To: cutemaryanne
From: brainyalexander

Mary Anne,

How is New York City? Are you enjoying your job assisting Stacey's stepmom? I'm sure you're learning so much and having a wonderful time.

It occurs to me that I've been extraordinarily neglectful in studying for Latin Nationals. In fact, that may be a rather extreme understatement. I don't want to let our school's team down, though, so I intend to devote a little more time to it in the near future. Will you be in Stoneybrook at all before the competition? Maybe we can study together--I have a feeling I could use a bit of a push.

I miss seeing you regularly, but I hope the city is treating you well.

Alexander

Justin sat in the recital hall in Sprague Memorial Hall at Yale, halfway back in the audience, as his mom sang through the encore of her upcoming concert. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. It wasn’t that he didn’t like watching his mom sing--it amazed him, actually, how she transformed from his mom into a legitimate soprano who carried herself like a real opera singer, and he never got tired of seeing that--it was more that when he closed his eyes, this wasn’t the smaller of Yale Opera’s two performance spaces where she gave an annual concert, it was the Met, and his mom was living her dream. And even if she didn’t still wonder ‘what if’ (although he wasn’t convinced she didn’t), he did. He did for her.

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who in the game would like to inform jacqui that her dark red hair (which, dear amm, dark red hair is usually a color you get when you DYE it because dark red is a blue-based red which is not a red that EXISTS in natural hair colors, thus why jacqui's hair is DYED red, in case anyone was wondering why i have jacks as a natural blonde who screws with color--wow, overly invested, RIGHT HERE) is totally absolutely nasty and she needs to stop dying it this color??

ANY TAKERS?

i mean, she looks better in the photos with the bright red hair than she does with the dark red. lord...

PS: whenever i look at jacqui's default (seen above), I think about what Mrs. McGill and Mrs. Gentile and Mrs. Pappas must have THOUGHT when Jacqui showed up to hang with their daughters in 8th grade. HEE. And this is actually really close to canon Jacqui! AND still it lacks "nose jewelry!" I MEAN, MRS. MCGILL LET STACEY GO HANG WITH THIS CHICK. Riiiight.

(Mrs. Epstein was unfazed, clearly.)

Just in case we want to get this in today, I'll change it to whatever time when we start it

telling sharon.

Carly hit the button on the coffeemaker to brew a new pot of regular and then reached behind herself to retie her apron, which was starting to come loose. I love working mornings here. Well, other than having to get up extra early to get my yoga in, but even that isn't so bad. But I think like this, after the morning rush, even better. "Okay, educate me," she told Robert as she turned to face him expectantly.

Cokie stretched her legs out under the booth at Thelma's, frowning as they didn't touch the other seat bench, and twirled her fork around on her plate. "Okay," she announced firmly, pulling her legs back in and crossing them. Ew. It was already starting to get warm out and the bare flesh of her legs where her shorts stopped was sticking to the vinyl.

Ew. Flesh. Blinking slightly, she continued, "While meeting this early was a very clear mistake based on the ginormous bags under my eyes, I do think we are going to need regular weekend food-and-bitch sessions, Sex and the City style, to make it through next year."

With a dramatic flourish, Howie threw Seasons One of House, How I Met Your Mother and Smallville onto the floor in front of the couch in front of Erica and then draped himself over her lap and kicked his feet up onto the back of the couch. "Okay lady-dude, we can probably blast through an episode or two before I gotta take ya home. What tv series do we wanna work our way through? Lady's choice!"

Another summer night alone. Maybe the first couple times Shawna was okay with it but what was the use of having a boyfriend if he was always studying to the point of not having enough time to see her? And she couldn't ignore that pit in her stomach when she thought about what he might be doing with stupid Patricia.

But this sucked! She shouldn't be afraid to disturb her boyfriend, right? What if she was calling him right before he took his pants off with Patricia?

That did it. Grabbing her cell phone, she quickly speed dialed Rick's number and waited for him to answer, biting her nails as the rings continued.

To: miapappas
From: bradsimon

i'm at zach's if you need me. probably going to be here for awhile.

my sister and my dad suck.

i'll talk to you tomorrow.

brad

“And she’s so cute,” Anna gushed, twirling her fingers over the pencil in her hand. “I mean, not that that’s what I like about her, at least not the main part. Obviously it was what I noticed, first, but… She’s so incredibly smart, you know? She’s a research assistant for her cognitive psych professor this summer, and she gets so into it when she talks about it. I love that, when people are passionate about what they like. And--”

She cut off, biting her lip as she looked over at Claudia. “Is this weird?” she asked hesitantly. “Me talking to you about someone I’m dating?”

Brad blew out a frustrated breath. He was sitting in his car in his driveway, trying to install a stereo in it so he'd have one that actually worked without having to hit it, but was finding installing it to be harder than he thought.

He tossed the stereo over onto the passenger seat, figuring he'd just go over to his brother's later and get his help with it.

He heard a car coming up behind him and glanced in the rearview mirror to see that it was his sister's red Prius. He let out another frustrated breath, remembering that his mom had told him that morning that Amy was coming over for dinner.
( Read more... )

Justin handed the receipt to the customer who had just paid and thanked him as the man collected his plastic bag full of beef jerky and headed out of the store just as Penny Weller walked in.

"Well heeeeeeey, if it isn't my Donna Panch!" Justin greeted her. His gaze flicked quickly around the store to ascertain that it was otherwise empty and then he pushed up on the counter with a burst so that he wound up kneeling on it. "Once upon a looking-for-Donna-time," he sang loudly, fighting the urge to either jump up on his feet on the counter or jump all the way over. "There was a sixteen year old virgin! Oh Donna, oh oh Donna, oh oh oh, looking for my Donna. I just got back from looking for Donna, San Francisco--psychedelic urchin! Oh Donna, oh oh Donna, oh oh oh, looking for my Donna."

Melissa surveyed Abby's room for a moment and the flopped into the papasan chair unceremoniously. "At least all you have to pack is just this one room. Can you imagine having to pack the entire house? And you can just cram shit in boxes, right? I mean, I wouldn't, I like my stuff organized, but do you care?"

Cara sank down onto the lounge chair next to Margie and tugged at the hem of her t-shirt shirt, adjusting it slightly as she crossed her ankles and stretched her bare feet out of the ends of her jeans. She folded her arms over her stomach and glanced to the side, where Margie was sitting with a book open and her largest pair of sunglasses hiding most of her face.

Margie didn’t look up, but from her peripheral vision, took in her sister’s behavior. She hasn’t backslid in two years and she’s still that self-conscious about her body. What’s the point in trying, if you never really get better? If that’s who I’ll be, two years from now, afraid to wear a bikini, or even shorts, because I’m eating healthy and not as thin as I used to be, do I even want to?

Her stomach churned. Of course she did. Of course she wanted to be healthy. And she’d be healthy and fit.

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Possible oneshot, if I get to feeling oneshotty.

My Friday night is being spent watching Paul Blart: Mall Cop, expecting it to suck, and writing down the timecodes each time a good shot of Jayma Mays shows up. How cool am I?

Tugging on the right boot, Shannon stood up carefully and inspected her feet in the nearby mirror. So freaking cute... "So which one of you wants to take a trip to L.A. with me?" she asked, turning to Laine and Greer.

Carly knocked lightly on the doorframe of the open door and then leaned against it as she watched Leo drop things into a duffel bag. “Where are you going?” she asked him quietly. Back to Olympia?

“I don’t know,” Leo shrugged as he turned to pull another stack of clothes out of his dresser. “Just not here.”

Carly didn’t say anything, letting her head fall against the frame. What could she say? She didn’t blame him, exactly, just wished he was deciding otherwise.

Leo looked up when she didn’t answer. “Probably staying with a buddy across town,” he told her. “At least for now.”

Carly’s eyes lit up. “You’re not going back to Washington?”

“Not yet,” Leo answered. “I don’t know who has room for me.”

“You didn’t line something up in advance?” she asked him, her hand sliding into her back pocket. That’s a good sign, right? For winter break, he had a backup plan in case she came home.

“I didn’t think she’d come,” Leo told her, meeting her eyes and not looking away. “She hasn’t even been calling you, and she actually likes you. I figured she was gone for a good nine months, like that time when I was in sixth grade.”

Carly’s mouth opened just a tiny bit. “She likes you too,” she whispered.

Leo shrugged. “Does it matter? We can’t live in the same house. We fight. And even if she likes me, she sure doesn’t respect me. Or any of us.”

Carly didn’t answer again. There was no way to win in this situation. No right answer, no person to side with or against, nothing reassuring to say, no way to defend her mom or her brother.

“Maybe I’ll try to stick around,” he added once he realized Carly really wasn’t going to respond, returning to his packing. “Maybe not. I’ll let you know before I take off, if I do, though.”

Carly nodded, even though he was no longer looking. He had listened to what she said before, and to what she hadn’t said but wanted to say, about needing him. With Mom, I think she runs toward things, not away from things. But with Leo, I… if he’s running away from her… Then again, sometimes you have to. Sometimes you just have to have space to be who you are.

“Thank you,” she whispered finally.

Leo looked up, detouring on his way back to his bag, and stepped over to her to kiss the top of her head. Then, without saying a word, he returned to packing. And Carly stood and watched.

To: davidgriffin
From: cutemaryanne

Hi David!

I'm going to be in town this weekend through Tuesday, so I was wondering if you'd like to have that double date maybe on Monday night? There's a concert at the ampitheatre that should be a lot of fun, so maybe...we go to the concert at eight and then get some dessert after?

Let me know what you think!

:)
Mary Anne

Carly carefully dried her hands on the towel next to her utility sink, not even wincing as the terry cloth rubbed against her raw fingertips, which she’d just scrubbed with a brush to make sure all the clay was gone. She started toward the stairs, glancing quickly once more at the large clock hanging on the basement wall. Okay, I have maybe fifteen minutes to change clothes and eat something and then I have to leave. Do I have time to warm up the palak paneer? Probably not without using the microwave and that’s-- yuck.

She pushed open the door from the basement into the kitchen and stopped short, holding onto the doorknob.

( Read more... )

Hearing the doorbell ring, Emily shut her laptop and walked over to the front door to open it, and managed a small smile as she saw Cary on her front step. "Hey," she said nervously, opening the door to let him in. "How are you?"

Anna rubbed her eyes with one hand as the other slid over the touchpad on her laptop, scrolling through the search results in front of her. I don’t understand how there can be absolutely zero information about who distributes this movie. Where’s the official site? Why doesn’t LionsGate even have a page for it anymore? After clicking back over to the LionsGate Films tab and searching again for ‘Lost and Delirious’ without any luck, and then once more skimming the website she had found explaining how to obtain rights to screen films in general, she blew out a breath and pushed the computer away.

“How am I supposed to satisfy the community center’s requirement that we have legal permission to screen all these films for the film festival if I can’t even figure out how?” she asked out loud, leaning as far back as she could in her desk chair and looking up at the ceiling, her head tilted back until it was past parallel with the ground.

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TO: alex_zacharias
FROM: hepstein

Did I leave my pants in your car???

to be done AFTER the one shot.

Abby got out of her Explorer and turned to stare at the house in front of her. Behind her, the Long Island Sound crashed gently onto the long, flat beach, the house's dark windows looking out at the water. She stared at it, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. So. This would be it.

Our new home.

Her face pale and sallow, with dark circles under her eyes, Jacqui drifted into the mini-mart, her shoulders curled in as she stared down at the floor. Ignoring the suspicious look of the clerk who knew Jacqui as a habitual shoplifter, she went straight to the counter and quietly asked for a pack of Marlboro Reds, sliding a five dollar bill and some quarters over without making eye contact.

Without comment, the clerk gave her the pack of cigarettes--knowing Jacqui was underage, but really, who cared at this point, it was her--and put the change on the counter. Jacqui ignored it, turning back and heading out of the shop, still watching her feet shuffling across the tile. Once she left the sliding doors, she ripped the cellphane off and slid a cigarette out, slumping to the sidewalk and leaning against the brick wall of the shop, lighting the cigarette and taking a long drag, fixated on a crack on the concrete, staring so intently and so blankly, she didn't notice Brad approach.

"Brendan has a pool," Bailey said, out of the blue, as David turned his car down the street towards her friend Brendan's house.

"I kind of figured," David laughed. He glanced down at her. "You know, since you're wearing your bathing suit?" And because she's been dancing around the house all morning singing about how she's going swimming at Brendan's, which has put 'I'm Going Swimming At Brendan's' stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

"He said that we can play boats, and he has a basketball hoop," Bailey continued, then waved out the window as they pulled up to his house. David looked into the yard as he pulled his car into the driveway, seeing the little boy who he recognized from Bailey's birthday party and other things that her class had done throughout the year.

Brendan, who had been playing with a remote control car on their front sidewalk, waved to Bailey as he made the car spin in circles.

"Don't forget your towel and stuff in the backseat," David told Bailey as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out. "And you remember our phone number, right?"

"Uh huh," Bailey said, opening the back door and getting her bag. "Do you want to get out?"

"That's ok," he said. While Bailey loved the fact that his wheelchair was light enough for her to pick up, David didn't like her doing it, so he figured he could stay in the car. He looked over as Bailey ran to Brendan, then glanced over to the front porch, where an older girl was sitting. After a moment, he realized who it was. Well, almost who it was.

He rolled down his window, not sure which of the twins it was, but hoping that his first guess was right. "Mariah?" he asked.

Art history lectures were just dull sometimes. There were days where Jeremy was fascinated at the offering of the slides, and some days where he wanted to off himself. This section on Chinese art history was no exception.

But he had already paid the tuition to take this class, which was an attempt to give him something to do at SU other than attend their parties. Besides, he didn’t want to give his mom the satisfaction that he didn’t have anything to do this summer other than visit her.

But he snapped out of his thoughts as he recognized the person that had just walked into the classroom and narrowed his eyes. That girl who bummed a cigarette off of me…

Only she wasn’t a girl – she was Annabelle Clausen, the newest Art History professor in the department and today’s guest lecturer and – holy shit he got hit on by a professor? How old exactly was she?

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"Ack!" Laine yelped, as the toe of her right ankle boot stumbled over a tree root and sent her to the ground with a thud."Shit," she groaned, wiping a sweaty strand of hair from her forehead. She curled her arms around herself. "I fucking hate nature."

When Andrew had called her up on Saturday, Laine jumped at the chance to spend more time with him. He'd been rather reticent when it came to asking her out, despite the coy looks and bared cleavage. Perhaps the additional exposure would push him in the right direction. Unfortunately, Laine didn't realize she'd be waking up at the crack of down to hike up a mountain. To plant trees. And pick up garbage.

Realizing Laine had fallen behind, Andrew quickly jogged back. Seeing her sprawled across the trail, he kneeled down beside her. "Are you okay, Laine?" He asked with much concern as he helped her sit up.

Laine swallowed a curse and forced a cheery smile. "Of course," she replied gaily. "Just had a bit of a tumble over a tree root." She glared at her ankle boots. With its kitten heel and suede upper, they seemed like the most practical choice last night.
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To: davereporter
From: woodyjefferson

Dude. It is the summer and I have barely seen you. Little Miss Shits and Giggles keeping you that busy?

I request manly bonding time. It is essential.

The Woodster

Stifling a yawn, Shannon raised her eyebrows in surprise as she walked into the kitchen and saw her father sitting at the kitchen table. “You’re home early,” she commented lightly as she reached for the refrigerator door and removed the bottle of pomegranate green tea that she had asked Hilda to buy the other day.

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a very important oneshot

To: em_bernstein
From: retlin

Em,

Do you have any free time tomorrow? How do I even explain this whole stupid situation with my bitch mom and with Kristy "I don't know what privacy is" Thomas? There's some...stuff going on and I just need to talk.

Maybe get some advice. I want to call you. I want to call you and explain it, but I'm still not on control of my temper. I need to lay low until I get over the damn bi-.

RJ sat down on a bench in the carry-out area at Pizza Express, having just put in an order for two large pizzas to take over to his dad's. He was already thinking longingly about the large barbeque chicken and bacon pizza he'd ordered, knowing that he'd probably end up eating a couple of slices on the way to his dad's place. There was nothing better.

He opened the 20-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew he'd bought, and downed half of it, leaning back against the wall, not noticing as someone else walked in.

"I'm just not comfortable with it," Shelley Gentile announced for approximately the thousand-th time in this conversation. Not for the first time, Andi just dropped her head into her arms on the kitchen table and sighed loudly. It had started being her go to response about halfway through her mama's spiel. Drop your head into your arms, buy some time to collect your thoughts and then go.

Shelley shot a pleading look at her husband to back her up... but as Andi had just dropped her head into her arms, Brian just shook his head and picked up his plate from the table in preparation of making his exit. Brian didn't remember how to deal with defiant, belligerent version of his daughter. She hadn't been like this since back in middle school when she was hanging out with those girls. In truth, Andi was still hanging out with those girls and it was just Andi who had changed... but Brian couldn't see that. ( It was Shelley's thing to deal with. )