend' to Sophie, but it does not go the way she planned (feat. an extended cut of the similar tastes in conversation).

Notes: Don’t read if you haven’t seen the finale. This picks up at the end of the Kate and Ryan scene, then continues on from there because my WildMoore heart wanted to. Under the cut because spoilers + read on ao3

Kate Kane is leaving, and Ryan might need some time to fully process that. Kate’s opposite her, comfortably seated on the corner of their desk. The beer bottle clinks against the edge of it as Kate covers her bases. The suit’s staying with Ryan.

Kate starts, “As for Mary and Luke….”

Ryan jumps in with a smile. “They are my family, and I am going to take care of them.” No questions asked. Though, with Luke and his new super suit, she will definitely have help in keeping their family safe.

“Thank you.” Kate smiles back at Ryan. “And Sophie?”

Not family. Not in the traditional sense, at least. She’s family-adjacent at best. She’s… she’s Sophie, the same person who ruined Ryan’s life and relationship multiple times, and the same person who helped Ryan build them both back up.

Ryan quirks her head from side to side. “Can I get back to you on that?” The repetition gets another grin out of Kate. Worry still shines in Kate’s eyes though. Ryan admits, “She’s saved me a lot more than she’s hurt me, so, I guess I can look out for her too.”

Kate sighs in relief. “Good. She’ll need it. She’s not invincible, Ryan. Mary told me all about the two of you going back and forth over Cluemaster. She’s tough, but Sophie’s a lot more fragile than she seems.”

Ryan has seen a bit of that. Sophie does her best to hide the cracks in her armor, but Coryana in particular stripped down a layer. Her fear for Jordan took another, even her concern for Ryan in these last few days wore at it. “And you’re about to break her heart.”

Kate nods. She seems so sure that looking for Bruce is the right move. Maybe that’s what a good trip of Snake Bite can offer: clarity. Not that Ryan’s interested in joining Kate on that other side.

“Help her through it?”

Ryan jokes, “I’ll make sure she finds a suitable rebound. There’s a pretty great lesbian bar here.”

Kate’s eyes twinkle. “Keeping it close to home?”

Ryan does not like the implication in that question. She redirects the conversation. “Call us every once in a while. And make sure to tell Mary how much you miss her. She won’t admit it, but she loves to hear it. And maybe text Parker too. That girl is so hungry for gay mentorship. And —”

“I get it. I will keep in contact.”

Ryan aims her beer bottle at Kate like a threat. “You better. Don’t make me come find you. I almost died the last time.”

But Sophie saved her then. Ryan can always do the same.

Sophie does not know what to do with herself now. There’s no guidebook on what to do when the love of your life comes back from the dead, then promptly leaves to search for her cousin. No FAQ with tips on how to handle making out with said love of your life either.

There’s a knock on her door. A hopeful part of her immediately thinks it’s Kate. Sophie will open the door, and Kate will drop down her duffel bag and helmet and say, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Sophie rushes to the door. Throws it open and — oh, of course. Ryan gives her an apologetic smile from the other side of it.

“I know I’m probably not who you want to see right now….” Ryan starts. Her arms shift around two resusable grocery bags with overflowing snacks and wine bottles. A backpack bumps them from her shoulder. She offers another smile. “I brought supplies. And I’m here to keep you company through the heartache and to take you up on your offer.”

That explains the backpack. Sophie checks, “Kate’s leaving tomorrow?”

Ryan nods. “Tonight’s her last night in the loft, and my only night crashing on your couch. If the offer still stands?”

She seems hopeful too, and nervous, like she’s bracing herself for Sophie to close the door in her face.

Sophie hasn’t exactly had any company at her place. Not since Julia. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone here tonight. Make her laugh, make her smile.

Sophie steps back to let Ryan in. Ryan glides forward. Sophie closes the door and leans back against it so she can watch Ryan take in the space.

Ryan does a full turn in the entrance. “Damn, you got it like this?” She whistles low in appreciation. Her platform converse pad along the hardwood flooring between the front door and the living room. It’s spacious with the most comfortable couch Sophie’s ever owned, her favorite coffee table, and a large TV, courtesy of a Black Friday sale two years ago. This place isn’t as nice as her old apartment with Tyler, but it’s still one of the nicer places that Gotham has to offer.

Ryan glances back at Sophie, and she realizes she should probably answer the playful question.

“I barely got it like this. Say what you want about my comphet marriage,” Sophie pushes off the door to approach Ryan in the living room, “the dual incomes made life a lot easier.” She winces. Any income. “I may have to downsize again now that I’m unemployed.”

Ryan sets her bags down on the coffee table. “Just work with Luke.”

Sophie’s eyebrows raise in confusion. “In real estate?”

Ryan gives Sophie an equally confused look. “He still daylights as Head of Wayne Security. If you work there too, it’ll make Bat stuff that much easier.”

Oh. “I… hadn’t thought about that.”

“Bat stuff or what comes next?” Ryan asks.

“Honestly? Any of it.” Sure, Ryan has called Sophie now that Sophie knows the truth. They’ve teamed up, and they really did a great job last night during the blackout. All signs point to Sophie officially being a part of the team. She simply doesn’t want to assume and get hurt in the process.

Ryan reads her silence and rolls her eyes. “Consider this your Bat Team orientation. We mostly work nights, though there are the occasional work trips. We went to a beautiful island this year for a company retreat.”

Sophie can play along. “I think I’ve been there. Shame about the fire.”

Ryan nods with a faux somber expression. “Beautiful sight, even if it did almost kill me. Oh, and we have full medical benefits, so long as you go to Mary and Mary alone. No overtime. No days off. But you get to make Gotham a better place.”

Sophie pretends to think it over. “Is there a uniform?”

“Only for me. The rest of the staff comes as they are.”

“Lucky them.”

Ryan pops the collar on her flannel shirt. “You should see me in my suit.” It fits Ryan in all the right places for being protective wear. Sophie will never say that though. Ryan’s cocky enough without being complimented.

Sophie eyes the bags. “So what’s the plan?”

Ryan perks up, their earlier bit forgotten. “Anything we want. I’ve got face masks —” She tugs them out to show Sophie. “Candy and snacks. Most of it’s vegan, so I can enjoy it too. I brought wine that I took from the bar. We can blast angry, pop music, or do sad girl karaoke. Ooh, you can call Kate a bitch again.”

“I called Circe a bitch,” Sophie clarifies.

Ryan waves that off. “She deserved it.”

“Well, she’s gone so….” Sophie shrugs because that is the point, isn’t it? She glances around her one bedroom apartment — the effects of her last break-up — and logs the empty spots on the walls where old art would’ve gone. There’s space on the bookshelves from the books Tyler took with him. After the divorce, Sophie had to physically sort through her life. What does she do now when there’s nothing to pack up, or send away?

Sophie admits, “I’ve never had another person for this. Though, Kate and I did have a better goodbye than we usually do.” Even saying that puts a little smile in the corner of Sophie’s lips.

Of course Ryan clocks it. “Oh, y’all had a good-bye then.”

Sophie’s smile gets bigger as she licks her lips. A very good bye. As the rest of the conversation filters back in, Sophie’s smile shrinks. “She wants me to go for something easier.”

Ryan hums in understanding. “Long distance isn’t great, especially when you have no idea where she’ll be.”

“Are we still talking about Kate?” Sophie asks. Angelique’s out there somewhere. Ryan spent the majority of their working relationship hating Sophie because of Angelique. If Ryan’s still hung up on her….

Ryan shrugs. “We’re all getting over someone. I am just much further along than you.”

Honestly, direct communication is not something Sophie is interested in right now. She doesn’t want to think about whether Ryan misses Angelique, or how much Sophie will miss Kate when the reality sets in. She doesn’t want to think about Imani, or the fact that Ryan has had a whole mini-relationship in these last few months while Sophie’s been frozen in grief and time.

“You know what they say, the best way to get over someone…” Sophie lets the sentence hang a moment as Ryan’s eyebrows inch higher and higher up her hairline. Sophie laughs before finishing, “is to watch a movie with a friend. You pick.”

The way Ryan’s face lights up with the power is absolutely worth whatever disaster will take up the next two hours of Sophie’s life. “Let me see what you got.”

As Sophie brings two glasses of wine over to the living room, Ryan puts a throw pillow on the ground and tells Sophie to sit on it.

“But the couch—”

“Is for me!” Ryan plops down with her feet on either side of the pillow. She looks like they’ve got church in the morning and the hot comb’s smoking on the tray beside her. “You know the set up,” Ryan says.

“True. Care to tell me why?” Sophie’s hair is fine.

Ryan’s nose quirks up the way it does when she needs to keep her emotions in check. She shrinks into her chest. “When I was sad, my mama used to play with my hair. She’d claim that she was oiling my scalp, but mostly, she ran her fingers through it. Gave me a little massage until I felt better, or went to sleep. I am willing to do that for you, if you want to actually relax.”

Relaxing does sound better than drinking a lot of wine and crying. Besides, Ryan studies Sophie’s face like she wants to find every crack and smooth it over. How could Sophie say no?

She sets the wine down and sits onto the pillow. Instinct takes over as she scoots back until her back’s to the couch and rests her neck against the side of the cushion. Ryan does a little happy dance that shakes the couch. She presses play on the movie, and Sophie watches the credits. She does. She sees that much for sure. But once Ryan slips her fingers into Sophie’s hair, Sophie tunes all the way out.

A light lavender scent hits her nose each time Ryan’s hands shift towards the crown of her head. Did Ryan put on a perfume, or is that an essential oil? Lavender’s meant to be calming. Soothing. Sophie wants to drown in it.

As Ryan massages her way along Sophie’s scalp, the world melts away. No pain, no drama, just a weightlessness that eases down her body and makes her want to cry. Her body sinks into the softness. The peace and stability of knowing hands and the right amount of pressure to send tingles through her skin. Then Ryan’s short nails get involved, lightly scratching, and Sophie barely bites down on a moan.

Ryan must still hear it. A little chuckle shakes the couch. She doesn’t comment thankfully. Sophie doesn’t have the energy to be embarrassed right now. Too lost in the feel of Ryan’s hands on her. If this is what Ryan can do with just Sophie’s head —

Sophie’s eyes fly open. She needs to get a grip.

Ryan’s fingers snake down to Sophie’s shoulders. Again, the only grip Sophie can focus on is Ryan’s. Sophie lasts another few minutes of this high before sighing out, “Marry me.”

She figures Ryan will laugh at that too. They’ve joked enough about dates, both in and out of the cowl. Ryan doesn’t even stop touching her. Ryan leans down rather than keeping the distance. The shift in position tightens her thighs on either side of where Sophie sits. She waits until her breath is a warm whisper against Sophie’s ear to let out the sexiest little laugh. Sophie genuinely stops breathing.

“If you think this is good, you’re not ready.”

In an instant, Sophie would really like to be. Ready, willing, anything and everything if it feels this good and Ryan stays this close to her. Her face is on fire as she turns her head to see Ryan. Fuck, Ryan’s lips are right there. Teasing and parted, and Ryan’s tongue dips out to wet them. Sophie drags her gaze up from Ryan’s lips to meet Ryan’s hooded, sparkling eyes. Oh she knows exactly what she’s doing to Sophie. She’s enjoying this.

Ryan’s voice still sounds teasing. “Watch the movie, Sophie.”

“I’ll watch what I want to watch,” Sophie shoots back.

Ryan takes that as the challenge it is. She holds the stare and kneads her thumbs into the backs of Sophie’s shoulders. Sophie’s eyelids flutter, and she struggles again to keep from audibly moaning. At least this time, she catches the little gulp Ryan does.

Ryan scoots back onto the couch, up to her full — albeit little — seated height. Sophie turns further, and she tries not to think too hard about looking up at Ryan from between Ryan’s legs. It must be on her face though since Ryan actually averts her eyes.

“Soph....” Ryan’s voice strains. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?” Ryan started it with that ‘if you think this is good’ comment. She is not putting this back on Sophie.

Ryan groans, flustered in a way that should not look as cute as it does. “You know what! You — we — just look over there.” She takes a hand off Sophie to point back at the TV. “I am trying to be a good friend right now. To both of you.”

And there goes the fun. Sophie turns back to the TV. She really has no idea what’s happening in this movie. She doesn’t want to ask either. They’re damn near fifteen minutes in. She’s not going back in the movie, or with life. She’s not going to break down over losing Kate again. She has no reason to. She’s spent more time with Ryan this week than she did with Kate. She’s fine.

Ryan clears her throat. “Talking with her today was, like, everything I’d imagined it would be. She’s funny and witty, and she has great taste in everything. Present company included. I can see why you’d love her. And why it would be easier to not try to deal with those feelings of loss all over again.”

Sophie drops her head back against the couch. Her ceiling’s not nearly as interesting to look at as Ryan. Or Kate. “Do we have to do this?”

“We’re not doing anything else so….” Her narrowed eyes say exactly what she means by ‘anything else.’

“There are other things, Ryan.” Besides giving in to the tension that flares between them, besides shifting an already unstable dynamic past its breaking point. Probably many, many times.

Ryan holds her hands together in her lap. “Well, you’re clearly not interested in the movie, so: your call. What does the great Sophie Moore want to do with her break up night?”

Sophie’s eyes dance as she gets up to kneel in front of Ryan. (Yes, Ryan glances at her through what looks like a haze of lust and concern. Yes, she blinks, and all that emotion slips back under the base gleam in Ryan’s eyes. No, Sophie does not want to think about how many times Ryan might’ve looked at her like this without ever noticing.)

“Well, Ryan Wilder, there is one thing that I have been dying to do.”

“You have to— Sophie, please listen before we end up falling.” Ryan glares up at Sophie. They’re standing on a building that Ryan says is the best jumping point to the Bat-roof. It’s lower down, which is probably why Sophie has never seen either of the Batwomen coming.

Ryan’s face is torn between excitement and dread at sharing her red and black baton with Sophie. She repeats for the third time which button to press to shoot the grappling hook, how to angle the body, and how to land so they don’t fall off the roof.

“I’m listening,” Sophie swears. She adjusts her stance so her feet are wide like Ryan instructed. She angles her body towards the other roof — their roof. She takes a steadying breath and gently plucks Ryan’s hand off the other end of the baton.

Ryan steps in to wrap her arms around Sophie’s waist. “You have to brace yourself for landing. And please do not let go of me. I’m holding on, but—”

“I won’t let go,” Sophie assures her. She wraps her left arm around Ryan and holds tight to the baton with her right. Okay, another steadying breath, and she jams her thumb into the button. The wire flies out, and in a breath, they soar up through the air. Wind whips around them, and Ryan squeezes so tight that her face is nearly in Sophie’s chest.

For her assurances, Sophie does not stick the landing. She stumbles the moment the wire ends, and Ryan stumbles with her. Both of them clatter onto the Bat-roof with a groan and a laugh and a tangle of limbs that ends with them side by side on the roof’s floor.

The air around them is quiet and warm and still has a hint of the smoke from all the fires in Gotham yesterday. Sophie has the fleeting thought that it might be easier with Ryan than she ever expected. What ‘it’ is, well, Sophie blinks that away.

She props herself up on her elbows. “Can we go again?”

Ryan laughs. “No recovery period with you.”

Sophie gets up and offers her hand to Ryan, who takes it without hesitation. She tugs harder than she needs to. Ryan pops up with little more than a breath between them. She uses her free hand to tuck Ryan’s hair behind her ear. Lets her finger trail down Ryan’s neck.

Sophie whispers, “Oh, Wilder, you have no idea.” Ryan’s dramatic groan of reply makes Sophie laugh harder than she has all day. "Come on, round two."

Ryan pouts as Sophie heads for the stairs. Ryan points out, "I normally just jump off."

"What's the rush?" Sophie holds the door open for Ryan to come with her. "We've got all the time in the world."

a/n: We made it through season two, and I love these two so much. What about you?

#batwoman #batwoman fic #wildmoore #ryan wilder #sophie moore #ryan x sophie #mine #batwoman: s2 #batwoman: 218 #kate kane #kate x ryan #but not in a ship way just in a tag way

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rizlowwritessortof · 3 years

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Meant To Be - Chapter 3

Dean and Jordan are each trying to escape their painful pasts. Their chance meeting and a dangerous encounter begins a relationship that may give them both a new start.

Pairing: Police Detective Dean Winchester/Jordan Taylor

Word Count: 2038

Warnings: None.

Aesthetic by @editsbymichele on Instagram; Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Jordan rolled over and shut off her alarm, yawning and stretching. The last few days had been a whirlwind, but she was starting to get used to waking up in her new surroundings. Donna’s apartment was bright and sunny, pretty much like the woman herself. She had welcomed Jordan with open arms, literally, and immediately installed her in the second bedroom, down the hall from Donna’s room.

After taking a week to settle in, at Sam’s insistence, she was ready to start her new job at Winchester Law. Sam was picking her up in a couple of hours to get her acquainted with the office and do all the annoying paperwork involved, so she climbed out of bed and headed for the shower. As she got ready to step in, she remembered that her tiny sample shampoo had run out the morning before, and she sighed, grabbing a towel to wrap around herself as she headed out to look for her new roomie.

She walked into the living room as she called out, “Hey, Donna, do you have any shampoo I could borr…” The front door swung open as she was in mid-sentence, and Dean walked in, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw her. “Oh…shit.” Jordan clutched the towel around herself a little tighter, blushing to the roots of her hair. “Dean. Hi. I’m so embarrassed right now.”

Dean, however, looked incredibly pleased with himself, a slow grin spreading across his face, his eyes full of mischief. “Don’t be embarrassed on my account. I’m good.”

“Dean Winchester!” Donna’s voice scolded as she rushed by Jordan and directly over to her partner, turning him around and shoving him to the door. “What are you doing in here?”

Dean turned his head, a confused scowl on his face as he was forced into the hall. “What?! I always come in when I pick you up… coffee...”

“Go back to the car and wait for me, I’ll bring your coffee. You can’t just walk in here now, I’m not the only one who lives here, Dean. For Pete’s sake!”

“Sorry! For fuck’s sake, stop shoving me!” He turned around to grin at Jordan again. “It was really nice to see you, Jordan,” he said with a wink as Donna slammed the door closed in his face. They could hear his laughter as he headed down the hall, and in spite of her embarrassment, Jordan couldn’t smother a little smile.

“That man! I’m so sorry,” Donna apologized. “He has always just let himself in and got his coffee here, but I’m always up, dressed and ready to go before he gets here and it’s just a habit. I didn’t even think about it.”

Jordan shook her head. “Not your fault, I shouldn’t be wandering around in a towel. I just forgot my little bottle of shampoo ran out yesterday. Can I borrow some until I can get to the store?”

“Oh, honey, help yourself to anything you need from my shower! When I get home tonight, we’ll make a run to the store, get you stocked up.” She put a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry – are you okay?”

Jordan smiled, her cheeks still flushed pink. “I’m fine. I’ll just probably never hear the end of this.”

Donna nodded, her dimples showing, a sparkle in her eyes. “Oh, yeah, count on it. He’ll never let this one go. Well, I’d better get going. I’ll see you tonight.”

Dean shoved his desk drawer closed a little harder than necessary, and his partner shot him a look, shaking her head. “What? I hate desk duty.”

“Oh, I know. Which is why you have such a pile of paperwork there. Why don’t you just settle in and do it, get caught up while we’re stuck in here.”

He glared at Donna, then at the pile of papers on the corner of his desk. “Hate paperwork,” he muttered under his breath as he grabbed a handful of unfinished reports and opened his laptop.

“Just think how good it’ll feel to get all of that work finished and out of your hair.” Donna smiled, unfazed by the baleful look Dean shot her way.

“Leave it to me to get Miss Mary Sunshine as my partner,” he grumbled, and Donna’s smile grew wider.

“You’re welcome,” she grinned back at him, then went to work on her own stack.

Jordan jumped as a knock echoed through the apartment, rushing to the door and peering through the peephole. “Sam! Oh, Sam, you didn’t have to come up here and get me! I thought you’d just text me or something.”

Sam smiled, his dimples winking as he stepped inside. “I thought I could at least come up the first time I picked you up. Didn’t want to just sit outside and blow the horn.” Jordan laughed, grabbing her jacket from the couch.

“Ok, I guess I’m ready. I wasn’t sure how to dress...” She had debated for an hour, finally putting on a pair of dress slacks and a blouse, and she looked up at Sam for his approval.

“You could honestly wear whatever you want, I usually wear jeans. Whatever makes you comfortable, it doesn’t matter to me. In fact, a lot of the time you can probably just work from home if you want, after we get the office organized again. It’s kind of a disaster right now, sorry.”

“We’ll get it all sorted out, no worries. Once you fill me in on your filing system and how you want things done, I’ll get it taken care of.” She smiled up at him, ever amazed at how tall the man was. “Well, boss, we’re losing daylight.”

“Great. I hired a slave driver,” he teased, and they made their way out of the apartment together.

Jordan flopped onto the sofa with a satisfied smile, letting her head drop back as she let her mind wander over her day. There really was a lot of organizing to do in Sam’s office, due to his lack of help for the last few weeks, but she had made a pretty good dent. After this week, she could probably work out of the apartment most days, maybe go in one day a week to do filing and such. Sam was such an easy-going guy, he was going to be a dream to work for. And his fiance, Sarah, was so nice – she had stopped in during the day, and they hit it off right away.

Her phone rang and she grabbed it, smiling as she saw Dean’s name. “Hope that new boss of yours isn’t too much of an asshole,” he teased.

“Oh, he’s terrible! Even meaner than his brother.”

Dean laughed. “Yeah, I hear he’s a real jerk.”

“Well, nobody’s perfect,” she giggled in reply. “So what’s up, Detective Winchester?”

“Donna and I wondered if you’d be interested in going out for a couple of beers, maybe some pub food? Then we can stop off at the store so you can pick up what you need.”

“That sounds great – what time?”

“We’ll be there in about – 45 or so? If you can be ready by then.”

“No problem, I’ll be waiting, just give me a yell and I’ll come down.”

“Awesome. See you later.”

She sighed happily as she laid her phone back down, letting her eyes close for a moment. Dean’s face was right there, his eyes shining as he smiled at her, and she silently scolded herself. He wasn’t interested in her like that, and she needed to get a grip on her feelings before they carried her away. He was just a friend, and daydreaming about him wasn’t going to get her anywhere. “Slow your roll, Jordan,” she told herself firmly, then got up and went to her room to change.

Dean drove to Dooley’s Pub, the normal watering hole he and Donna frequented. It was a cop-friendly bar, the owner was a retired police sergeant, and he called out a greeting to them as they walked in. The three of them grabbed a table, ordered a round of beers and started chatting about their day, munching pretzels from the bowl the waitress had dropped off. “So, how was it working for my brother?” Dean asked, and Jordan smiled.

“He’s going to be an awesome boss. I think we’re gonna get along great. How was desk duty today?”

Dean rolled his eyes, and Donna laughed. “You should have heard him whining all day, you’d think they made him clean the toilets or somethin’.”

“I wasn’t that bad,” he fired back, and his partner shook her head, then looked at Jordan.

“He was like an overgrown three-year-old, Jordan. Don’t let him fool ya. He can pout with the best of ‘em.”

Jordan grinned. “Awwww… it’s only for two weeks.”

Dean huffed out a frustrated sigh. “Two weeks is gonna drive me insane.”

“Short trip,” Donna quipped, and the girls laughed again, Dean failing to completely smother the smile teasing at the corners of his mouth.

“All right, all right – just for that, I’m gonna kick your ass at darts.”

“Oooh, I’ll play the winner – or the loser. Whatever,” Jordan offered, and they moved over near the dart board.

Dean easily beat Donna, and she punched him in the shoulder as she moved back to the table. “Go get ‘im, Jordan. Somebody needs to wipe that cocky smile off his face,” she teased.

“Yeah, that’s probably not gonna happen, but… I’ll do what I can,” Jordan answered, taking the darts from Dean’s hand.

“After you,” he offered with a sweep of his hand, and Jordan stepped up, taking aim. The first dart hit the floor, and he laughed as she swore under her breath. The second barely hung on to the board, finally falling out as her third buried itself in the wall beside the dart board.

“Epic fail.” She shook her head with disgust, and Dean went to retrieve her darts.

“Okay, let’s call that practice. Here…” He reached towards her, then stopped, looking into her eyes. “Is it okay if I...”

“Yes, please, help,” she laughed. He laid his darts on the table and turned towards her, and her breath caught in her chest as he gripped her hips in his hands, turning her slightly to adjust her stance.

“Now, when you throw, you should kind of snap your wrist to give it a little more speed.” He made adjustments to her arm and her grip on the dart, and she was beginning to wonder if she’d have the presence of mind to throw the damn thing when he was finished touching her. “Okay, give it a try.”

She glanced up at him and nodded, then focused her eyes on the board. The first two landed in halfway decent spots, and the third buried itself right next to the bullseye. She cheered and turned to throw her arms around his neck in an excited hug, then backed away, blushing. “Sorry, I just never thought I’d get it!”

Donna was grinning as she watched them. “You got it, girl! A little practice and you’ll be kicking his ass!”

They played their game, Dean winning, of course, and Jordan finished the last of her beer before heading to the bathroom. “I suppose, if we’re stopping at the store, we should take off. We all have to work tomorrow. But first – the little girls’ room.” She plopped her glass back on the table and took off, and Dean sat down, finishing the Coke he had switched to since he was driving.

“So…” Donna said, a knowing smirk on her face.

“So… what?” Dean’s confused frown made her giggle.

“I saw you. You’ve got a thing for her.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Look, I was just helping her with...”

“Save it, partner. You are falling for her, and she’s definitely into you, so what the hell are you waiting for?”

Dean dropped his head and glared at her from under his frowning brow, the dimples above his mouth deepening. “Shut up.”

Donna laughed softly, complying with his request for the time being since Jordan was headed back their way. “All right, you two – let’s hit the road.”

Chapter 4

#meant to be #chapter 3 #dean fic #dean x oc #dean x jordan

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tabloidtoc · 3 years

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Star, March 8

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: George Clooney vs. Brad Pitt -- the fight that ended their friendship

Page 1: Scott Disick's mid-life makeover -- some guys buy a convertible but Scott already has a garage full of fancy rides, so what else to do when you're edging close to 40, split from the mom of your three kids and are already dating a 19-year-old model? Well, bleach your hair platinum, of course!

Page 2: Contents, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary with a couple's surf session

Page 3: Star Shots -- John Legend wore an eye-catching sweater to a photoshoot in West Hollywood, Anya Taylor-Joy stunned in a crimson gown on the set of an untitled David O. Russell-directed period film, Jason Sudeikis grabbed a bite during a break from filming Ted Lasso's second season in London

Page 4: After hosting countless rose ceremonies over nearly two decades of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Chris Harrison is now in the hot seat himself and facing backlash for defending current Bachelor frontrunner Rachael Kirkconnell who's been accused of racist behavior -- the next day, Chris apologized and said he was stepping aside as host of the dating reality series but the damage was done as Rachel Lindsay who is the first Black lead in the franchise's history revealed she won't renew her Bachelor contract and current Bachelor Matt James supported her -- as for Chris, the fallout continues as Crest are considering pulling down ads featuring him but with critics calling for his ouster Chris wants his job back and no one at ABC wants to see him replaced but those conversations are happening

Page 5: Miley Cyrus has an idea how to help Britney Spears in her legal battle to replace dad Jamie Spears as her conservator -- Miley is hoping she and Britney can record a classic song together like an anthem like Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves or Enough Is Enough and she's hoping to get Britney on board but that may be a challenge with the legal restrictions in place

* Mom-of-eight Kate Gosselin didn't get what she was asking for on her house in Pennsylvania -- it's upsetting that she got less than she paid for it but her hand was forced; it costs a lot to keep up a house like that on 20-plus acres and with years of roughhousing, it needs a lot of work -- with twins Mady and Cara already in college and the sextuplets growing up, Kate hopes to jump-start her career and she's dying to leave Pennsylvania and head to Hollywood

* Paris Hilton's boyfriend of just over a year Carter Reum dropped to one knee on a gorgeous private beach and offered Paris his heart and a sparkler from Cartier and she said yes -- close family was on hand to celebrate the couple who have been friends for 15 years and the party went on well into the evening -- now Paris is already making wedding plans for something simple and elegant with a gorgeous dinner and the couple is ready to start a family sooner rather than later and she's hinted she's already started IVF and if she gets pregnant they'll just push up the wedding

Page 6: Ryan Gosling needed some time off after 2018's moon-landing biopic First Man because he really became Neil Armstrong during the six months of shooting and he was absolutely drained after finishing it and he spent the next two years with wife Eva Mendes being a full-time dad to their two young kids -- now he's back and with three movies lined up, he's looking at a $75 million paycheck this year -- in addition to The Gray Man, he's gearing up for a Wolfman update and another space adventure called Project Hail Mary -- he wants to be a popcorn-movie star and he's going full-blown buff-and-shirtless action hero

* Allen v. Farrow is a new investigation into 1992 allegations about Woody Allen by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow and her mother Mia Farrow that digs up damning new evidence against the director -- one harrowing home video shows the then-7-year-old Dylan saying her dad touched her privates and later a doorman and a building manager and a maid at Allen's NYC residence raise questions about when Woody began his shocking relationship with Mia's teen daughter Soon-Yi -- Mia also expresses fear in the doc, saying she worries that when the documentary comes out he'll be on the attack again and he'll do whatever he has to do to save himself

* Star Spots the Stars -- Julia Roberts, Joe Jonas, Luann de Lesseps, Christina Aguilera, Kaia Gerber, Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae Young

Page 8: Star Shots -- With balloons and a box of chocolate in hand lifestyle expert Gretta Monahan arrived at The View, Melissa Gorga snacked on a huge box of sweets between Zoom interviews to promote the 11 season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Vanessa Lachey prepared to host a Galentine's Day celebration with macarons and wine

Page 10: Jenna Dewan making a plant-based meal, Selling Sunset's Christine Quinn and her husband Christian Richard sipped juice bar drinks while running errands in Beverly Hills, Hugh Grant stopped to tend to his laces while out for a walk in Chelsea in West London, Carrie Underwood prepped for her daily workout session in pieces from her Calia fitness apparel line

Page 12: After a stop at the Kidding Around children's store Bradley Cooper had his hands full walking with his daughter Lea in NYC, Sofia Vergara chic in a blowout and patterned top in Beverly Hills, Justin Bieber looked comfy in a message tee and pajama bottoms in L.A.

Page 13: Thandie Newton looked tense while Chris Pine hit the ground running as the two filmed the spy thriller All the Old Knives in London, Jon Bernthal braved the frigid water while Gretchen Mol bundled up on the set of American Gigolo in L.A.

Page 14: Think Pink -- Jennifer Lopez hoisted an oversized customized bubble-gum hued Coach satchel in a promo shot in NYC, Cardi B slipped on neon sneakers from her Reebok collaboration to shop on Rodeo Drive in L.A., Hilary Duff showing off a peek of her growing baby bump on the set of Younger in NYC

Page 16: In town to film The Hills: New Beginnings with their castmates Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag played in the snow with their son Gunner in Lake Tahoe

Page 17: Mandy Moore and husband Taylor Goldsmith celebrated their last Valentine's Day before parenthood with a romantic stroll in Pasadena, Michelle Obama on her new children's show Waffles + Mochi

Page 18: Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay in NYC, hiding her locks in a cute newsboy cap Brooke Burke grabbed dinner at Nobu in Malibu, Krysten Ritter brought her son Bruce to meet some farm animals at the Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita

Page 20: Normal or Not? Farrah Abraham suffered a serious wardrobe malfunction while hitting the sand in Malibu -- not normal, Nikki Reed gushing over her therapy chicken -- normal, Property Brothers' Drew Scott booty bumpin' with wife Linda Phan -- not normal, Lucy Hale lovingly held onto her new dog Ethel while fueling up her ride in L.A. -- normal

Page 22: Fashion -- stars in pastel frocks -- Heidi Klum, Sophia Bush, Chrissy Teigen

Page 23: Rihanna, Kirsten Dunst

Page 26: Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are having sexy slumber parties at Kourtney's $8.5 million Calabasas pad and they are spending so much time together and she loves having him sleep over and he'll stay the whole weekend -- Travis who has lived nearby in the gated community for years is already making himself at home and not only has he moved a bunch of stuff into Kourtney's property but she leaves him to chill out and enjoy his space if she has to run errands -- even if it seems the couple is moving and moving in fast, their respective broods are on board with the new arrangement and Kourtney's kids Mason, Penelope and Reign love having Travis around and meanwhile the door is always open for Travis' kids Alabama and Landon, and Travis and Kourtney do a lot of fun stuff with their kids together -- there's already speculation that the move-in will be permanent because Kourtney knows a good thing when she sees it and Travis checks all the boxes

Page 27: Meeting the in-laws might be a little complicated for newly engaged Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers because the Green Bay Packers QB is famously estranged from his Chico, California-based family -- in 2016 Aaron's younger brother Jordan Rodgers exposed the rift while competing on The Bachelorette and at the time, fans blamed Aaron's then-girlfriend Olivia Munn for turning him Hollywood but the trouble continued after their 2017 split -- now that he's with Shailene, Aaron doesn't want to bring her into that toxic atmosphere but Shailene who once called her own folks super f**ked up is not deterred and she is encouraging Aaron to let bygones be bygones but he's not ready

* Melissa and Joe Gorga's marriage troubles will play out on the new season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey but their issues are even worse behind the scenes and they've been butting heads as Melissa's career continues to skyrocket so she's distracted with work and doesn't have time for Joe and he feels neglected and he isn't one to hold back -- it doesn't help that the Envy boutique owner was rumored to be getting close to another man -- the couple is trying to work out their issues for the sake of their three kids but Melissa may be done

Page 28: Cover Story -- George Clooney and Brad Pitt: The Breaking Point -- fights, jealousy and other women -- the former besties had a major falling out and now mutual friend Sandra Bullock is desperate to reunite them -- George and Brad have barely spoken in eight years and they've definitely gone their separate ways and Brad's ex-wife Angelina Jolie played a big part in the demise of their friendship because Angie felt George took Brad away from her and their kids -- Amal Clooney found Angie unbearable and that was kind of the point of no return for Brad and George -- George is struggling to regain his luster as a director while Brad is out there winning Oscars

Page 32: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: Interview Shockers -- as they prep for baby number two, Harry and Meghan announce a no-holds-barred interview, leaving the palace on edge

Page 34: Celebs in Wheel Trouble -- don't drink (or drug) and drive; these stars got caught making some very bad decisions -- Bruce Springsteen, mug shots of Justin Bieber

Page 35: Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Lindsay Lohan, Michael Phelps, Khloe Kardashian, Henry Thomas, Heather Locklear, Jesse Luken, Mel Gibson

Page 36: Beauty -- curl care -- strengthen every type of wave and coil with cool new miracle workers

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Bill Murray teamed up with NFL player Larry Fitzgerald for the AT&T Every Shot Counts Charity Challenge in Pebble Beach -- despite landing in third place, Bill and Larry made a great pair, earning an impressive $209,000 for local charities

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papermoonloveslucy · 4 years

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TOO MANY GIRLS

October 8, 1940

Too Many Girls was an RKO film musical based on the stage musical of the same title. It was produced and directed by George Abbott, who had also directed the Broadway production. The music was composed by Richard Rodgers, the lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and the book was by George Marion, Jr. although the screenplay was adapted by John Twist.

Too Many Girls opened on Broadway on October 18, 1939, at the Imperial Theatre, running to April 21, 1940, and transferred to the Broadway Theatre on April 22, 1940, closing on May 18, 1940. The cast featured Desi Arnaz, Diosa Costello, Marcy Westcott, Eddie Bracken, Richard Kollmar, Van Johnson, and Hal Le Roy. Musical Staging was by Robert Alton, scenery by Jo Mielziner, and costumes by Raoul Pène Du Bois.

The musical takes place in Skowhegan, Maine and Pottawatomie College in Stop Gap, New Mexico.

Synopsis ~ Connie Casey, an energetic celebrity heiress, wants to go to Pottawatomie College in Stop Gap, New Mexico, her father's alma mater, to be near her latest beau, British playwright Beverly Waverly. To protect her, and without her knowledge, her tycoon father sends four Ivy League football players as her bodyguards, Clint Kelly, Jojo Jordan, Manuelito and Al Terwilliger, who sign a contract with an ‘anti-romance’ clause. They also join the college's terrible football team, which immediately becomes one of the best in the country. Clint falls in love with Connie, but when she discovers he is her bodyguard, she decides to go back East. The bodyguards follow her, leaving the team in the lurch. The people of Stop Gap go after them, and they are brought back just in time for the big game. Connie declares her love for Clint, and he leads the team to victory.

PRINCIPAL CAST

Lucille Ball (Consuela ‘Connie’ Casey) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. “My Favorite Husband” eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Desi Arnaz (Manuelito Lynch) was born in Santiago, Cuba on March 2, 1917. After leaving Cuba, he formed his own Latin band, and literally launched the conga craze in America. It was on the set of Too Many Girls (1940) that he and Lucille Ball met. They soon married and approximately 10 years later formed Desilu Productions and began the “I Love Lucy” shows in 1951. Desi and Lucille had two children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. At the end of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1960, the two divorced. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and died on December 2, 1986 at age 69.

Manuelito: “I'm not conceited. I am the greatest player in fifty years, but I'm not conceited.”

Richard Carlson (Clint Kelly) makes his first and last appearance with Lucy and Desi, although his wife, Mona, was featured as one of Don Loper’s models on “The Fashion Show” (ILL S4;E20) in 1955.

Ann Miller (Pepe) had appeared with Lucille Ball in three films: Stage Door (1937), Having Wonderful Time (1938), and Room Service (1938). In 1954, she appeared with the Arnazes on “MGM’s 30th Anniversary Tribute”.

Eddie Bracken (Jojo Jordan) makes his only screen appearance with Lucy and Desi, although he was part of the Broadway cast of Too Many Girls and was friends with the Arnazes off screen as seen in the above photo with Ann Miller and Lucy.

JOJO: “Well, I'm not exactly wonderful, but I'm awfully attractive in a dynamic sort of way.”

Frances Langford (Eileen Eilers) makes her only appearance with Lucy and Desi. She worked extensively with Bob Hope on his USO tours.

Hal LeRoy (Al Terwilliger) makes his only screen appearance with Lucy and Desi, although he was part of the Broadway cast of Too Many Girls.

Libby Bennett (Tallulah Lou) makes her only screen appearance in Too Many Girls. She had also been seen in the Broadway stage production.

Harry Shannon (Mr. Harvey Casey) appeared with Lucille Ball in 1942′s The Big Street. On “I Love Lucy” he played Jim White the photographer in “Men Are Messy” (ILL S1;E8) in 1951 (above center). Musical fans will remember Shannon as Rosalind Russell’s father in the 1962 musical film Gypsy.

Mrs. Teweksbury says Mr. Casey is one of the richest individuals in the country. He reportedly has $7.50 more than Henry Ford. He is Connie’s father and Chairman of Casey Conglomerated Industries.

Douglas Walton (Beverly Waverly) was a Canadian-born actor making his only appearance with Lucy and Desi. He played poet Percy Shelley in the film The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He left film acting in 1950, before the advent of television.

Beverley Waverly is a British playwright.

Chester Clute (Lister) did four films with Lucille Ball before Too Many Girls and four after it.

Lister is an alumni of Pottawatomie College, like his boss Mr. Casey.

Ivy Scott (Mrs. Tewksbury) was also in the stage production of Too Many Girls and only did one more film in Hollywood, Higher and Higher in 1943.

Mrs. Tewksbury is the proprietor of The Hunted Stag (or, as Mr. Lister calls it, The Stunted Hag), an Inn where the boys are waiters.

Byron Shores (Sheriff Andaluz) makes his only screen appearance with Lucy and Desi. He was also seen in the stage production of Too Many Girls. His last film was in 1944.

UNCREDITED FILM CAST

Iron Eyes Cody (Indian) made a career of playing Native American characters despite the fact that he was of Italian ancestry. He next worked with Lucy and in 1942’s Valley of the Sun, again as an American Indian character. He played an Eskimo in a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” but is probably best remembered as the Indian that sheds a single tear in the ‘Keep America Beautiful’ ads that ran from 1971 to the 1980s.

Jay Silverheels (Indian) also played a Native American character in Valley of the Sun (1942) with Lucille Ball. He was best known for playing Tonto on “The Lone Ranger”.

Chief John Big Tree (Chief)

Harry James (Orchestra Leader) also played himself in Lucille Ball’s Best Foot Forward in 1943. With his wife, Betty Grable, he was seen in “Lucy Wins a Racehorse” (LDCH S1;E4) in 1958.

Van Johnson (Chorus Boy) was also seen with Lucy in the films Easy to Wed (1946) and Yours, Mine and Ours in 1968. He played himself on one of the most popular episodes of “I Love Lucy,” “The Dancing Star” (ILL S4;E27) and played both himself and a look-alike on “Here’s Lucy” in 1968. He was also a member of the Broadway cast of Too Many Girls.

Johnson has only two lines of dialogue in the film but is often visible in group scenes.

Shep Houghton (Chorus Boy) made two other films with Lucille Ball and was seen in the background of two episodes of “The Lucy Show” and one episode of “Here’s Lucy.” Houghton was one of the Winkie Guards in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz and a Southern Dandy in Gone With the Wind (1939).

John Benton (Chorus Boy)

Mildred Law (Coed) appeared on “I Love Lucy” in “Return Home From Europe” (ILL S5;E26) playing a TWA flight attendant who attends to Lucy’s cheesy baby, Chester. This was her penultimate screen credit.

Pamela Blake (Coed) also appeared uncredited with Lucille Ball in Stage Door (1937).

Amarilla Morris (Coed) was seen with Desi Arnaz in the 1942 film Four Jacks and a Jill as the girl in the revolving door.

Other Coeds: Janet Lavis, Ellen Johnson, Vera Fern, Peggy Drake, Zita Baca, Anna Mae Tessle

Homer Dickenson (Mr. Casey's Butler) immediately followed this film with A Girl, A Guy, And A Gob (1941) also starring Lucille Ball.

Grady Sutton (Football Coach) from 1935 to 1945, Sutton did five films with Lucille Ball.

Dorothy Vernon (Faculty Extra) also did The Bowery (1933) and Valley of the Sun (1942) with Lucille Ball.

Dan White (Faculty Extra) had a small role in the 1970 TV special “Swing Out Sweet Land” in which Lucille Ball voiced the Statue of Liberty.

Others: Sethma Williams (Marie), Tommy Graham (Hawker), Averell Harris (Detective), Michael Alvarez (Joe)

WHEN LUCY MET DIZZY

Lucille Ball met Desi Arnaz for the first time at the RKO studio commissary, while Too Many Girls was in rehearsals. She was in full costume and make-up after performing a fight scene for another film, Dance, Girl, Dance (1940, above): she wore a slinky gold dress slit halfway up the thigh and sported a black eye. Arnaz was seated at the same table as director George Abbott, who introduced the two. Arnaz was not impressed by Ball, thinking she “looked like a two-dollar whore who had been badly beaten by her pimp." After the encounter, he asked Abbott to fire Ball from Too Many Girls, claiming she was “too tough and common for the role." He also advised that her reputation as Queen of the B movies might negatively impact his much-anticipated film debut, advice Abbott thankfully ignored.

“A Cuban skyrocket burst over my horizon!” ~ Lucy about Desi

“Those damned big beautiful blue eyes!” ~ Desi about Lucy

That night, Arnaz was rehearsing “She Could Shake the Maracas" when Ball walked in, now wearing a yellow sweater and tight-fitting beige slacks. Not recognizing her, Arnaz turned to the piano player and whispered “Man, that is a honk of woman!" The pianist reminded Arnaz of his earlier meeting with Ball. Lucille approached them to say hello. "Miss Ball?" Arnaz said, just to make sure that there was no mistake. "Why don't you call me Lucille? And I'll call you Dizzy."

Lucy and Desi have very little interaction in the film, but when he sees Connie for the first time, he gets weak in the knees and falls to the ground, in awe of her beauty. Despite this, Manuelito’s romance is with Pepe, not Connie. History re-wrote that chapter!

TOO MANY SONGS!

Heroes in the Fall - Male Chorus

You're Nearer - Connie, Pepe, Eileen, and Tallulah Lou

Pottawatomie - Mr. Casey and Chorus

'Cause We Got Cake - Eileen and Chorus

Spic 'n' Spanish - Manuelito and Pepe

Love Never Went to College - Eileen

Look Out! - Eileen and Pepe

I Didn't Know What Time It Was - Connie, Clint, and Jojo

You're Nearer - Connie, Manuelito, Eileen, Pepe, and Tallulah Lou

Conga

Songs cut from the Broadway show:

Tempt Me Not - Manuelito, Clint, and Chorus

My Prince - Connie

I Like To Recognize the Tune - Jojo, Connie, Eileen, Clint, and Al

The Sweethearts of the Team - Eileen

She Could Shake The Maracas - Pepe and Manuelito

Too Many Girls - Manuelito

Give It Back To The Indians - Eileen

TOO MANY TRIVIA!

RKO paid $100,000 for the rights to the Broadway musical.

Filming on Too Many Girls began on June 22, 1940.

Camerman Russell Metty briefly took over shooting for Frank Redman when Redman had to attend a funeral.

Uncredited performers Van Johnson and Harry James would go on to be two of the film’s biggest stars, except for Lucy and Desi, eclipsing many of the film’s principal cast like Hal LeRoy, Douglas Walton, and Libby Bennett.

Lucille Ball’s vocals were dubbed by Trudy Erwin, one of Kay Kyser’s singers.

Everyone imported from Broadway (except Hal LeRoy) was making their screen debut with Too Many Girls.

After making the film, Van Johnson and Mildred Law returned to the Broadway production. Instead of chorus roles, Johnson assumed the role of Jojo (originated by Bracken) and Law now played Tallulah Lou, originated by Leila Ernest.

On Broadway the character of Connie was originated by Marcy Wescott in her final Broadway stage role.

TOO MANY REFERENCES!

Each of Connie’s bodyguards plays football for an Ivy League college: Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. Manuelito is still deciding on a college, but is considering Princeton, where Clint goes. There is talk about a contentious game that includes Princeton. In Lucille Ball’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” (1948), George Cugat (later Cooper) hopes his future son will play for Princeton, his alum. Coincidentally, Lucille Ball did two plays at Princeton University’s resident theatre company, McCarter: Hey Diddle Diddle (1937) and Dream Girl (1947).

One of the characters mentions movie star Ginger Rogers, one of the top female box office stars of the time. She was also a good friend of Lucille Ball having done five films together. Rogers’ mother Lela tajght acting classes at RKO, later inspiring Ball to create the Desilu Playhouse at Desilu Studios. Rogers played herself on a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Mr. Casey compares his daughter Connie with Lucretia Borgia (1480-1519) was the illegitimate daughter of a pope and his mistress, a famous beauty, notorious for the suspicious deaths and political intrigue that swirled around her. Today her name has become synonymous with a beautiful, but scheming woman who would stop at nothing - including murder - to get what she wants. In 1949, Lucille Ball’s friend played Lucretia Borgia for Paramount in Bride of Vengeance.

Although Pottawatomie College and the town of Stop Gap are fictional, Pottawatomie is the name of a Native American tribe, although they were mostly found in the Great Lakes region, not in New Mexico. The Pottawatomie Massacre occurred from May 23 to May 26, 1856, resulting in the death of five pro-slavery settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. This was one of the many violent episodes in Kansas preceding the American Civil War.

TOO MANY CRITICS!

Too Many Girls premiered on October 8, 1940 at Loew's Criterion Theatre in New York. Critical reviews were generally positive, although Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that Too Many Girls was “a pleasant, light-hearted and wholly ingenuous campus film" but that director George Abbott "has permitted it to sag in the middle, at which point the thin spots baldly show. If the intention was to be impressive, it has failed. For 'Too Many Girls' is a simple, conventional rah-rah picture, without any place for pretense. And there is not enough to it, on the whole, for Mr. Abbott to squander dancers recklessly."

TOO FAST FORWARD

This film's earliest documented television presentations began in Los Angeles Tuesday May 8, 1956 on KHJ (Channel 9), much to the chagrin of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz who were embarrassed by it, and objected to its frequent showings to no avail.

In 1977, the music of Too Many Girls was rereleased on vinyl with performers Nancy Andrews, Johnny Desmond, Estelle Parsons, and Anthony Perkins!

The film is referenced in “Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter” a 1991 TV movie about starring Frances Fisher (above) and Maurice Bernard, as well as “Lucy” (2003), another TV film in which Lucy (Rachel York) and Desi (Danny Pino) meet on the set; Desi in his football uniform and Lucy bruised from the filming of Dance, Girl, Dance.

Clips from the film are featured in Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie (1993).

#Too Many Girls #Lucille Ball #Desi Arnaz #1940 #George Abbott #Broadway #musical #Van Johnson #Ann Miller #Eddie Bracken #Richard Carlson #Frances Langford #Hal LeRoy #Harry James #Conga #Rodgers and Hart #Dance Girl Dance #Frances Fisher #Iron Eyes Cody

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stonerbughead · 4 years

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Maria watches friday night lights (#21)

Things are really heating up!! This is my post for 4x10 + 4x11~

Tami really is the Mother of Dillon; Tim brings Becky to Tami when he doesn’t know what to do about her pregnancy like damn 😭

Ah Big Mary finally came around to the field?! It’s kinda really endearing that a bunch of the old East Dillon alumni are sitting watching the practice now after how this season started

Ugh I recently watched when Karen thought Lucas got Brooke pregnant and slapped him on one tree hill; this Becky scene with her mom has the same energy. The whole teen moms not wanting their kids to make the same mistake trauma ahhh it’s A Lot

Ohhh no did Vince’s mom relapse?!?! Young Michael B. Jordan at his mom’s bedside is so good damn 😭

Fuck Texas law for forcing this doctor to tell Becky the age of the fetus. She wants the abortion! This doctor would be a true hero if he didn’t follow that law. “Supposed to listen to some right wing doctor?!” Same.

God fucking dammit the state facility waiting lists are too long to take Vince’s mom! The system is set up to fail Black and Brown families.

Eric Taylor’s friendship with Big Mary is so funny to me. “You’re telling me I can’t coach the kid because I’m not black.” Eric, that is certainly not what he said I can’t with you

The Riggins brothers are gonna BURY stripped car frames?!

Ew I hate Ryan. And Eric does too.

DEDDDD

Like I truly cackled through this whole scene omfg

Damnnnn Jess having some madddd feels about Big Mary treating Vince like a son 🥺 poor girl

LMAO Tami way to scare the living shit out of Eric waking him up at 3 am with a sentence that includes a hypothetical Julie pregnancy

“This is the stupidest thing we’ve ever done.” Gotta agree with you on that one, Tim. (Also they’re having a real ass talk while burying these car frames!!!!! Lol)

Awww it was Becky’s first time having sex with Luke? That’s so rough.

“Do you think I’m going to hell if I have an abortion?” “No honey I don’t.” Damn these women are so blessed to have Queen Tami Taylor in their Texas small town!!!

I’m glad Becky is getting the abortion and I’m glad she made sure it was her decision after all that pressure from her mom!!! woof

Ah Big Mary finally showed up to his son’s game and is yelling the same things on the sidelines as Jess?! 🥺

Oh I’m so glad Vince found a way to get his mom in rehab, my heart (do we know how he did it tho? Did the gang help him, given the cash?) ....and got it, oh babe are you indebted now 😭 noooo

OMG Buddy on El Fuego is tooo muchhh I’m dying

Uh oh Luke and these painkillers is creeping back in to become a problem...

HOLY SHIT we get to see Saracen in Chicago???? Oh how I’ve missed him! He looks so cute in a scarf! Awww he has a photo of Julie up in his lil apartment?!

Oh we love Eric listening to his interview about the panthers game while sitting in the car staring at the old field! This show is so gooood like damn

Is Luke’s injury finally catching up to him now that he doesn’t have the painkillers to help him work through the pain?! Man this dude is having a rough semester, he was just dealing with a pregnant sexual partner too!

O H N O I had a feeling Luke’s mom coming in to ask Becky about the abortion was not friendly....and yep now she wants to get Tami fired???? Ugh fuck anti choice conservatives

Saracen’s Chicago apartment is so idyllic wow

Omg can you imagine being Julie getting that call all those months later??? I get why she was so upset, he sounded so casual like BOY YOU GHOSTED

Landry’s mom asking what Jess thinks of Obama, so cringe!

Ew Luke Cafferty’s mom at his door like “don’t forget to say your prayers” as if she isn’t trying to ruin Tami’s life with her anti choice nonsense!!!

Yeeeesh Cheryl’s hitting on Tim?? did Cheryl not notice that Becky is clearly super into Tim 😬 this is so much, why is Tim stuck in a love triangle with a mother and her daughter.

W O W Luke doesn’t even know his mom went to talk to Becky, let alone is trying to get Tami fired...fuck, does Becky even realize what is happening??? She’s gonna be so upset when she realizes Tami is being attacked like this!

Yes go off Tami!!! “I gave her her options and I listened to her. That’s my duty as a principal and a human being.”

“Obama, really?” Lol same Jess

Yeah I’m sure this isn’t gonna get out even tho Tami is keeping her job. Im sure the anti choice nuts will take this loss graciously 🙄

Yes Luke, yell at your mom!! I’m so glad he’s defending Becky and Tami! That was not your grandchild, it was a bunch of cells. Relax.

Tami and Eric’s marriage is so pure. Tells her about her victory and he kisses her. “What are you doing tonight?” “Nothing.” “I’ll go get the wine.” “Okay.”

Oh noooo Luke is literally in Carroll Park asking random ppl for Oxys nooo. Damn this season has covered *so* many social issues so seamlessly! The fuckin opioid epidemic, check.

Also guess that whole cleaning up Carroll Park thing didn’t work Eric Taylor!! which duh

Oh Matt babe I’m excited for you but you should’ve maybe not taken off without telling someone you were dating for years?!

Oh the angst!!! “Matt, we were together for almost four years. I know almost everything about you.” DAMN she is really giving it to him!! ugh warranted even tho let’s be real Saracen looks like he’s thriving in Chicago! they’re better off spending this time apart to ~grow~

Aww tinker is really looking out for Luke! this is pretty heartwarming that they’re defying the coach’s plays just to protect Luke bc of his injury.

....Ugh I knew he’d push it too far, babeeee

“I think I’m moving out.” Yeah Tim probably a good life decision.

Oh fuck now Cheryl is making assumptions and going off??? Bitch he did not sleep with your daughter!!

After watching The Wire for four seasons, this operation Vince is indebted to looks so weak sauce. But yikes nooo his friend got shot!

...anddd here comes the press about the abortion controversy. Saw that coming!

Oooof bad timing to want to stay for another drink, Eric.

Omg poor Vince. his best friend died and his mom’s in rehab??? My heart 🥺

#maria watches friday night lights #i watched these and 4x12 the other day and hadnt gotten around to editing/posting #now onto the finale!#mine #friday night lights 4x10 #friday night lights 4x11

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itgetsbetter-ff · 5 years

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Chapter 3- Deja Vu (Part 1)

Jeremiah

I was walking in the house after a long day at work, when I noticed my study light was on. My children knew better to go in there, and I knew Liv wasn’t home yet, so it wasn’t her.

I slowly walked to the door and opened it to find Aiden rummaging through me desk.

“Aiden, what they hell are you doing?” My voice boomed making him jump

He grabbed his chest, “You scared me.”

“You didn’t answer my question. You know not to be in my office,”

“I, um, was looking for matches?” He questioned, while rubbing his neck. Instant tell he was lying.

“You wanna lie again, and get your ass beat. Or tell me the truth.” I folded my arms and leaned up against the door frame.

He sighed, “Dad, I just-“

“Aiden. I’m not going to ask you again, tell me before I put you through that damn wall.”

“I was looking to see if you had any information about my mom. Not Olivia. Like my real mom.” He sighed,

The way he said it, I knew he was afraid to talk to me about it. His mother was a subject I refuse to talk about.

“Liv is your real mother.”

“Dad, c’mon. I turn 20 next week. Sage, Marie and Maurice know their mother. I love Liv but I want to know my real mom.” He begged.

“Is Olivia not enough for you?”

I wanted to know, because She’s been a damn good wife and mother and my son sounds extremely ungrateful.

“Dad. Thats not even it!” He whined.

“As far as I’m concerned, Olivia is your mother. You won’t find a damn thing about that bitch in my office. Now put everything back where you found it. End of discussion.” He knew I was serious, by the look on my face and by the tone of my voice.

That bitch was not a topic of discussion. I turned to leave to go upstairs when he said:

“Avery. Sage told me her first name was Avery and that my middle name is her last name. Avery Jordan. I have a name Dad.”

I turned to look at him, but before I knew it, I was in his face. Ready to fight him, he saw the look in my eyes and was scared for his life.

“Jeremiah! Stop!” Olivia said, she must’ve gotten home, in the short time I was talking to Aiden. She came in between us, and put her hand on my chest to make me back out of his face, but I wasn’t backing down.

“You want to know more about the bitch who let you get break your arm and leg when you were 6? Because she was so fucking high off her ass in the house with her damn coke-head boyfriend? Or the bitch who burned you, and had you in the hospital for a week, when you were a baby?”

“Jeremiah!” Liv yelled.

“NO Liv, he wants to know about the bitch that got up in FUCKIN COURT, AND TOLD THE DAMN JUDGE SHE WISH SHE ABORTED YOUR UNGRATEFUL ASS BECAUSE SHE HATED ME. HUH? YOU WANT TO KNOW THAT BITCH! Who never wanted you! NEVER CARED FOR YOU! The bitch who got her rights taken away because you were in the FUCKIN CAR THE DAY SHE CRASHED IT BECAUSE SHE WAS HIGH OFF OF CRACK!”

“I gave that bitch chance, after chance, after chance to do right by you and she never did, I thought she’d AT LEAST have to DECENCY to care for you because you were her son! You wanting to look for her, isn’t going to do you well! Olivia is the best thing that ever happened to you! STOP BEING SO FUCKIN UNGRATEFUL!”

By the time I stopped yelling, Aiden had tears rolling down his face, and he pushed past me and Olivia to walk out the room.

“AIDEN COME BACK!” Olivia yelled, chasing after him

We heard the garage door slam and his car speed off so fast, you could smell the burnt rubber in the house.

“Why the hell would you do that?” Liv came back crossing her arms and was angry, I knew she was but I didn’t care.

“He needed to know.”

“No he didn’t. Not every single wrong doing detail she made apart of his life He just wants to know her, J! Even if she is a crazy ass coke-head drunk.” She instantly scolded me.

“He has you! What does he need her for!!” I yelled, this whole situation was getting me hot.

“You don’t know what it’s like to not have a parent. My daddy was killed and my step father was a phenomenal substitution, but it didn’t stop me from wanting my father and wanting to know him. You have to compromise J.”

I sighed, knowing she was right, I did just hurt my son for no reason. But I was honestly and truly concerned for his safety. I haven’t talked or heard from Avery in over maybe 12 years. She could do even more damage than she did before.

“She’s going to hurt him again, if he finds her Liv, and I will kill her if she hurts my son again.”

“He’s a grown ass man now J. We’ve given him the tools to recognize bullshit and the tools to stand up for himself. You never know, she may do right by him this time…. but if she hurts him, it might be the last time she’s ever around him, but that has to be his decision. Don’t push Aye away, because you despise his birth giver.”

“You do too.” I smirked

“Yeah…. but he has to hear about her from you, not me.” She shrugged.

Kaliea

Seven.

That’s the number of days that I have to spend the night over my dad’s house

Three.

The amount of little sister’s I have…. triplets. Evie, Errie and Emmie.

Four.

How many days until I am back with my mom again and having peace.

I tend not to tell my mom everything that goes on on my dad’s house, because I know that as soon as I do…. she’d kill my father and his wife.

Eva…. its not pronounced E-va….. it’s prounounced EH-va. So Eva, was nice when I was younger, she treated me like I was her own daughter and everything was great.

Until the triplets came, and she thinks that they’re above me in every single way, shape or form and my dad does nothing about it

I’m 16 years old… and these bratz are 10.

They treat me like the ugly stepchild and you know what? Bitch I’m not fuckin Cinderella. But I love my Dad, i just hate the rest of his family.

“ZOOOOEY!!!!!” Emmie yelled, running into my room

“Yes, Emmie?”

I was already annoyed by her tone.

“So, I broke an expensive vase that MY mommy bought….. I think you should replace it.”

Do you see what I mean?

“And why should I do that?”

“Because I told my mommy you broke it.” She smiled mischievously

Before I could even say anything, Eva was calling me.

I went downstairs, and there it was a vase, by her feet.

“Emmie said you broke my $5,000 vase.” She said with anger behind her voice

“Eva, I’ve been in my room this entire day. I didn’t even know that was down here.”

“You and your mother are going to replace my vase.”

I laughed, but when she didn’t I knew she was serious,

“Eva, you are seriously going to make me pay for a vase, I didn’t break or even knew existed, because your 10 year old, who broke it by the way… said I did it?” I asked, I was in serious disbelief.

She pursed her lips together before she spoke, “My daughter, none of them, would lie to me, or break things. I raised them way better than that, now for you I can’t say the same.”

“You know what, It’s time for me to go home.”

It’s sad that I can’t even get to spend enough time with my father because of his wife and other children, but it’s worse because I know as soon as I leave, he’ll try to get me to come back, and that’s a whole mess in itself because my father lived 3 states away and I see him like twice a year.

Being that I didn’t have a way, to the airport, I had uber from the house, because Eva was not giving me a damn ride.

I refuse to give her any damn money for something I didn’t do. Hell Mom couldn’t afford it anyways. I wasn’t about to put that burden on her.

You know, we live comfortably. My dad pays for my schooling and majority of my expenses, and mom works tirelessly all the time and we live in a condo together. Apparently, when I was younger, my father agreed to pay for everything and take care of us. Once his wife became pregnant, he took back his promise. I want my mom to be happy and I know she isn’t. I low-key just want her to go out and date, she hasn’t been on one since before I was born. But that’s another conversation for another day.

~~~~~~

Finally arriving back home, I was tired, getting an easier flight drained my savings and I just wanted my bed. I walked in the front door, to damn near half my family in my living room.

“Lizzie!! Lea just walked through the door!” My Aunt Rose called out

My mom came out of the kitchen on the phone and looked relieved to see me, but relief turned to anger, in like two seconds.

“Alright, she’s here Jaxon, I’ll have her call you tomorrow.” She spoke into the phone.

As soon as she was off, she glared at me.

“If I say, the reason I left was because I miss you would that get me out of trouble?” I mumbled

“No, what the hell were you thinking Zoey!” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot waiting an explanation.

I honestly didn’t want to tell her the truth, and I know that if I lied, it was gonna piss her off.

“I just didn’t wanna be around the triplets, I wanted to come and be an only child again.” I smiled cutely.

“They can’t be that bad for you to leave your father’s house and get on a plane to come back home Zoey.” My mom said a little frustrated.

She had no idea how horrible they were. I just shrugged “I also missed you mom. I didn’t like you being here by yourself.”

She sighed. “Zo we talked about this.”

“I know but I’m here, and I missed you, and I’m tired.” I said kissed her cheek and hugging her and she immediately caved.

“Fine. I’m glad you’re safe.” She said.

I nodded and said goodnight to all of my family and went to my room and slept for the first time since getting to my fathers. I was at peace.

Mason

So after dealing with the whole situation that was Treasure vs all of my sisters and then Dominique finding out she was pregnant. It’s been a very tense house for the past 2 weeks, if I do say so. Dad isn’t talking to Dominique, Dad isn’t talking to Mom, Angel isn’t talking to Dominique,Mom or Dad. And I’m the go-to for everyone and their problems. Exhausting.

Sitting on the stool in front of the island, eating my cereal and scrolling on Instagram, my lovely sister interrupts my alone time, by face timing me .

“What do you want Gigi?” I said pretending to be annoyed.

“Oh, I guess you don’t want them new gucci’s I got you huh?” She said pushing her new pink hair out of her face.

“I do, but you look like pepto.” I chuckled

“Nigga, shut the hell up, I like my hair and you know Tay just did it for me.” She smiled.

Tay was one of her best friends, who they own a salon together and barbershop. I get my haircut over there.

“Yeah, Yeah. What you want?” I said getting back to the point.

“Is Mommy or Daddy there? I wanna take some stuff from the house, but I don’t wanna run into them or Andrea.”

“Nope all of them are out. Mom, Domi and Maddie all went out and Dad took the boys to football.”

She smiled, “Great! I’ll be over in 10 mins!” and then hung up the phone.

I just rolled my eyes and kept scrolling on my phone, but I heard the garage open, and I know for a fact Angel didn’t drive that fast to the house.

“May May!” Maddie squealed, calling me the nickname she gave me when she couldn’t say Mason. I grunted cause she knew I hated that shit

“I’d prefer if you called me Dominic. Hell or even Zacharie, before you call me May may again.”

She just giggled and squeezed my cheeks, “but you’re my may may!”

“Okay then, Adrianna.” I laughed

She smacked her lips. “Fine. Mason.”

“Maddie, are you messing with your brother?” Ma accused.

She smiled sweetly, “I would never mommy. I love May may.” She then kissed my cheek and ran away before I could snatch her up.

Ma laughed and started to put up the groceries. “How’s school Mason?”

Before I could talk, Dominique walked through the door and I damn near bursted out laughing.

“Hey Mason.” Domi said coming to hug me.

“You okay?” I asked hugging her a little longer than usual, she nodded her head in my shoulder, but I know damn well, she was not okay.

“Come talk to me whenever, you know I’m here.” I told her.

She just bit her lip and nodded her head.

“Dominique, please take your bags and Maddie’s bags upstairs please.” Ma spoke in a scolding type of voice.

“Yes maam.” She said and took the bags upstairs.

Once she was out of hear shot, “Are you going to let up on her? You know she’s sorry.” I defended my sister to my mom.

Ma stopped what she was doing and just sighed, looking at me ��I know that, but she needs to know that she’s in trouble. I started talking to her because I know its tearing her up that your father isn’t talking to her. I just, wish she would’ve waited to have sex, she wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“And what age did you and dad start having sex?” I accused.

My mom looked like she wanted to slap me. “How old were you when you lost your virginity?” She asked me

I smirked, “We aren’t talking about me mommy. Plus I’m a virgin” I spoke sweetly

She threw a roll of paper towels at me “Yeah, Right. With that crazy bitch Treasure around my house.”

I chuckled.

“Mason!!!! Your favorite sister is here” Angel yelled coming in the house. I’m assuming the front door, because if she came through the garage she would’ve saw mom’s car and would’ve stayed outside.

“Nigga! Maddie upstairs, I’m in the Kitchen” I cackled back to her

“You bitch ass ni-“ She started to say coming through the doorway, but stopped when she saw my mother.

“You want to finish that sentence?” Ma challenged.

Angel just smacked her lips and stayed quiet. Once my mom looked over Angel, she realized why I bursted out laughing earlier.

“God, why me?” She wailed.

Angel just looked at me, and I could tell she was confused. But then, as if on perfect timing, Dominique walked in with similar pink hair as Angel. They both had the best reactions, it caused me to fall off the stool in laughter.

“Mason, it’s not funny!” Angel screamed hysterically at me, and then punched me. But it only made me laugh harder.

She then pointed at Domi and said “You need to change that immediately.”

“Angel. I-“ Domi started but then Angel cut her eyes at her, which made her shut up.

“ANGELIQUE! I’m tired of this bullshit. You change your hair.” My mom yelled, and for her to cuss, I knew she was pissed off.

“But Momm-“

“I don’t give a flying fuck. I paid $500 for her to get that damn color. Unless you’re paying to get it redone. Shut the fuck up. You have other colorful wigs that you can wear!”

“Ma, It’s the principal!”

“ANGELIQUE” Mom’s voice boomed.

“UGH!” Angel screamed, and then turned around and bumped shoulders into Dominique on purpose and left out the kitchen, she then proceeded to stomp up the stairs to get her things from her room.

“Is my child fucking 16 or 23!” She screamed out of frustration.

I guess she noticed me just sitting there and Dominique, kind of frozen in her place.

“Andrea. I know you don’t want to fight with Angelique, but I need you stand up for yourself. Please!” Mom said

“Ma!” I was pissed she just said that

“Dominic. Shut up.” She snapped, she used both our first names, I knew she was serious, and I did not want that smoke.

“Momma I-“ Domi started, her voice started to crack and I knew she was about to cry.

“I dont want to hear it. I didn’t raise you to let people talk down to you and walk all over you. And you constantly let Angelique do it. Stop it. Stand up for yourself and she will leave you alone. Now, go get ready, we have to go to the jail to see your mother. Your father will be home soon.”

Before I could blink she was out of the kitchen. Leaving me and momma there.

“Don’t say a damn thing Dominic.” She cut her eyes at me.

I just put my hands up in defense and went to stand up.

“No disrespect momma, but calling her Andrea was low and telling her to stand up to Angel wont work.”

“I can’t protect her forever, hell neither can you or your father. She needs to do it for herself and her child. She needs to start now.” Mom spoke

Before I could answer, I was being tackled by the terrible two : Major and Micah

“DAMN! Y’all niggas dirty as fuck!” I was pissed, they covered in mud and shit and wanna tackle me.

“DYLAN AND DORIAN GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN COVERED IN MUD BEFORE I WHOOP YOUR ASS!” Mom screeched.

“Major and Micah get y’all asses up and get in the shower like I told y’all too.” Dad’s voice boomed,

Terrible two knew they were in trouble, and got up running upstairs.

Dad looked at me and chuckled, “You might wanna take a shower too son.” Patting my shoulder.

I brushed him off walking out the kitchen“Ha ha you’re so funny old man.”

Before I left the doorway, my mom mumbled to dad, “You still not talking to me Dominic?”

Dad answered, “Nope, nothing to say Giselle.”

I rolled my eyes, they’re so overdramatic for no fuckin reason.

Katie

Days like this literally make me happy. No one in this place can take my happiness. When I called Andrea for our weekly phone call, she mentioned stopping by this weekend. It wasn’t even our scheduled week. So I was extremely happy.

I know that my daughter isn’t my biggest fan, but she’s never asked to come when she didn’t have to, and that can only mean good things, right? My mother was also coming for this visit and not even that can ruin my day.

Back when Andrea was born, my mother and Dominic made the agreement that Andrea would come to visit me, while in jail twice a month, and weekly phone calls, excluding when they take her on vacation or she has school trips. I love my visits with my daughter because I want to get to know her and I want her to love and accept me like I do with her. To be quite honest, the only reason why she doesn’t have a good relationship with me, is because of Giselle.

I couldn’t even get angry at the thought of Giselle, because it was time for my visit with my family. I, of course was the first person in the private room, it made me happy that the guards took off all of my chains for today’s visit.

When the door opened, i expected to see Andrea, but Giselle walked through the door first, with Dominic following her.

I furrowed my eyebrows, “Where’s Andrea, and why are you here.” I pointed to Giselle.

“Kaitlynn I don’t know what medicine this place, is giving you, but you know damn well not to speak to me, unless spoken too. I’m here because my daughter wants me here. Trust me, I rather not be.” She said, unenthusiastically

Before I could say something else, Dominic and Giselle looked at each other quickly and then he spoke up saying “She’s a little under the weather and went to the bathroom, and she’ll be right in.” And they both sat down.

I don’t know, why it made me nervous, but it reminded me of the first time, she came to visit me.

I finally get to see my daughter today. I haven’t seen her since I gave birth to her, about a year ago, but Dominic promised he would bring her. My mother sends me pictures and updates but it’s not really the same. My baby was growing up without me and I couldn’t help but to be envious of the people around her.

I haven’t been the best person in jail, when I was pregnant with Andrea, I never did anything. But after she was basically snatched from my hands after giving birth to her, I was angry. I started fighting, and putting people in the Jail’s hospital. I couldn’t take the separation, and what made it worse, was the fact that whenever she was supposed to visit, I was either in Solitary confinement or the jail was locked down. I finally realized that I had to behave to see her, and I get to see her a day after her first birthday.

I made her a cake in the kitchen, that costs me some money off my commissary, so did buying balloons and decorating. I wanted it to be special. I was waiting in the secluded room, when the door opened, and I jumped up excited to see Dominic walk through the door, with a carseat in his hand. I frowned when I saw Giselle follow behind…..

After walking through the door, Dominic paused to look around the room , at my decorations and then looked at Giselle. They both made the same face.

“Um, I made her a cake, you know since it’s her first birthday. I even got a number 1 candle. We can’t light it though. The guards will be upset. I got her a party hat. My commissary ran out so I couldn’t buy her any toys, but I got balloons and a pitcher of water.”

I was talking fast because I was nervous, I know this was a hot mess. I knew they weren’t expecting this, and I knew that they probably threw her the most amazing first birthday party, and I couldn’t compete, especially behind bars.

“It’s nice. It came from the heart,” Giselle spoke, and Dominic kind of gave her a bewildered look and scoffed

I ignored that, and asked, “ Can I see her?”

Dominic sighed, and put the carseat on the table, and he slowly took her out.

She was the most angelic baby, I ever laid my eyes on. She had my big eyes, but they were Dominic’s color. My hair, my nose, my baby was beautiful. I kind of got teary eyed, and reached out to hold her, but Dominic step back a little.

“Dominic.” Giselle whispered.

He sighed and told me to be careful, he handed me her and when I tell you, it felt so good to touch my daughter for the first time in her life. She was amazing and I was in bliss. She was everything I could ever imagine. I was ready to get this party started and enjoy my baby’s birthday. I told them that I was ready to cut the cake and feed it to her but Giselle stopped me.

“What is your cake made out of?” Giselle asked

It was weird that she was talking and Dominic was silent.

“Box cake? Like eggs, Milk, oil?” I said

“She’s allergic to Milk and other Dairy products, right now, The doctor said she’ll grow out of it.” She informed me

“Oh, I didn’t know that.” I spoke slightly defeated.

Dominic scoffed, “Of course you wouldn’t. You would know, if you weren’t a murderer in fucking jail.”

He was right, i don’t know anything about the person, I gave birth to. Giselle sighed at Dominic’s pettiness and brushed hair out of her face. That’s when I saw the ring.

“You are getting married?”

“Yes, we are.” Dominic spoke, nonchalantly.

“When did this happen?” I was in slight disbelief

“Does it fucking matter!” Dominic rose his voice.

“YES IT DOES FUCKING MATTER!” I yelled, I was beyond angry. How dare you flaunt your engagement to the man I love, the father of my child IN MY FUCKIN FACE ON MY DAUGHTER’S FIRST VISIT!

He couldn’t even respond, because my yelling upset Andrea, and she started crying. I tried to soothe her, but it only made it worse. She was screaming her head off, and she started crying ‘MAMA’ and reaching for Giselle.

“WHY IS SHE CALLING YOU MAMA!” I cried out

Giselle tried to reach for her, but I pulled her back and that made the crying worse.

“Give us Dominique, Katie.” Dominic said.

“HER NAME IS ANDREA!!! I’M HER MOTHER! SHE SHOULDN’T CALL HER MAMA! I’M MAMA!!!”

The guards came in because of the commotion, my yelling, Andrea’s crying, Dominic and Giselle’s pleas for Andrea. The Guards forcefully took her out of my hands and gave Andrea to Giselle, while others chained me back up.

Giselle rubbed her back and said “It’s okay. Momma’s got you. We’re going home now.” and walked out with Dominic and Andrea, while I was being chained face to the ground.

I spent another month in solitary confinement after that.

It was the worst day of my life.

I was brought out of my thoughts by my mom and Andrea coming in. Andrea had recent gotten her hair dyed pink, and I knew that my mother was fussing at her about it. I could tell by the look on her face. She continues to ignore my mom and we all sat at the round table and no one spoke.

Dominic, the only man I have ever truly loved, definitely aged well over time. His tattoos still looking as if he got them yesterday. Same physic and even more defined than before. I would be lying if I said I don’t think about his regularly to pleasure myself. Being in jail….. you definitely get lonely.

Anyways, he cleared his throat,

“The reason why we are all here today is because-“

I cut him off and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, “Your father said you were sick honey. Are you okay?” She slightly jumped at my touch and scooted towards Giselle who was sitting next to her on the other side. Andrea reached over and held her hand.

I wish she was just this affectionate with me.

“She’s fine.” Dominic answered. “Like I was saying, the reason why we are all here, is because Dominique, has something to tell you both.”

I turned to Andrea who had her head down. Whatever she wanted to tell us, she was afraid.

“Andrea, spit it out, I don’t have all day. I need to get back to your grandfather.” My mother spoke.

“Honey, whatever it is. Just tell us.” I said

Andrea looked to Giselle to which, Giselle nodded her head and Andrea took a breathe.

“Mom, An’Dreanna. I, um, recently just found out that I am 7 weeks pregnant. But that was last week, so now I’m 8 weeks. I am having some morning sickness, and that’s what Daddy meant when he said I was sick.”

We all kind of sat in silence, my mom being the first to speak.

“I did not allow Giselle to adopt my only grandchild, for her to become a teenage mother. Whatever you need for the abortion, I will gladly supply it.” and she was stern with it.

“Ignoring your insult to me, because I have raised Dominique to be an outstanding woman, Dominique has opted to keep the baby, An’Dreanna, she’s not getting an abortion.” Giselle said.

“How, when she’s only had a week to think about it? Yes, she is. No grandchild of mine is having a baby at 16 years old. First, Calliope with her continuous affair, Kaitlynn in jail, The only successful child of mine is my son. I had high hopes for you Andrea, and you disappoint me every single time.”

“AN’DREANNA THAT’S ENOUGH! She wants to keep her baby! Whether you like it or not, we have 7 months to prepare her for a lifetime of motherhood! Either you’re going to help or you’re going to keep your opinions to yourself.” Dominic yelled, which instantly shut my mother up.

“I’m going to be a grandma?” I whispered with tears in my eyes, “I’m so happy!”

“Mom.” Andrea mumbled.

“We need to start planning your baby shower, I’ll save you some money from my job in the library and send it to you and we need to look at baby names!”

“Mom.”

I grabbed her face “Oh Honey I’m so happy for you! I’m not mad at all!!”

“Mom, can you listen?”

“If it’s a boy you can name it after my father and if it’s a girl, maybe name her after me!” I squealed

Once I said that, she instantly got a bewildered look on her face.

“MOM! STOP!” She yelled

“What? I’m excited for my first grandchild!” I laughed, looking around the table at their either blank or disappointing faces. This was a miracle, I know that this will bring us closer because the child will be my actual grandchild, something that Dominic, Giselle, nor my mother could take away from me.

She sighed,

“That’s the thing mom. My baby will never come to this prison to visit you. I will never bring him or her here, I barely like coming here. You are detrimental to society and even more to my baby. I will never name any of my children after you. How in THE WORLD can you expect to be the perfect grandma behind bars!?

Every time it’s my birthday you show me this sad ass picture of me and you, days after my birthday. I didn’t even know you. I didn’t even know you were my real mother until I was 3! You DIDN’T RAISE ME” She said getting upset,

Giselle whipped her head to give Andrea, a stank eye. “Andrea Dominique Cartier, I don’t give a damn what Katie did or didn’t do. I for damn sure didn’t raise you to disrespect.”

Giselle trying to help, only pissed me off even more, She literally is controlling MY child in front of me!!! Andrea slowly backed down, but got upset again when I yelled,

“THAT’S NOT MY FAULT ANDREA!!”

She stood up and backed away from the table,

“YES IT IS!!!! YOU’RE IN JAIL BECAUSE OF YOU! How can my child call you grandma! WHEN YOU TRIED TO KILL MY FATHER! They will never know of the monster that created me. They will never know the monster that is my birth mother. I thought I’d tell you in person.”

I was speechless, it felt like my whole world was crashing down. I couldn’t breathe. This isn’t Andrea talking, it’s Giselle and I know it!

“I don’t want anything from you An’Dreanna when it comes to the baby, except I want to be let out of coming here twice a month and weekly phone calls.” She mumbled to my mother.

The look on her face, it seemed like she was considering it. These are the only days I look forward to, and they are in the hands of the 3 people I hate the most.

“Mother, please. You know how much those mean to me.” I begged my mom, I needed her to be on my side for once in my entire life.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you, because this is the last time I’m ever coming here.”

I sucked in a breathe, Andrea got up to leave the room.

“Andrea, please. I’m your mother, don’t do this to me.” I pleaded with her by grabbing her arm, but she snatched away from me and ignored me.

“Andrea!”

“ANDREA! PLEASE!!!”

As, the room door shut and I couldn’t see her anymore, I started crying.

My sadness then turned to rage.

“YOU BITCH! YOU TURNED MY DAUGHTER AGAINST ME!!!! I WONT EVEN KNOW HER CHILD!” I screamed at Giselle before I tackled her on the ground.

We instantly started fighting, and the guards broke us apart, pushing me to the ground and chaining me up yet again. I was still crying after they hauled me out the room and into my cell. I instantly started sobbing uncontrollably and loudly, to the point other inmates were threatening my life. I didn’t care because I lost my only will of living, and her being pregnant gave me hope of a better relationship, and she quickly took that away from me.

Her first birthday wasn’t the worst day of my life……. Today was.

#ariana fletcher #Ariana fletcher fan fic #beyonce #beyonce fan fic #beyonce fan fiction #keith powers #yara shahidi #mack wilds #Trevor Jackson #chris brown #nicki minaj #darnell nicole #kate upton #jermaine cole #j. cole #chriyonce fan fic #chris brown fan fiction

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stupidspaceseven · 5 years

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6.01 Reactions

ok so i might not be able to see great because my tv quality is awful but im still gonna enjoy, this is just gonna be a list of my initial gut reactions and then I’ll do a thoughts/speculation post after i’ve seen it all!!

andddd no spacekru mourning moment. we been knew.

ok good i wanted that raven vs abby tension

oh boy that scene about her mom!! the emotions!!

and raven is still willing to give blood despite the animosity we love that

SAVAGE RAVEN RETURNS

yesssss. get it raven!!!

ok but spacekru are really sending off those petty highschool ‘you can’t sit with us’ vibes and i love it

comma algae anesthetic is real smart

‘i trust Monty’ !!!!!!

wow those Miller and Bellamy feels huh

also Mackson!! they were so good in the trailer, im actually excited about them

if that bunker chat is all we get then i think i’ll be satisfied

why do they keep dropping the nightblood thing????

Murphy being emotional about his space bro Monty.....im also emotional

Niylah!!

damn she’s loyal

is it important that it’s a moon? it must be in some way but like idk

Jordan missing hims parents.....me too boy me too

Smiles!!!!!

THE MEMORI OF IT ALL IM :O

Echo is so wise i love that

Murphy?? trying to diffuse a situation?? look at that GROWTH

lmao nevermind he’s still the shit-stirrer I know and love

casual breaking and entering and theft i love him So Much

are clarke’s apologies supposed to come across this flat? they sound so rehearsed

ok so one of the things I was spoiled for was Shaw dying but that was so random and unnecessary?? I’m gonna assume/hope his actor had other commitments bc Yikes

so is that just a sweet Bellmay & Emori moment bc Siblings or is Emori going to get to fly the ship?? i want her to fly the ship!! she asked if she could help earlier!!

Jaha and Ethan mentions color me surprised

damn Marie is so good but those music cues were really awkward

so how long is Kane going to be on ice?

Emori is also trying to break and enter. soulmates.

I assume she’s acting weird bc of eclipse nonesense and will start getting stabby in a moment

He MenTiOneD the Lighthouse bunker??

HE ASKED HER TO DANCE WITH HIM?1???!!

AND NOW HE’S SINGING??!!??

I missed soft bf!murphy gosh

not how i expected radio talks to go :/

ah yes. there’s screaming and stabby trailer Emori I couldn’t figure out what she was saying at the end there, something about ‘He’ll do it to you too?’ i couldn’t figure it out

It was a good ep! I’m excited for more!!

#the 100 spoilers #the 100 s6 #ensemble #sss reacts

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eternallysantanassass · 2 years

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I posted 288 times in 2021

32 posts created (11%)

256 posts reblogged (89%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 8.0 posts.

I added 128 tags in 2021

#tashia speaks - 21 posts

#batwoman - 16 posts

#anon asks - 14 posts

#quinntana - 13 posts

#supergirl - 12 posts

#gigi ghorbani - 12 posts

#addison montgomery - 11 posts

#wildmoore - 10 posts

#dansen - 10 posts

#dani nunez - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 84 characters

#until the very end they still said we’re besties and y’all crying about being baited

My Top Posts in 2021

I am watching DC Fandome and even though I haven’t watched Supergirl in ages. I found myself tearing up. This hasn’t happened since Buffy or Charmed.

Damn it!

9 notes • Posted 2021-10-16 18:17:48 GMT

I am crying. What the actual fuck?! I don’t cry.

But those vows were just so beautiful.

10 notes • Posted 2021-11-10 02:43:56 GMT

My thoughts on last nights Batwoman. I promise not to write a whole ass dissertation and analysis 🤣 (IYKYK). Let’s get into it.

I love love love Poison Ivy Mary! I mean she’s deliciously evil and sexy at the same time. I mean she can wrap me up in vines and get it. What? I have a thing for bad girls 🤷🏽‍♀️

I got that out of my system.

Let’s talk about Batwoman’s entrance into the botanical garden. Oh my god! That was hot.

Anyway, now they knew that following Ivy!Mary to the botanical garden was a bad fucking idea. I get it. You wanna protect your friend, but come on, she controls plants.

Mary reading the Bat Fam to filth was a long time coming. They were wrapped up in their personal shit to see that Mary was spiraling. It took Alice to see Mary was fucked. But I digress.

The Sophie/Montoya hookup was coming. You could see the writing on the wall when Sophie waltzed into Montoya’s office. The back and forth between the two of them. It was highly charged. But points for Renee mentioning the Bat signal, and Sophie saying “they don’t see eye to eye”

Bless Alice’s little cotton socks. She is so chaotic. She loves Sophie in her own twisted way. If Ryan wasn’t going to give Sophie answers, then she will get them herself. Props to her for figuring out what Poison Ivy Mary’s triggers are. I am looking forward to their team up.

Sophie with a blow torch is what I needed to see. Honey is by the books but having her chain a man up in the sewers is pretty damn dark. But she was looking for answers about her sister. Anyone with siblings (who have a healthy loving relationship) go hard for each other. Sophie does that. She can also get it (just saying).

Oh, Luke. You told Mary about not needing your dad and she used it against you. That was harsh, but no man is an island my guy. We all need help. And denying you have PTSD ain’t gonna make it go away.

Ivy!Mary licking honey off that guy was so fucking gross. I don’t ever want to visualize that again. Because ewww.

Sophie throwing women up against the wall is my aesthetic. I am all for her having a hot girl phase, but it’s gonna be at the expense of her relationship with Ryan. Shit is gonna be messy for real. I’m here for it.

I see both Ryan’s and Sophie’s side. On one hand, Ryan wants to protect Jada’s secret, and Marquis until the figure things out. On the other hand, Ryan is trying to protect Sophie from getting involved because she is going to get hurt. Sophie already has a chip on her shoulder because of what happened to Jordan. Ryan is caught between a rock and a hard place. Protect the mother who threw her away like yesterdays trash or protect the woman that I care for. It’s a slippery slope. And it’s hard to find the balance.

I will get into this a little later. I have to go to physical torture. But the bonus is my Physical Therapist is hot and I get a rub down and massage after 😁

15 notes • Posted 2021-11-18 14:09:17 GMT

Watching the GLAAD awards tonight put me in my feelings. The cast of Glee did a beautiful and meaningful tribute to Naya/Santana. I will admit...I cried like a fucking baby. Her mom’s letter was so heartfelt and it made my heart hurt because a mother is still grieving her daughter. But knew how much Naya and Santana meant to LGBT teens.

It’s been 9 months and this shit still hurts.

Okay.... I’m good. Yup, I’m good.

19 notes • Posted 2021-04-09 02:07:25 GMT

Okay, Batwoman got me wanting to come out of fic retirement and write some Mary/Ryan and Sophice. It’s really, really tempting.

80 notes • Posted 2021-02-15 02:04:30 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #quinntana is a given

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troublewithagun · 4 years

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That troublesome seed

“Hey jordan!” A familiar voice echoed through her shop she looked up and saw hudson and Pratt walking in “how are my two favorite cops?” Jordan asked leaning up against the wall “we’re fine Pratt came by because he fucked up his pistol again”jordan and Hudson looked at Pratt as he walked up to them “Pratt when are you gunna realize that you can’t flip your gun like in those western movies” jordan said jokingly as she grabbed the pistol “that’s not what happened I went to reload it and it stopped shooting” Pratt said in a frustrated tone jordan looked at him confused “okay I’ll see what I can-“hudson interrupted her “oh shit I forgot to tell you” jordan’s blue eyes filled with confusion “what’s happening?” “Mary May is throwing a party at the spread eagle she throws the best parties ever” hudson said in excitement “jordan you should go you can meet a lot of new people”Pratt said jordan smiled and let out a light laugh “sure one party never hurt no one”jordan said “that’s the spirit” hudson said high fiving jordan “will pick you up from your house see ya then” the two deputies walked out the store leaving jordan getting ready to go to her car “maybe I can get some people to buy from me” she said as she started up her car as she passed through falls in jordan saw Mary may putting up some lights it’s something about a party that made jordan excited

“hopefully the cult dosent do nothing stupid” jordan said as she cimbled out the car she lived in a one bedroom one bathroom across from the lamb of god church it may have been a small house but she loved it “shit I forgot to grab my i.d maybe they will run me back by to grab it later” she said as she fixed her hair she walked down to her closet and pulled out a pair of black shoes,blue Jean shorts,black crop top,and a red flannel as she threw everything on she looked in the mirror her beautiful brown locks fell to her shoulders she looked a lot like her mom “she’d be proud about how beautiful you are” she said as she grabbed her wallet and walked out the door “hey jordan you ready!” Hudson asked as she sat in the car “yea but can we run by the shop I forgot my i.d” jordan asked “a true friend is always reliable” hudson said as she handed jordan her card “holy shit your a saint” jordan said with a smile “anything for a friend” hudson said proudly

as they pulled up to the spread eagle it was already full of people drinking “hey jordan glad you could make it” Mary may said handing jordan a glass of whiskey “thanks Mary may” jordan said with a smile “hey Mary may me and Pratt will take a jack Daniels” hudson said jordan sat up at the bar next to Pratt “my mom always said I’d get in trouble for drinking by the cops but look at me now” jordan said setting her empty cup down hudson and Pratt just laughed jordan was more care free and funny when she was drunk but she could still function enough to hold a conversation

after a few in the group decided to go onto the dance floor jordan’s hips swayed to the song with her drink in her hands Pratt and Hudson laughed at her trying not to spill her drink “you won’t chug it” Pratt teased jordan just stared at him and chugged it as she finshed she flipped him off “what was that Pratt?” Jordan said with a smile hudson just laughed and sat a hand on his shoulder “oh Pratt you can’t underestimate jordan when it comes to drinking” Pratt rolled his eyes the two jumped when Hudson’s phone started ringing “hello....oh shit we’re on the way” Pratt looked at Hudson “what’s wrong” “deputy kate had a car crash and is stuck in the whitetail mountains”hudson said “oh shit we gotta go jordan will be back” jordan watched as the two deputies ran out the door

“well looks like you need a ride home” jordan turned around to see a well dressed blue eyed man staring at her with a smirk “I’ll be fine I can walk” jordan said crossing her arms “but a woman like you shouldn’t have to walk to there house” the man said “how do I know your not gunna take me” jordan said her eyes locking with the mans “were would I take you to my ranch or my bunker” the mans said as he set his drink to the side “you must be John seed the edens gate Baptist ” jordan said with a smile “yes I am” John said with a smile “I’m jordan your not as crazy as everyone makes you out to be” she said tying her flannel to her waist “thank you I’m actually a pretty nice guy if you don’t piss me off” John said “well you don’t do drugs and you haven’t abused the shit out of me so your okay in my book” jordan said jokingly “well that’s good” John said with a smile “do you own Ryder ammunition?” He asked “yea I’m looking for business so feel free to buy from me” jordan said “well I don’t think I’d need anything but my brother Joseph may I’ll tell him to swing by when he’s in Holland maybe he can help you out” John said jordan just smiled and took his glasses off his head “thank you” she said as she slid the glasses on her face Mary may turned the corner and looked in shock “get out John!” She yelled “what did I do I’ve just been talking to jordan” he said putting his hands in front of him “just get out” he nodded his head and walked out the back door Jordan followed him “what was that about?” John shrugged his shoulder and continued walking “oh well I guess I’ll hang with you if that’s okay?” jordan asked “yea you can come with me I don’t have nothing to do” John Said unlocking his car “god damn that’s a nice car what year is it?” Jordan asked “it’s a 2018 mustang gt” John said as he opened up her door “damn it probably sounds amazing going down the road” jordan said as John sat In the driver seat “just wait and it also has a muffler on it” he started the car and blasted down the road so jordan could hear the engine roar “holy hell!” Jordan said in excitement John laughed as he drove down the road

Back in the bar

“Okay jordan where back-“ hudson stopped and looked around at the empty bar “if your looking for jordan she left 15 minutes ago” Mary may said as she cleaned out a cup Pratt and Hudson looked at Mary confused “who did she leave with?” Pratt asked “Suprisingly John seed” hudson and Pratt looked at each other and looked back at Mary may “I thought he wasn’t allowed in” hudson said “he isn’t but he snuck in through the back door and started talking to jordan” Mary may said “should we go for her?” Pratt asked hudson “I’d give her by moring and if she’s still alive you’ll know if she dosent show probably time to start a search party because John was actually being really friendly” Mary may said “John friendly?! Well just shoot me in the head with a damn bullet why don’t you” hudson said sarcastically “no it was werid he actually was real nice to her it was a side of John I thought I would never see so if she’s on that side of him she’ll live” Mary may said the two deputies sighed “well I hope your right”

Back in johns car

“Where you taking me to?” Jordan asked “I have something I want to show you” John said as he parked the car John got out and opened jordan’s door the wind grew cold causing jordan to shiver “here” John said pulling off his coat and putting it on her “thank you so where’s this thing you were trying to show me?” Jordan said as she slipped her arms through the sleeves “it’s just up here” John said jordan eyes filled with amazement as she looked at the view from the mountain as the sun came up “wow this is beautiful” jordan said in amazement “but not as beautiful as you” John said jordan turned around and looked at him “am I supposed to take as a compliment or you trying to flirt?” She asked jokingly “take it either way you want jordan” John said with a smirk jordan walked over to him and smiled “well Ill take it as you flirting” she said as she kissed his cheek “and say thank you” she walked back over to the side and watched as the sun came up “hey John what was your life like before the cult?” Jordan asked John walked over and sat down next to her “I was a lawyer graduate top of my class I missed my brother so I joined him” John said “what do you mean you missed him?” jordan asked “after we got taken from are parents we were forced to be split apart losing all contact with each other”John said jordan sighed and looked at him “your not to different from me growing up”jordan said John looked at her confused jordan sighed pulling back johns jacket showing a huge scar running from her left hip to her right shoulder “I lived in a household were my brothers would beat the shit out of me for being a girl my parents were ghost and never stopped them unlike you I never got away from it” jordan sighed and fixed her shirt “that’s terrible you shouldn’t have to had go through that” John said hugging her “it’s fine the only shitty part is they still live in the the whitetail mountains and still try and hurt me between you and me if Jacob ever killed them I’d praise him” jordan said laying her head on johns shoulder she lifted up her watch and looked at the time “oh shit it’s about time for me to go open shop you mind driving me home?” Jordan asked “yes mam” John said as he guided her down to the car

“Your such a nice guy why dose everyone talk mad shit about you?”jordan asked as John started down the road “because I’m a seed we’re always considered bad news because of what we’ve done can’t really say I blame them though” John said with a sigh “I mean I haven’t seen that side of you yet not gunna say I won’t though”jordan said jokingly “nah you’ll be fine” John said “my house is just a left from here” jordan said pulling off his jacket “here’s your stop” John said with a smile “thanks John I had fun” jordan said as she kissed his cheek “you want your glasses back?” She asked as she stepped out the car “nah keep them little something from me to you” John said “thanks again” jordan said as she shut the car door as she walked the door to her house she noticed something stuck to her door “meet us at the shop love Pratt and Hudson” she smiled and opened her door as she started walking down to her bathroom she threw her hair into a bun and untie her flannel “maybe I have something that match his glasses” she walked to her closet and pulled out a blue tank top and black shorts “shit I never got his number” jordan said as she fixed her tank top “oh well” she grabbed her keys and wallet and walked out the door

“Let’s see what these two idiots want” jordan said as she stepped out her car as she walked up to the entrance of her shop hudson and Pratt followed behind her “so how did you like the party last night?”hudson asked “it was fun met that nick rye guy everyone talks about” jordan said as she began starting up her machines “whose glasses are those?”pratt asked pointing at johns blue lens glasses “john seeds I was talking to him after you guys left nothing special” Jordan said “that is a big deal you realize who John is he’s crazy he probably want to write your sins on you flesh!” Hudson said “so he’s a pretty nice guy to me”jordan said “speak of the devil” Pratt said hudson and jordan looked to see the blue eyes Baptist in the door way “hey John” jordan said happily waving “Joseph’s in the car he said he wanted to come check the place out but it looks like a bad time” John said “no no no it isn’t tell him to come in” jordan said in hesitation Pratt and Hudson looked at jordan with a confused look “be nice you two” jordan said pointing her pocket knife at them Joseph walked in John followed behind him “welcome Joseph or should I say father?” Jordan asked Joseph let out a slight laugh “you can just call me joseph” he said “my main supply of sniper ammo is in the purple boxes and my others are in the different color boxes with the names on it” jordan said pointing to a room filled with boxes she had a rang of bullets for lmgs all the way to snipers and flame throwers Joseph walked out amazed he turned to jordan and smiled “how would you like to become a main supply for are ammo? will pay for each shipment” joseph reached out his hand waiting for jordan “I’d be delighted to”jordan said she grabbed his hand and shook it “okay John will monitor each shipment and notify you how many you need to send” Joseph said walking to the door “okay do you need my number?” Jordan asked handing her phone to John “yea probably best” John said he took her phone put in his number and gave it back to her “pleasure doing business with you guys” jordan said with a smile joseph just brushed it off as he walked out the door “hey jordan want to come over to my place later?” John asked “sure I don’t have anything planned but who knows what the next 3 hours bring” jordan said jokingly “I’m gunna take that as a yes” John said jordan kissed his cheek and smiled “you should now I gotta get back to work” she said as she began working on Pratt’s pistol “okay see ya” John said as he happily walked out the door “what the fuck just happened” hudson said in a confused tone “what it’s business” jordan said fixing Pratt’s pistol “kissing John him saying do you want to come over later I don’t think that’s business I think he likes you”Pratt said with a worried look “no he dosent John just want to hang at his place no biggie” jordan said handing Pratt back his pistol he paid and sat in a chair up at the bar jordan was working at “your crazy that job is probably him wanting you number” hudson said jordan turned to her stash of gun powder and sat it on the bar “hudson shut the fuck up he’s just trying to be nice” jordan said in an angered tone hudson put her hands up to her chest and looked at jordan “I’m just trying to save your neck but if you think he’s not gunna hurt you I won’t bother it” hudson said “thank you Jesus” jordan sighed and continued working when Pratt’s phone started ringing

“Hello........yea we’re down at jordan’s place will come get you” Pratt hung up the phone and stood up “who the fuck was that?”hudson asked “nick and Kim ryes truck broke down and they have the baby with them”Pratt said pulling his jacket over his shoulders “okay well will see you later jordan” the two deputies walked out the door leaving jordan to work when her phone went off “first shipment is 2 boxes of 50 cal and is being shipped to faiths bunker” jordan texted back “okay I’ll drive it over there and then close up for the day so I can get some sleep” “I’ll drive it up there you can take my key and go to the ranch if you want”John replied “you’d do that for me”she replied then she heard someone walk through the door “yea I would” it was John with his signature smirk flipping his keys in his hand “holy shit thank you” jordan said hugging John “the two boxes are the ones I showed Joseph just picked two purple ones” jordan said as she showed him the back room of ammo John carried out two boxes to his car and set them in the trunk “thank you John you really didn’t have to do that” jordan said as she followed him to the car “your welcome but either way I had to go see Faith so might as well save you a trip up there” he tossed her a pair of keys and grinned “those are the keys to the ranch go get yourself some sleep I know I kept you up all last night”John said as he closed the trunk to his car “okay thank you again John” jordan walked back into shop and began getting ready to close up untill nick rye walked in “hey nick I fixed your gun for you” jordan said handing him his assault rifle “thanks also did I just see johns black mustang pull out the parking lot?” Nick asked as he reached for his wallet “yea He came by to grab a few things” jordan said grabbing the money from nick “you two dating or something?” He asked “no he’s just a nice guy we’re actually gunna hang at his place later” jordan said as she slipped her wallet in her pocket “seed ranch? He definitely likes you” nick said “I guess that explains why he gave me the key to his house” jordan said flipping the keys in her hand “he gave you his key to his house he definitely likes you” nick followed jordan out the door as she locked up for the day “i guess but he’s cute so I don’t care” she said with a smile “what ever floats your boat but don’t say I didn’t tell ya when he writes your sins on your flesh”nick said opening jordan’s car door for her she laughed and sat down “I’ll be fine I promise” jordan closed her car door and started down the road

As she pulled up to johns house the guards were giving we dirty looks one follower stopped her at the door “what are you doing here?” He asked “John said I could come here he even gave me a key to get in” the guard just mean mugged jordan and let her by when she opened the door she was greeted with this clean beautiful living room “this seems normal coming from John” jordan said as she walked to a bathroom she took off her shirt and set it in a bag she brought in a pre lit fire was in the fire place making the place super warm and comfortable she sat Johns glasses on the coffee table and stretched out across the couch her eyes grew droopy and she started to doze off a few hours pass and jordan heard two men talking at the door “ brown hair, blue eyes, wearing my glasses? that’s jordan” she could tell it was John and the other follower that stopped her at the door she just brushed it off and tried to go back to sleep but she couldn’t knowing John was here she lifted her head up to see the man himself in his kitchen “hey John” jordan said as she stood up the blue eyed Baptist spun around and saw jordan “hey jordan how did you sleep?”John asked “great your couch is so comfortable”jordan said as she jumped up on the counter next to John “thanks you want anything to drink?” He asked “no thanks”jordan said as she Jumped up on to the counter “you have any mods on your car?” Jordan asked “yea I have a lot of shit on that car I’ve had it since I lived in Atlanta” John said walking over to jordan “I love Atlanta I lived there when I was in boot camp”jordan said “boot camp?” John said confused “after I ok graduated college I went to a military boot camp only girl that graduated out of my class” jordan said fixing her hair John arms wrapped around her neck like a snake trying to wrap around her “someone’s comfortable” jordan said with a little giggle as she pulled John closer his lips hovered hers “your adorable when you try to flirt” John said “I know it just makes it more fun to tease you” she said with a giggle before she knew it his hand was wrapped around her throat “everytime you giggle every time you smile everytime your with me it takes all my will power not to pin you to a wall” he let go of her throat and before John could comprehend jordan smashed her lips against his as she pulled away from him a smile grew on her face “what are you smiling about?” he asked jokingly “can I not smile with out reason no more” she said “yea” he said jordan’s hands cuffed his face and with the biggest smile she said “why don’t you give me a reason then”her head banged against the cabinet from how hard John pushed her back his head dug into the side of her neck a moan left jordan’s lips when he bit down on her neck drawing blood “was that a good enough reason” his voice was at a low sexy whisper as she spoke into her ear “yes”jordan said with a grin on her face when all of the sudden her phone went off she grabbed it and looked in confusion “it’s my cameras at the shop” she said jordan opened the cameras and saw hudson and Pratt sitting at the front door “I’m gunna call them and see if there not looking for me” she said jordan jumped off the counter and walked out the back door “Hudson can you explain why your sitting at the front of my shop”. “We are looking for you and expected you to be at your shop”.”okay give me like 10 minutes and I’ll be on the way”.”okay” jordan hung up the phone and walked back in “how did it go?” John asked “they want to meet me at the shop and I don’t know where my damn shirt is or my keys”jordan sighed “take one of my shirts from upstairs and my keys are hanging by the front door” John said jordan walked up and kissed him “thank you so much” she started up the stairs and grabbed one of johns dress shirts she pulled her hair out of a bun so the bite dosent show as she walked down the stairs John sat at the door to tell her good bye “I won’t take long I promise” jordan said “even if you do I trust you enough that you will keep it in one piece”John said handing jordan the keys “thank you again”

She kissed him one last time before walking out the door as she sat down in the car and put the keys in the ignition the engine roared “let’s go see what these dumb asses want” jordan said to herself before pulling out the drive way she watched as heads turn watching the car go by jordan just shook it off and kept on driving as she parked next to her shop Pratt and Hudson stood up in fear thinking it was John but when she stepped out they both looked confused “where have you’ve been?” Hudson asked “johns house if you couldn’t already tell” she said “somethings off” Pratt said “yea your acting a little werid” hudson added on “well gee is it the fact I’m wearing johns dress shirt or driving his car?” She asked sarcastically “no..” hudson said as she moved her hair off her shoulder revealing the bite “can you explain that?” Hudson asked she crossed her arms and leaned up against the wall “it was an angel named John seed it dosent matter” jordan said in an angered tone “it dose if it’s for my friends” hudson said “I wasn’t saying that when you hooked up with that guy in Atlanta when we were room mates” jordan yelled hudson got real quiet and swallowed her pride “hudson I love you like a sister but you shouldn’t worry who I date because I can take care of myself”jordan said hugging hudson “your right but if he gets you stressed just know you can talk to us” hudson said “yea because trust us we know how crazy the seeds can act” Pratt said “I like crazy makes them fun in bed” jordan said the three burst out laughing “But don’t worry no matter who I date I won’t turn my back on you guys”jordan said hudson and Pratt hugged her and smiled “you should head back now”Pratt said “yea I’ll see you guys around” jordan said as she walked back to the car as she sat down in the driver seat her phone started ringing “hello....yea i just left my shop I’m heading down the road” when jordan looked in a mirror she realized a fimilar truck “hey John be on alert there’s a truck following me up the driveway” she hung up as she parked the car

The truck parked close to the exit of the driveway to get a quick exit a man jumped out the truck and shut the door she realized it was jack her oldest brother “hey dumb ass” jack said “what do you want jack?” Jordan asked “relized you were driving that mustang that dosent belong to you so thought I’d teach you a lesson” jack said as he walked up to jordan “and why are you even here this is John seeds ranch” he added on jordan’s words stumble her whole body shake as he raised his fist when all of the sudden “get your hands off her” she looked to the front door to see John walking up to them “jordan explain” jack commanded “that’s my boyfriend he let me barrow his car to go do something” jordan said as she walked over to John jack looked at the two “jack Ryder that’s your name?” John asked “yea” jack said “I heard you were very abusive to my girlfriend and is still to this day so I just have one thing to say” John tightly grabbed the back of his neck right on a pressure point forcing him to tense up “I know where you and your brothers live so if you put a hand on jordan or try to steal from her shop I will have you blown off the map you understand” John said jack glupped down his pride “y....yes sir” jack said “also little bit of advice the veterans clinic is not that far down from you now go” John let go of his neck and pushed him to his truck he looked back at jordan she just waved good bye and walked in to the house “holy hell thank you John how can I repay you?”jordan asked Johns arms wrapped around her waist “make us official” he whispered into her ear she turned around cuffed his face in her hands and kissed him “I’ve already done that”jordan said with a grin “why do you have to be so damn cute” John said kissing the little crook in her neck a smile grew on jordan’s face she knew he wasn’t a perfect man but he made her feel happy any time he was around “because I’m meant to be cute it’s in my nature” jordan replied jokingly

Back at jordan’s brothers house

“Guys guess who I ran into” jack said as he walked through the front door chase threw a water bottle at the ground and looked at jack “who?” He asked “jordan” jack replied “what was she doing ?” Lance asked peaking his head around the corner “at her boyfriends house John seed” jack said with a troublesome grin “out of all the people in hope county she dates the city boy typical jordan” jack said fixing his hair “i think it’s time we give her a welcome back gift” jack said grabbing his bat from behind his chair “I’m not so sure if she’s dating John she’s under protection by his brothers and the cult to” lance said “don’t be a pussy lance!” Jack yelled “okay so what’s the plan?” chase asked “she’s going to Joseph’s compound later today John will definitely be distracted leaving us able to beat her senseless” jack said setting the bat on his shoulders “for now we wait” jack said as he sat in his chair

“Oh shit hey jordan” John said as he walked over to jordan “what’s up” jordan replied “joseph wants me to come to his compound you want to come to?You don’t have to change either” He asked “Joseph said he needs to see me to” jordan said showing John her phone “it’s probably him paying you for the first two shipments” John added “yea I’m ready when you are” jordan said as she buttoned up the shirt that she barrowed from John he nodded his head and grabbed the keys “let’s go” he said as he walked to the front door jordan followed behind him the two sat down in the black mustang and started down the road jordan turned over her arm and rubbed a tattoo that ran down her forearm “Ryder vitae? you must take great pride in your family”John said jordan looked over at John “you know Latin?” She asked “Scilicet haud stercore (no shit of course I do)” John said she let out a little giggle “yea I got this after my mom died when I wasn’t getting beat by my brothers she would take me to all these events for different cultures so I learned how to speak a lot of different languages” jordan said “how many do you know?” He asked “Latin,Spanish,Japanese” jordan replied “I had to take classes for all those languages and you grew up around them I’m jealous” John said jokingly punching her arm “my brothers have no clue how to speak any other language besides English so I use it to talk shit about them when they piss me off” John added “as my mother would say it comes easy when you grew up around it” jordan said as the two pulled up to the compound Joseph was waiting for them outside John parked the car and climbed out jordan followed behind him “good to see you John oh I see you brought jordan along” Joseph said “yea she said you wanted to see her to so I just brought her with me” John said “pleasure to see you again joseph” jordan said shaking Joseph’s hand “okay first jordan your payments in that bag John I need to speak with you privately” joseph said John nodded his head and followed joseph into the church jordan sat her payment in the car “you must be jordan” a voice said causing her to turn around “yea I am” she said as tall male with red hair walked up to her “You must be the oldest brother Jacob” jordan added on “yes I am” he said “82nd airborne division huh I remember seeing your group during training my dad was your commanding officer” jordan said as she sat on one of boxes in front of the church “your Jackson Ryders kid?!” He said in shock “Sargent Ryder at your service I was the only girl marksmen in my group and surprisingly the only good one to”jordan bragged “what made you end here?” He asked jordan flipped over her leg to show a huge scar on her ankle “I was hurt in combat that scar was a bullet shot that tore my ankle open if I got hit again in the ankle I was probably gunna lose my foot so I retired and moved here because I knew people here and opened Ryder ammunition” jordan said “suprisingly your the only one who hasn’t tried to hurt us” Jacob said “I don’t have nothing against you guys johns my boyfriend and I’m definitely not gunna hurt the people he cares about even if one of them is a ginger prick” jordan said “your johns girlfriend? shit I haven’t left the mountains in a while” “speak of the devil” Jacob said as John walked outside “hey babe”jordan said waving to John he walked over to Jacob and jordan and leaned next to jordan she just messed with his hair “so this is the lucky girl huh?” Jacob asked “yes” John replied “I’m gunna say this now don’t make jordan mad you may think she’s cute and adorable right now but piss her off she’ll have your neck”Jacob said “I’m aware but she is adorable” John said jordan kissed his cheek and smiled innocently “don’t try nothing though” she said Jacob let out a light laugh all of the sudden Joseph walked outside with a worried look “there’s something coming and it’s not good” joseph said jordan looked to see her brothers truck “those are my brothers” jordan said Joseph had followers on guard incase they were hostile

The three boy jumped out the truck holding bats with spikes on the end “what’s up fuck faces” lance said “what do you guys want?” Jordan asked “figured we come by and welcome you back and welcome are new brother in law” lance said as he walked up closer to jordan as he got ready to swing at her Jacob pushed her out the way leaving him John and Joseph in front like her body guards “ohh so you want to play body guard and act like her true brothers huh” lance said pointing his bat and Jacob and Joseph “get out my way” lance said as he pushed Joseph and John out the way but jordan wasn’t behind them no more “Where did she go?!” Lance yelled he looked back at the seed brothers and stood back up “listen here seeds she’s not your responsibility she’s ares”lance said “well for her being your responsibility she dosent get treated right and aren’t you supposed to protect her”Jacob said “so as long as she is with John she’s under are protection since her brothers couldn’t do their job will fill that spot”joseph said “oh I forgot to mention” John said he grabbed lance by the pressure point on his neck forcing her to tense up “say you want to hurt my queen one more time you and your brothers fate won’t be good you understand?” John asked “yes sir”lance said John let him go and pushed him to his brother they quickly jumped in the truck and started down the road jordan walked out the door wearing a bliss flower crown Faith followed behind her “holy shit thank you guys” jordan said as she walked up to the three boys “no problem you can always count on us” Jacob said “your one of us now and we look out for each other” joseph said “thanks also Jacob” jordan said turning to Jacob “since they live in your region if you get your hands on them don’t even bother asking me what to do with them treat them like one of your prisoners”jordan said Johns arms wrapped around her waist as she talked she could tell he wanted to go from how clingy he was being he laid his head on her shoulder and listen to there conversation she turned over and whispered into his ear “Estas lista para ir a casa?” She asked he nodded her head “we’re gunna go because I promised I’d meet someone at my shop and johns my ride” jordan said “okay see you guys later” joseph said faith grabbed jordan’s wrist and pulled her to her “when you get the chance head to the henbane river I’ll be there” faith said jordan nodded her head and waved her final good byes as she sat in the car

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thisdiscontentedwinter · 7 years

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Hunger - Chapter 24

Hunger master post

It takes nine days.

Behind the scenes, Rafael McCall and Jordan Parrish work their magic, and spin a cohesive, credible story to both the FBI and the Beacon Hills’ Sheriff’s Department. Stiles thinks the FBI is the harder sell. The Sheriff’s Department is in a mess since the news of Sheriff’s Haigh’s arrest, and the news that he framed John Stilinski. The mayor calls in some woman from out of state to run things in the meantime.

“They’re even auditing all the speeding tickets we ever gave out,” Parrish tells everyone one night over pizza. “It’s gonna be a while until things settle down.”

“Do you think anyone else was in on it?” Stiles asks him, his mood darkening. “Apart from Haigh and Kate?”

Parrish is silent for a moment, and then he shakes his head slightly. “I don’t know. I hope not, but I don’t know.”

Derek bumps Stiles gently with his shoulder, and Stiles forces himself to relax.

“I think we’re almost done on our end,” Rafael McCall says. “I’m heading back to Sacramento at the end of the week. Maybe I’ll get lucky with a nice relaxing serial killer.”

“Rafa!” Melissa exclaims.

He raises his eyebrows and steals a piece of pepperoni. “I’m just saying, I’d sleep a lot easier at night knowing it was just the Sacramento Slasher out there, you know?”

Stiles knows.

The world has gotten much bigger than he ever expected. Much deeper and darker. But also, he hasn’t felt this safe in years. He has wolves by his side.

Peter Hale has rented some loft space in town. After six years in that bunker, he wanted somewhere with a lot of windows. The place is huge, and a haven for spiders, but the light is incredible. So far Peter and Derek are just sleeping on mattresses on the floor, but they’ve got a refrigerator now and, weirdly, a coffee maker, so they’re making slow progress. Neither of them likes the idea of going shopping where there might be crowds, and Peter also refuses to buy furniture without physically inspecting it first, so it’s going to be a slow process.

Everything feels like a slow process.

Peter’s not here tonight.

Neither is Chris.

And from the look on Allison’s face when she arrived, Stiles isn’t dumb enough to point that out. Scott had whispered once, horrified, that they smelled like each other. Smelled like each other like Stiles and Derek, who gravitate toward one another whenever they’re in the same room, or smell like each other in more of an ew way? Scott had refused to expand on that.

Actually, Stiles doesn’t know what would be weirder. The thought of Chris and Peter fucking like bunnies, or cuddling? He thinks cuddling might be craziest.

Also, nobody’s mentioned the fact that Parrish has pretty much moved in over the last week. Not even Rafa. So maybe that’s another thing everyone’s avoiding talking about.

It’s okay.

It’s good.

This little group of people with all their petty divisions and alliances and grievances… they’re starting to feel like a real family. There’s someone missing still, and Stiles is doing his best to be patient, his best not to panic about what might still go wrong, and it’s so hard. But he has Derek and Scott and Melissa and everyone, and they distract him when he needs to be distracted, and they leave him alone when he needs to be left alone, and he can do this.

With their help, he can do this.

Melissa starts to clear away the pizza boxes. She moves around behind Stiles and reaches out to grip his shoulder gently. “Early night tonight. It’s a school night, remember?”

Stiles nods, sudden butterflies in his stomach.

“You too, Scott,” Melissa says.

Scott nods, distracted.

It’s only a few days to his first full moon, and even though Peter and Derek have promised to be there for him—even though Chris has, although Stiles suspects that’s more for his own peace of mind than Scott’s—he’s anxious. He’s frightened of losing control and hurting people, which Stiles gets, but also, it’s Scott. He’s like the sweetest guy Stiles has ever met. Scott’s got this.

Between them all, they can handle whatever the universe throws at them, right?

Right.

***

It’s easy to fall into Derek’s embrace, to tilt his head back and let Derek scent him. It’s easy to close his eyes when Derek presses his nose, and then his mouth, and then his tongue against the pulse point in his throat. It’s easy to find himself nuzzling back blindly, his breath hot and his heartbeat racing, searching for skin to touch with his lips.

It’s easy to pretend it’s all about the scenting, and the wolves, and something animals do that Stiles barely understands. Animals don’t kiss though.

Derek’s lips brush against Stiles’s, and then his tongue is gently tracing the seam of them, and Stiles’s mouth is opening like it’s the simplest thing in the world. It starts off soft and warm, and then Stiles’s legs fall open and Derek is shifting into the space Stiles makes for him.

Stiles is hard in his jeans, and a jolt runs through him when he rocks his hips and discovers that Derek is too. A part of him—the part that’s never done this before—wants to push Derek away. The rest of him wants to wraps his legs around him and drag him closer, so that’s what he does.

Derek moans, and the sound sends a spark of pleasure right to Stiles’s dick.

Derek pulls back. “You okay?”

“Keep going,” Stiles says. “Jesus. Keep going.”

***

His boy is eager and smells of arousal. His blood is hot, and pumping close to the surface of his skin. Derek wants to taste him. He nuzzles his way down Stiles’s chest, plucking his shirt up so that he can press his face against that pale mole-dotted skin. Stiles is still too thin, but not sickly with it anymore. His boy is getting strong again, and Derek rewards him by dipping his tongue inside his belly button and making him shake with laughter.

Stiles’s dick is straining in his jeans, and Derek rubs his thumb across the button on the fly.

“Keep going,” Stiles whispers. His amber eyes are wide.

Derek pops the button and slides the zip down. He presses his nose into Stiles’s boxers, into the seam between Stiles’s thigh and his groin, and inhales. Stiles shudders, his fingers scrabbling in Derek’s hair.

Derek peels down the elastic of his boxers.

Stiles’s dick is hard and hot under his tongue. It tastes of salt and sweat and Stiles. Derek licks a strip up it, and Stiles arches off the bed.

“Oh! God, Derek!” Stiles is breathy, frantic, as Derek sucks the tip of his dick into his mouth. “I’m not going to last!”

Derek doesn’t care. He’s greedy for this. For his boy. For his Stiles.

Stiles shudders and thrashes underneath him, panting hard as he comes. Derek swallows him down, and then kisses his way back up his body toward his flushed face.

Stiles stares at him wildly for a moment, and then pulls him close for a breathless kiss.

Derek holds him tight.

***

“Derek,” Melissa McCall says as he sneaks upstairs later. “I’m sure I said it was a school night?”

Derek flushes and escapes.

***

Stiles has had a lot of first days at different schools. After a while all schools look the same. Same tired lockers. Same scuff-marked halls. Same lunches. Same smells and sounds. Same kids, same cliques, same old same old. Beacon Hills High isn’t any different on the surface, except it’s a lot easier to walk inside flanked by Scott and Allison.

A few of the teachers look twice at his name, and not just his first name either, but most of the kids don’t seem to immediately associate him with the former sheriff. They either don’t remember the scandal or they don’t care.

The exception appears to be the terrifying and beautiful Lydia Martin.

“Stilinski,” she says, looking him up and down when he sets his tray down at her table at lunch time. “Huh.”

Stiles doesn’t know if there’s a judgment there or not. Lydia looks like the sort of girl who has a scathing judgment for every occasion, but she’s also friends with Allison and Scott, so… Stiles figures he’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. Particularly when he sees her sliding a calculus textbook under her copy of Marie Claire when she catches him looking.

Stiles eats his lunch and listens into to the conversation, casting half-furtive glances around occasionally, and wondering if one day these people might be his friends too.

As first days go, Stiles has had worse. He’s most anxious about History, since he doesn’t have either Scott or Allison in that class with him, but one of the guys from lunch, Danny, saves him a seat beside him.

It’s good.

Maybe this is the last first day Stiles will have to have.

He likes the sounds of that.

***

“How’d it go today?” Melissa asks that evening as Stiles is helping set the table. Melissa is on a day off.

“Okay,” Stiles says. He doesn’t want to get too enthusiastic in case it doesn’t work out. Story of his life.

“Did you get much homework?” Melissa asks him. “I talked to the school about how you’ve got some gaps, and Ms. Morrell said something about tailoring a study plan for you?”

“I’ve got an appointment with her on Friday,” Stiles says. He looks down at the stack of plates Melissa handed him. There are only three. “Is Jordan working tonight?”

“He’ll be by after dinner,” Melissa says, and checks her watch. “Scott!” she yells up the stairs. “If you’re supposed to be doing homework, why can I hear you shooting aliens from down here?”

Melissa doesn’t need any damn werewolf hearing.

“Can I invite Derek over?” Stiles asks.

He’s done his homework. He’s trying to be the good kid. Which, when it comes to academics, is actually kind of easy compared with Scott. It’s the other stuff that Scott outstrips him at. Like being effortlessly kind and helpful. That’s the stuff Stiles has to work at. And he’s trying, for Melissa. Hence setting the table.

Melissa gives him a look he can’t quite read. “Not tonight, hmm?”

“Okay.” Stiles swallows down his disappointment, even though he was kind of expecting this. Melissa has already given him the talk about how she’s taking her role of foster carer seriously, and she doesn’t want either of them to do anything that will risk Stiles getting sent away. She didn’t explicitly spell it out, but Stiles figures having underage sex in her house is probably a really fast way to fuck things up if anyone finds out.

Melissa gives him a small smile.

Scott clatters down the stairs in time to get the meatloaf out of the oven. Stiles heads into the kitchen to help him. When he gets there, Scott has the meatloaf sitting on the counter and is rattling through the cabinets. “Do we have any more ketchup? Mom, are we out of ketchup?”

“I don’t know, Scott!” she calls back from the dining room. “Did you look?”

“I’m looking!” And then he reels back, a small plastic container in his hand. “Mom!”

“What?”

Scott looks like a confused puppy as he stares down at the container. “Why do we have pre-natal vitamins?”

There’s a sudden crash of cutlery from the dining room.

***

Dinner is kind of awkward.

“You and Deputy Parrish?” Scott asks, jaw hanging open. “Aren’t you kind of…”

“Say it, Scott,” Melissa says, arching her brows. “I dare you.”

Scott snaps his mouth shut.

Dinner is also kind of hilarious.

Afterward, when Stiles is chilling in front of the TV and Scott is having an existential crisis about being a big brother at sixteen, a car rolls into the driveway. The headlights flash up against the living room window for a moment, before the engine cuts out and the lights turn off.

“Stiles,” Melissa says, appearing in the living room doorway. There’s a shaky smile on her face like she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You’re going to want to get the door.”

Stiles bolts off the couch, his sudden rush of hope battling with every other part of him that screams not to trust this, not to believe it, it can’t be what it thinks. He hurries to the front door and flings it open.

Parrish’s car is in the driveway and Parrish is climbing out of the driver’s seat.

The passenger’s door swings open and a man gets out.

Stiles freezes—

He’s older than Stiles remembers. A little thinner. There’s more gray in his hair now, more wrinkles around his eyes. But it’s him. It’s him.

—and then stumbles forward into an embrace he’s needed for the past four years.

“Stiles,” Dad says, and it sounds almost like the answer to a prayer. “Oh, Stiles, kiddo. Stiles.”

Stiles bursts into tears.

#sterek #fan fic #teen wolf #hunger #discontentedwinter

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douchebagbrainwaves · 6 years

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WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT FAKE

But a program written in Lisp especially once you cross over into obsessive. Adults in prison certainly pick on one another. Everyone in the school knew exactly how popular everyone else was, including us. Write rereadable code. But the unconscious form is very widespread. I can't think of many ancient philosophers who would have disagreed with that, so far as it goes. We found the startups that needed further funding, I believe all have either closed a round or are likely to be more meaningful.

Then the ones that won't make such a thing as Americanness. But can we say more than that? The public conversation so far has been exclusively about the need to decrease economic inequality want to do a rolling close, where the round has no predetermined size, but instead forced you to write the program in some other way that was shorter. So we were happy in the end, though the experience probably took several years off my life. If you have steep revenue growth, say over 6x a year, no matter what your lifespan was. Ok, so written and spoken language are different. In fact, if you want to get rich.

But in the same way the nerds learned to be popular, and to have the right kind of people to have ideas with: the other students, and this bit of the economy always does, in everything from salaries to standards of dress. I was, I thought that something must be. Nor does it harm you in the real world, instead of just working on search. If you move there, the authorities fed you, prevented overt violence, and made some effort to teach you that. What we can say, which are the most common because it is the irreducible core of it, this seems a rather damning thing to claim about a programming language is for thinking of programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of. Potential employees won't want to work for. I'm not claiming I write great software, but I think hiring people is the way the world is going. Many painters might have thought, this is just something to put in the background to frame her head. I hope people will not be too offended if I propose that ancient philosophers were similarly naive.

He was like Michael Jordan. It would be helpful just to realize it might be worth a hundred times as much if it worked. And because startup founders work under great pressure, it's critical they be friends. The good news is, choosing problems is something that has to be decided in advance. Making things cheaper is actually a subset of the problem. Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. They didn't become art dealers after a difficult choice between that and a career in the hard sciences. So if you want to get rich by playing games that though not crooked are zero-sum game there is at least a year before our revenues would have covered even our paltry costs. Most people look at a company like Apple and think, how could I ever make such a pledge will be very valuable to understand precisely which ideas to keep and which can now be discarded.

Their craziness is the craziness of the idle everywhere. That doesn't sound right either. You have to wait for the writer's influential friends to die, and then figure out a program completely on paper before even going near a computer. But you may have expertise in some new field they don't understand—tends to make investors very skittish. One expert on entrepreneurship told me that at the time, writing about economic inequality is the inevitable fate of countries that don't choose something worse. Hackers are so used to computers that they have wings. That's the biggest problem for someone starting a startup so much that I only did it out of necessity, there must be. At YC one of our people had, early on, any more than it makes sense to ask a 3 year old version of him, I remember one founder saying worriedly. At least, he was before he became a professor at MIT. The other approach is what I call the Hail Mary strategy. They remind us that it is the people who are bad at empathy too.

Not those guys are working on a problem that your water was getting turned off. We were not far off: this was the second most common. An undergrad could build something better as a class project. Work people like doesn't pay well, for reasons of supply and demand, and there is a kind of Segway. The only bigger pain is not needing to, because that's implicit in making something customers want is figuring out that you need to write a big, complex program, the best opportunities are where things suck most. In another conversation he told me that any startup had to include business people? Not at all. If you drink too much, you can create wealth as well as figuring out how to put it more dramatically, ordinary programmers working in typical office conditions never really understand the problems they're solving. They do more in their heads: they try to understand a problem space well enough that they don't share the opinions of the elite, others feel a little nervous about it, knowing you did all you could. Painting has been a qualitative change in the last 10 years.

Plus a lot of time and money to do it in off hours—which turn out to be a rule with them that everything has to start with a problem and you have to consciously turn them off and become pathologically cynical. We did the first time that measures taken in an atmosphere of panic had the opposite of the intended effect. Sometimes if you just hang on, things will probably get better. And not only will they give you this advice for free, they'll pay you. You might also want to remember at least the concept of users is missing from most college programming classes. Fit meetings with investors. The guys with kids and mortgages are at a disadvantage when coming up with ideas for startups, but most husbands use the same word for a brilliant or a horribly cheesy solution. Miraculously it all turned out to be widely applicable. There are plenty of other places to work; you may as well choose one that keeps more of your options open. It means that a programming language. That is the essence of hacking. So, if hacking works like painting and writing, is it as cool?

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elliotthezubat · 7 years

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DEATH CITY DAYS GAIDEN 21; Secretary’s Night Out (semi-non-canon-ish)

non-canon in the fact that a certain character is alive here, but other than that, some of the facts learned can be considered headcanon

Secretary’s night out

emily: so everyone's here, huh? rain: yeah. Daisy: "Would seem so." *sits down* Kirako: ^^ emily: here's to the official secretaries meeting. cheers! rain: *takes a swig* louisa: I-I cant actually drink much. i'll get nauseous... ^~^;; Daisy: -_-; "Just eat it with something." *downs her shot glass* Kirako: *long sip* louisa: but why did we come to another city? rain: mainly so people wont recognize our faces... emily: oho, sounds like someone wants to complain about their boss~ Kirako: *concerned look at Rain* Daisy: "Get in line: whole lot of complaining to be had." emily: so who wants to go first? rain: I think i'll go last. Kirako: "...Well, Fukuzawa can be a bit...serious. I hardly see him crack a smile..." Daisy: *eyeroll* louisa: is there anything that does make him happy? Kirako: "Well..." *smiles* "We're both cat people." ^^ "I can get him to look a little more relaxed with some cute kitten photos." >w< rain: *tenses a slight bit* louisa: aww. I like cats too, but sadly I'm allergic... Y_Y Daisy: *side-eyes Rain* "...Just get a hairless...even if they look like alien rats." emily: ^^; Kirako: "I mean, almost any cat is a cute one. With their big eyes, and little paws just tapping along the floor..." *squee* emily:...I see. so louisa, how's fitzgerald these days? louisa: as eccentric as he usually is. ^^; the two new members are able to keep up well enough. emily: oh? Kirako: "What are they like?" louisa: Mary's rather energetic, and bram seems to be more steady-paced, if a bit gloomy and frequently ill. Daisy: "They aren't terrible...Mary's loud, though." louisa: she can be, but she does mean well. come to think of it, you've been working for Manhasset a while. what's that like? Daisy: "...It's a paycheck." emily: ^^; anything interesting that happens there? besides guild antics? Daisy: "There was the time Jordan knocked an entire bottle of ketchup onto his pants in the commissary. That was a good laugh for a week." emily: yikes. Daisy: "And the whole 'Eckleburg didn't really murder that guy' fiasco." -awkward silence- Daisy: "..." *sips her beer* "...It's not like he's in prison. And Fitzgerald is less murder-happy than the old boss." rain: *sweatdrop* (she says about a guy who NEARLY DROPPED A WHALE ON THE CITY.......but he's still better than mori is.) Kirako: "Aaaaaaanyway..." *sips her wine* =w= "I'm sure Mr. Fitzgerald has made the workplace more, um, employee-friendly?" Daisy: "..." *shrug* "Ask Louisa." louisa: it's quite nice. emily: glad to hear. Kirako: "How about your work, Emily?" emily: it's decent. the guild remnants are...an interesting bunch. ^^; Daisy: "Telling word choice..." Kirako: "Are they treating you well?" emily:... *remembering how they seem to forget she exists* I would say so. ^u^; Kirako: "That's good. Finding a good workplace is challenging." emily: although actually, it's my second job. Daisy: "Rough economy..." *finishes her beer* louisa: so where did you work previously? emily: I worked at my hometown's post office. Kirako: "Was it busy work?" emily: *she nods* Daisy: "Ever go postal?" emily: I just worked in the mail room, I never made any deliveries. Kirako: "Paper sorting can be the worst--always having to find a system to organize it all..." rain: ... Kirako: "...Rain?" rain: y-yes? Kirako: *smiles* "Need a refill?" rain: s-sure. Kirako: *waves to waiter* "Another of what my friend was having, please." rain: .-.;; Daisy: "Watch your speed on the drinks..." rain: I know. Kirako: "..." *looks at Louisa* louisa: i'll just have tea. Kirako: *smiles* "That sounds delicious--" Daisy: "We can cover for you..." louisa: eh? Daisy: "If it's about your age--" Emily: 22 isn't too young for drinking. Daisy: "..." *sips, smirking* emily: ??? Kirako: ^^;;; "Okay, how about we go around--how old were you when you first had alcohol?" rain: I think when I started working for the m-..my company. ^^; emily: about 22? Kirako: "17." Daisy: "14." louisa: ._.; Kirako: "That's...a bit young, Daisy?" Daisy: *shrugs* "If your parents got it in the house, might as well try." louisa: ._.; rain: ..... Daisy: "Okay--best hangover cure. Go." rain: hot water bottle and a warm blanket. Kirako: "Black coffee and aspirin." emily: hmm. alright, first kisses? rain: O////////////O louisa: o-oh goodness, I've never- Daisy: "What, seriously?" louisa:.... .///.; I-I'm waiting for the right person. emily: that's totally fine. Kirako: "D'aaaaaaw!" >w< Daisy: *shrugs* "Better than an awful experience..." *Excalibur face* emily: sounds like a story. Daisy: "It was gross...I don't mean one of those preschool kisses where it's a peck on the cheek. This was in high school...Ugh, his tongue felt slimy." rain: *cringes* Kirako: "I mean, it takes time to get good at it. Practice makes perfect!" Daisy: "..." *smirking again* emily: what about yours, kirako? Kirako: "Middle school--spin the bottle with the class president. Really nice guy, but we weren't very good at it." ^^; emily: oh cool. mine was similar, though it was with some random classmate. although he kind of freaked out after, thinking I 'contaminated' him with germs. ^^; Daisy: " 'Fraid he caught your 'cooties'?" emily: *laughs* rain: ........... Kirako: *paying attention to Rain* "So, how about we--" Daisy: "And you, Red?" rain: .....it....didn't go as I would have hoped for it to..... Kirako: "..." Daisy: "That sucks...Any better experiences?" rain:..... *remembering her accidental kiss with chuuya*... .////. s-somewhat... Daisy: "..." *glances at Kirako* Kirako: "..." *Both smirk* Kirako: "Details!" rain: e-eh??!! O////o Daisy: "Soft lips?" rain: *pink in the face* I-I-IT WAS AN ACCIDENTAL KISS! Kirako: ._. rain:.... 7/////7; n-not that I didn't enjoy it, mind you... Daisy: "Oooooh...You going to try again? This time on purpose?" rain: oh goodness, I-I don't think I have the guts for something so bold. Kirako: "Maybe a date first..." rain: O/////////////////////////////////O Daisy: "...Damn, girl. Thirst." rain: oh there's no way I could. I mean, he's like... *has her hand above her head, to indicate a 'level' of sorts* and I'm just... *has her hand below her seat* you get where I'm going with this? Kirako: *nods* Daisy: "He's tall?" rain:..... *side glance* Kirako: "She means his stature in the organization..." Daisy: "...Oh. Nevermind." rain: .///.; Daisy: "...Well, I wish you the best of luck. Dating inside the 'company' can be difficult." rain: no kidding..... Kirako: >\\\\> emily: ?? Kirako: "I...can attest to that..." emily: oooooh? Kirako: "Just...been a 'friends with benefits.'" emily: do you want something more than that? Kirako: *sigh* "I don't know...Kind of just going through the motions and see what my options are." emily: ah, I feel ya. Kirako: "Been there?" emily:.....maybe? >///>; Daisy: "Spill." emily: nothing sexual, but I may have had a short crush on Steinbeck. Kirako: "Oh?" Daisy: "I kind of tune out when Fitzgerald brings him up. What's he like?" emily: he's rather hardworking, from what I see. Daisy: "That's a quality you admire?" emily: I suppose. Daisy: "How is he in the looks department?" emily: fairly handsome, i'd say. Daisy: "That lessens the pressure." Kirako: "Anything you have in common?" -later- Kirako: "Hee hee..." =\\\w\\\= Daisy: *head down, muttering* rain: T/////T louisa: ._.; emily: yikes Kirako: "It's the cutest! You have to try one on at some point--makes you feel powerful!" Daisy: *holding her head* "...Then he bought the Rolex and kept showing it to everyone. It wasn't even real..." rain: w-wouldn't it b-be too revealing? knowing that sick fuck mori, h-he'd force me to wear one. Kirako: "No one has to know if you wear the right thing over it~" rain: .///~///.;;; Kirako: *claps* "We should try one on right now! I got it at home!" Daisy: *holding her head with each clap* "I want to die..." rain: e-eh??!! O///O;; I-I couldn't possibly- Kirako: "DO IIIIIIIIT!" rain: QAQ;;;; Daisy: *tugs on Kirako's ear* "Stop. Yelling." Kirako: Q____Q emily: anyway, I think we should call it a night. louisa: ._.;;; agreed. Daisy: *tries to stand--stumbling* -later, after emily dropped them all off- rain:.....*lays on her couch* ...........*dials someone* *click* Higuchi: *yawn* "Yeah?" rain: can you come over? I had too much to drink... Higuchi: "...On my way. Stay awake, okay?" rain: o-*sniff* ok. -later- *knock knock* rain: hey. thanks for coming over... Higuchi: "No problem...What's going on?" rain: I went out for some drinks. Higuchi: "...Didn't go great?" rain: *sniff* Higuchi: "..." *pats her back* rain: just ha-having a rough night. Higuchi: *nods* "Want to talk or just sit?" rain: can we talk and maybe watch movies? Higuchi: *nods* "Something light?" rain: y-yeah. Higuchi: "There's a cute comedy about a dog?" -later- rain: ....do I have any real skills, higuchi? Higuchi: ._. "...Kind of an odd way to phrase that..." rain: do I, though? I'm scared I don't have anything going for me like that, and that asshole mori says the only skill I have is my sex appeal! HE ISNT EVEN INTO CURVY GIRLS!! Higuchi: "!!! O-Okay, calm down...I just didn't know what you meant since you have skills--and they aren't sexual." rain: like what? Q~Q Higuchi: "...Well, you're a good listener." rain: I guess... Higuchi: "You're organized, meet deadlines, provide support from the office..." rain: *small smile* Higuchi: "And your worth can't be defined by your skills or other people--it's you." rain: I guess... Higuchi: *hug* rain: *sniffle* Higuchi: *pat pat* "I think you're valuable and skilled." rain: t-thanks. I-I really appreciate that. Higuchi: *smiles* "You just need to do something to use those skills..." rain: yeah...i'll just have to try harder tomorrow then. Higuchi: *nods* "And maybe towards something that helps your future..." rain:...yeah...

#death city days #tw alcohol

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junker-town · 7 years

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United They Kneel: Colin Kaepernick's protest is defined by those that joined him

The QB inspired protesters all across the country.

The men, white, draped in American flags, directed violence toward a black effigy in a 49ers jersey and a faux ‘fro.

“Tackle him!” one yelled. “Tackle the Muslim!”

It was October 2016, and Erin Heany and Shaketa Redden had prepared for this situation. Buffalo was playing host to the 49ers, and several raucous, drunk, and white Bills fans were there to lambaste Colin Kaepernick.

The two women and their groups arrived at Orchard Park early, ahead of the “Make Buffalo Great Again” signs on steel trailers; the “Wanted: Notorious Disgrace to America,” “Hey Colin, While You’re Down There,” and “Kaeperdick” shirts with crosshairs on Kaepernick’s face; the “Stand Up & Shut Up” coozies; and the Kaepernick piñatas.

Before kickoff, they started marching. A large group of black and white protesters followed. They carried signs reading: “Buffalo Fans for Black Lives.”

“We saw this as a way to agitate and expose the racism and racist violence in our community,” Heany said. “And we knew the Bills’ stadium was one place where it would be exposed pretty quickly.”

They planned weeks in advance for Kaepernick’s first start in Buffalo following his historic protest. Redden and Heany participated in de-escalation training. They anticipated backlash. They wanted, at all costs, to protect the people of color they came with.

“At first we were pretty nervous,” Redden said. “The Bills’ fans, they can get pretty crazy out there.”

As the start of the anthem approached, they ran into armed men near the stadium. They said that members of the Sheriff's Office told them where to stand and threatened to detain them. Redden raised a black fist and kept pushing. They found their way to Gate 5. The anthem rang, everyone in the group of protestors got down on one knee just as Kaepernick did on the sideline, then hundreds of fans booed.

When we look back, history will tell who was actually down for the people.

“It was pretty intense,” Heany said. “There were a lot of people, young white guys, who were being real antagonistic. Yelling things. Pointing at our faces.” Once it ended, “We packed it up and got outta there pretty quick.”

Kaepernick said in December that Buffalo was the worst city he played in. He noted a difference in perspective between “Black and White America.” He said he didn’t understand how White America didn’t understand him. He received death threats. Bills fans threw bottles at him.

This was the America that Kaepernick had exposed, two distinct groups that admired and resented him, respectively, for one 90-degree bend of the knee.

Across the country, it was the same. Headline after headline. On the football fields of Texas, black boys in Beaumont knelt and lost their season. In Charlotte, after another shooting, organizers faced cops in riot gear and knelt in front of a football stadium.

A gesture became a movement. Kaepernick’s protest caught fire in a way Americans haven’t seen in modern sports. The NFL has rarely been a vehicle for activism, especially for movements that have spread like Kaepernick’s. His protest would be copied and debated around the country for months after he was first spotted taking a knee during the preseason of the 2016 NFL season.

SB Nation spoke to a number of people who kneeled to hear their explanation of the impact one American athlete can have on the constant fight for black lives.

“When we look back, history will tell who was actually down for the people. You cannot question that Colin Kaepernick was down,” Kwame Rose, a prominent activist who was in Charlotte, said.

“This man has risked millions of millions of dollars in an effort to save millions of lives and bring awareness to the issues that people on the ground are fighting.”

Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Time hasn’t made Rah-Rah Barber forget what happened in Texas. There’s a soft shake in his voice whenever he brings it up. He has a hard time finding the right words for the pain he and his boys felt after their protest.

The coach remembered when one of his players asked if the Beaumont Bulls could copy Kaepernick. It’s impossible a youth team understands this, he thought. But, the team’s parents agreed. The board of the league approved. Barber talked to his team. And that September weekend they all kneeled.

But after the protest, those who had previously supported the team did an about-face. “When we did that, our whole season changed. Everything,” he said. “From the top, the board of the league we were playing in and how they looked at us, to the actual league we played in. I mean, they ended up cancelling our season. They fired me, banned a few parents from coming to the field.”

Barber started crying as he spoke.

“It’s been a long year,” he said. “Phewww. It’s been a long year.”

The backlash was unending. Eventually, Barber couldn’t take it.

“We got emails. We got Facebook messages. One said ‘All the coaches need to be hung. This is Southeast Texas, recognize where you at,’” he said.

Kids were horrified. People threatened to burn the boys alive, hang them, and shoot them. After 30-40 messages Barber stopped reading.

That same September, on Nebraska’s campus, Michael Rose-Ivey and two other Husker football players returned from a game at Northwestern, where they didn’t stand during the anthem.

Rose-Ivey’s Facebook and Twitter inboxes erupted. One message read: “You are a clueless and confused nigger.” Another: “You should be kicked off the team or suspended.” Another fan told him that if he didn’t want to stand he “should be hung before the anthem” of their next game, a message he re-read to reporters between painful exhales.

“It’s weird, man. I expected this. I know where I’m at. I’m not ignorant,” Rose-Ivey said. “I’ve tried to prepare myself, but you can never prepare yourself for people telling you they want you to die.”

The unceasing responses caused his co-protesters, Mo Berry and DaiShon Neal, to never kneel again. Rose-Ivey got “mad as hell” because, he said, he never considered stopping.

When the season ended, Rose-Ivey went un-drafted. Numerous classmates unfriended him. Someone removed his face from the team’s senior picture in Memorial Stadium. He experienced something similar to what Kaepernick felt after his game in Buffalo — an othering effect that made him feel lonely and misunderstood, though he believed his fight was just.

“I’d be stupid not to believe that that has any reason to do with why I am a free agent,” Rose-Ivey said.

Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

“It’s unfortunate that I have to pick between wanting to be a good person and fight for other people’s rights and want to play football,” he added. “I understand you wanna be entertained. At the same time, those four hours on Sunday don’t match the 24 hours each day I have to spend being black outside of that helmet.”

At Tulsa University, Keanu Hill, a starting cornerback, believed he could play in the NFL. After he kneeled on 9/11 weekend, his parents thought he had jeopardized his future. His friends warned him after his protest that any pro plans he had may fizzle out.

Responses like that, which he received for months, “proves the point to why I protested,” he said.

“Shit, it was easy for me. At that point, everyone knows what it represents,” Hill said. “We ain’t trying to disrespect anyone. All [Kaepernick] did, all we did was take a knee. He told the world how he felt and we related to that.”

In November, University of Wisconsin basketball players Nigel Hayes and Jordan Hill took their stand. The pair stood back from their teammates on the foul line in the Kohl Center during preseason, and kept their heads down as the anthem played.

Hayes could hear one man shouting at him.

“Nigel! Stand on the line!”

“That guy lucky my momma not here,” Hayes laughed, telling Hill.

Hayes also went undrafted in June. The reasons why, he said, are unclear. He’s on a partially-guaranteed deal with the Knicks.

Hayes, who has been a target of criticism by college sports fans for speaking out in favor of compensation for college athletes and for racial equality, admired Kaepernick’s yearlong defiance.

“He not only stirred the pot, he kicked it off the damn stove,” Hayes said. “It really struck a nerve with white viewers.”

Like many, Hayes compared this era of protest to the Civil Rights Movement. The backlash they received was a side-effect of progress. America, Hayes said, needed someone like Kaepernick to spark a movement like this.

“This is an example of a modern Million Man March,” Hayes said. “Except, it’s a Million Tweet March.”

Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images

Kaepernick is hardly the first person to recognize the inherent connection between America and racism. Nor is he the first athlete to take issue with the anthem.

In September, 1960, James Timothy “Mudcat” Grant, a black pitcher for Cleveland, got into an argument with bullpen coach Ted Wilks, one of the heroes of the Cardinals’ 1944 championship team.

Grant was singing the anthem before a game, but he decided to change some words.

“When it got to that part ‘home of the brave and land of the free’ I sang something like ‘this land is not so free. I can’t even go to Mississippi,’” Grant told The Cleveland Plain-Dealer in 1960.

“Wilks heard me and called me a (racial) name. I got so mad I couldn’t hold myself back. I told him that Texas is worse than Russia. Then I walked straight into the clubhouse.”

Cleveland suspended Grant for the season without pay. Wilks tried apologizing but Grant was boiling.

“I’m sick of hearing remarks about colored people,” he said. “I don’t have to stand there and take it.”

After Grant, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, track athletes, stood on the medal stand during the 1968 Summer Olympics. They gave black power salutes while wearing black gloves during the anthem.

We all have a say. Athletes included. Students included. We all have a say.

The International Olympic Committee banned them from competition. They were removed from the Olympic Village. Americans in the sixties, then grappling with the Civil Rights Era, shunned the pair.

“He’s a sacrificial lamb today,” Carlos said about Kaepernick on Joe Madison’s “The Black Eagle” radio show. “These young individuals, they’re the fruit of our labor. If they thought we were bad 50 years ago, in terms of expressing ourselves, just wait. They got a lot more to come with these young black kids in America today.”

Political protest in sports following the Civil Rights Era came frequently: Muhammad Ali nearly lost his career and freedom protesting the Vietnam War, Jim Brown held the “Ali Summit” and created the Negro Industrial and Economic Union, Craig Hodges handed a letter to the president outlining racial inequality, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand during the anthem, Toni Smith-Thompson turned her back to the flag while the anthem played for every game of her senior basketball season.

One of the more recent stands was the University of Missouri’s 2015 protests against campus discrimination. One student went on a hunger strike until other black students’ issues were resolved. The football team decided they wouldn’t practice or play until high-ranking officials resigned.

The next day: the president and chancellor quit. It was a shining moment that showed the power athletes had in political discourse.

“Seeing what Kaepernick was going through brings back so many flashbacks to Mizzou,” Kandice Head, a Mizzou alum who shaped communications strategy for the protests, said.

“Mizzou taught me a very powerful thing about the status quo and what happens when you threaten it,” she said. “It’s literally a bubble. And when you penetrate that bubble you un-tap an unimaginable side of people. You see all sorts of anger, defensiveness and fragility.”

Head understands the stakes Kaepernick faced with his protest. During the protests at Mizzou, her brother was the president of the student body and she was a prominent voice during the campus’ struggles. Journalists attempting to discredit her, she said, dug through her family’s financial records to paint her as a picture of privilege and not alleged struggle.

To reach portions of White America, she said, sometimes you have to go to desperate lengths to make them aware. As Kaepernick faces the fact that he may never play in the NFL again, Head said his sacrifice is an example of the lengths it takes to make America understand the daily suffering of its non-white citizens.

“Athletes are more than just athletes,” Head said. “They’re people with thoughts and feelings and beliefs. These protests should’ve shown people there are still issues in America and we don’t get to just leave it to lawmakers and leaders to say something is wrong. We all have a say. Athletes included. Students included. We all have a say.”

WATCH: entire Garfield HS football team and coaching staff kneels during national anthem http://pic.twitter.com/LSTqku9QDb

— Heather Graf (@HeatherGrafK5) September 17, 2016

Kaepernick’s protest was displayed on Sundays, but it was bolstered by philanthropy. Along with leading a rebuilding 49ers team, he managed to carry out a $1 million pledge to grassroots organizations.

It started in San Jose with Silicon Valley De-Bug. Kaepernick gave $25,000 for projects the organization otherwise wouldn’t have.

Kaepernick did more than give money. He invited the organization to his first Know Your Rights Camp, where he set up chairs, interacted with kids, and sat in on every workshop. He also purchased backpacks and filled them with books. Each kid received a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

The specificity of the organizations that Kaepernick selected stuck out to Joo-Hyun Kang, too. She is the Director of Communities United for Police Reform in New York, which also received $25,000 from Kaepernick.

“It shows a level of thoughtfulness,” Kang said. She explained that oftentimes athletes and celebrities (think Michael Jordan) make one large donation to a reputable organization and do a press run associated with it. “It’s the inspiration and validation that his contribution made. We were surprised he had even heard of us.”

“From the smallest detail to, say, a donation of where the money’s going, there’s complete consistency and symmetry about [his philanthropy],” Raj Jayadez, a coordinator at Silicon Valley De-Bug, said.

Some groups Kaepernick donated to were forged out of tragedy. Collette Flanagan founded Mothers Against Police Brutality after her son, Clinton Allen, was killed by Dallas police in 2013.

“Clinton was shot 7 times,” she said, her tone steady. “Once in the back, and he was unarmed.”

Flanagan uses her organization to help victims of police brutality and mothers fight for police accountability and reform. Kaepernick’s donation to the organization helped families travel to an annual event where the afflicted can vent about police violence.

As NFL teams reportedly try to make Kaepernick choose between protest and football, he’s shown, emphatically, that he can do both.

“It is a calling,” Flanagan said. “It is something that was assigned. It is a task, a tedious task, that was assigned to him by a higher power.”

The OUSD Honor Band played the National Anthem before tonight's #Oakland A's game. Near the end of the song, most of the 155 middle and high school students took a knee in protest against police brutality and unfair treatment of people of color in #America. The crowd responded with enthusiastic applause. #iamOUSD

A post shared by Oakland School District (@ousdnews) on Sep 20, 2016 at 7:32pm PDT

On a warm day in Manhattan last May, Kevin Livingston spent hours on a Midtown corner trying to get people in front of NFL Headquarters to care about Kaepernick. It was one of several rallies Livingston organized nationwide to show support for the unemployed quarterback and demand his return to the NFL.

Livingston said the idea came together because “everyday folk just want to protest for him.” Kaepernick had donated to Livingston’s organization called 100 Suits.

“He took a knee, got beat up, and cashed out and everything else for your right. For them to know that you matter,” Livingston said.

The fact that, nearly a year after Kaepernick first took a knee, folks feel close to Kaepernick’s protest shows its power. It’s a sign that kneeling worked, and that conversations about racial inequality are bubbling to the surface.

Thomas Mitzel, the president of Dickinson State University in North Dakota, created a space for these conversations after five Dickinson State football players protested last season.

People in Dickinson didn’t know what to make of the display. Mitzel wanted them to understand why the five black athletes did what they did. He created a once-a-month, on-campus forum where students and residents could have open conversations about divisive topics.

“Too many times, when protests arise, you get lines drawn in the sand,” Mitzel said. “I didn’t think that would be healthy for our students, our university, or our region.

“These issues will not go away on their own,” Mitzel added. “They will only go away when people come together and begin to talk about the underlying areas and issues that are causing these protests.”

After Livingston’s demonstration in Manhattan, he spoke to a new parolee for his program. The recently released man heard about Kaepernick’s fight. When Livingston told him that Kaepernick had partnered with his organization, the parolee’s eyes lit up.

“After all the cameras went away, the activism and the fire to make sure that we stand with this brother is still there,” Livingston said. “And that right there is something that’s a driver for me.”

In an era filled with a never-ending fight for black lives, no one’s message was louder.

“It’s not a secret anymore,” Keanu Hill said. “It feels like people aren’t scared to have that conversation. The question is: what are we going to do next?”

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