Hey y'all!

I just discovered this thread, such a great idea! Can I join on the Famous First Lines since we have until the 20th or is it only for players who have already proved themselves?

You are more than welcome to post here!
It's only starting new, open RPs that there's any restrictions are.
Looking forward to reading it!

lana - glad to have you join in here! Yeah, I'd love to see what you want to write for Deborah here Also, if you want to fulfill any of the previous prompts for fun (check the first post in the thread) then feel free to do so.

((OOC: Thanks I might do it, sounds like fun!

Since I've read a week ago L'étranger of Camus and I absolutely loved it, I had to choose it. I was so inspired that I had to write it even if it ended up to be only for myself It's a little dark but with that theme it was hard not to. Sorry for my awful English too, I hope you'll still enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here is an excerpt of Deb's diary)

Mother died today.

She committed suicide a year ago but the awful truth struck me today: My mother is dead. At least to me. I know that since her heart is probably still beating I'm not entitled to say that, to feel that. I'm supposed to be the lucky one. But who are they to tell me what I'm supposed to feel! They say that death is the cessation of someone's body function, the end of his consciousness. And in a way, it is. But what does it really mean?

Death means loosing someone that we loved and that we will never be able to see again. And there's all these feelings that violently take a hold of you : grief, anger, sorrow, sometimes also mixed with guilt, betrayal, astonishment and the search for answers that you'll probably never get. Well, I share the same exact feelings. Don't we say to kids that are mourning that the loved one has left them for a better world? Well, my mother left for a better life. It may be entirely different for her but for me, it changed nothing at all.

As sudden as my realization was, the process was really slow, one thing at a time. If think it started with something as tiny as a sensation of something odd, misplaced. Everything was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. I was lying in my bed and I rolled myself on the right side wrapping my duvet around me like I always do. As my eyes peered around at my room one last time before finally closing them to sleep, I tried to understand what felt wrong. All my stuff was here. Shyni, my poor little doll that I have from so long I can't even remember was eying at me with the only one she got left from the bookshelf where she laid next to my favorite books; my first camera, the girly pink camera ornamented with paste jewelery that my mother gave me for my 3rd birthday was hanging on the knob of the closet; and above my desk the pictures of our happy days were mocking me. I closed the eyes and I knew suddenly what it was: the noise! Everything was abnormally silent. No cry, no yelling. Nothing. I could hear myself thinking so loudly now. That was frightening. I raised from my bed, caught my CD player, and filled my ears with the loudest music I could find to shout them out.

Then littles things added up one on each other. Day-to-day little things evolved leading to another routine. All the little habits, like putting four plates when I was laying the table, running to mum to ask her to help with my unruly thick hair, jumping on the couch where my parents where cuddling in an attempt to get their attention back, hearing her laugh, that loud flashing laugh that made me feel safe, all of this was insidiously replaced. And one day Lucas stopped calling for mommy but called for me.

Today was nevertheless an ordinary day, a day like any other since a long time. Today, I awoke, went to school, laugh with my friends, did my duties and when all was over, I went to bed. And just as I slipped into my bed, I looked at the pictures and realized that I spent an entire day without thinking about her once, not only for one second, not even as a faded memory. As if I had forgotten about her, as she didn't exist anymore.

Mother died today.

((OOC: I figured that I could deepen a little bit more Deb's background so here is a crucial moment of her life that took place in NY))

It was love at first sight.

It was love at first sight. That pure and innocent love that only child can experience. She was a brave, level-headed, conciliatory and tender-hearted 7 year's old girl who drove her parents mad by rescuing every injured animal she could come across. They finally had to resolve buying a cage to keep all these new home residents, pigeons mostly, safe even if she suspected now that it was probably more intended to keep the house safe from their excrements. The day they met, Deborah was on one of her famous rescue mission, fighting for the sake of a blind dog who hadn't had enough strength left in his old members to offer any resistance against the kids that were torturing him. Alec happened to be going by this street that day and the rescuer had been rescued in its turn. He was exactly 1 year 7 month and 23 days older than her. What could have been opposite turned out to be complementary and this overconfident, willful, spontaneous and impish young boy became her other one. They spent hours in their spot, playing, bickering, or even simply silently enjoying each other's presence.

Several years passed by and their vow of never part from each other was long broken. He was now QB1 of the high-school team and his life revolved around football, girls, his friends and parties while she was a shutterbug who was hanged out with the geeks and her life revolved around grades, the library, her job, and her family. Freak of fortune dictated that what initially brought them together would inexorably be keeping them apart and they now evolved in opposite worlds, almost unaware of each other.

How could he forget about it? Am I that insignificant to him? I wish I could hate him. It would be so much easier... were the thoughts that ran through Deborah's mind as her steps led her once more to the little square that was once their spot. She felt secured there and like to take refuge in it whenever life's harsh lessons took over her. It was always pretty much deserted as the big square besides it draw most of the hood's locals. The sight of the rusty seesaw draw a smile on her lips. This thing was responsible for a really memorable fall. It wasn't memorable because of the fact that it was painful but rather because it happened in the most humiliating way possible, as she suddenly was lying on the floor, her dress rode up to her stomach. And of course, Alec haven't missed any opportunities he got to tease her about the Mickey panties she were wearing this day.

As she moved toward she noticed the back of a lonely figure seated on one of the bench that she recognized immediately. It was Alec. If there was one thing that she would never have expected, is to find him here and she was unsure about what behavior she should adopt right now. What am I am supposed to do now? Just go back? Talk to him? Ignore him? And what the hell is he doing here? She had to know.

She sat silently next to him. If he was surprised to see her here, he didn't showed it as he stayed perfectly still placidly contemplating the skyline. His voice finally shattered the silence that surrounded them:

“ I didn't expected to see you here. Don't you have something to celebrate?”

Celebrate... How weird that a person with whom she hadn't even exchanged a word in four years remembered these things better than her own father. She was celebrating it, in her own way. After all, turning to sixteen is leaving your kid's life and turn to a grown-up person. What better location to say good-bye to her childhood than here. She replied adopting the same laid-back attitude that he had:

“ This place is perfectly appropriate for that... What is your excuse?

“ Just processing about stuff”.

She turned a scrutinizing gaze on him. His answers were laconic but his tone indicated that he didn't mind to pursue the conversation either so she added : “What's the matter?”

A hint of mischief diffused on his eyes as they caught hers:

“ Since when do you care about some butthead jock issues?”

“ Since when do you talk to nerds?”

He shot a smile at her and, carelessly putting his arm over the bench to face her, carried on :

“ So what's up tufty, are you still dating the wacko?”

Tufty... wow, that brought back a lot of memories. She couldn't help but grin. It was a long time ago. She must have been 8. He had offered her favorite candies, a crispy chocolate sweet filled with a yummy melting fudge and she had stuffed herself with them so much that he joked about the fact that she looked like tufty, his hamster. Tufty died but the silly nickname survived.

“ His name is Antony and no, I don't. Not that it's any of your business”.

An ironic smile slided over his lips. “ C'mon, I'm curious. I'm sure that was hot between you guys! What happened? You got tired of cheering him up during his chess contests or whatever you geeks are into ?”

He obviously haven't got out of the habit of teasing her. She snapped back, trying to hide her amusement “ Ah ah...very funny... You can wipe that smile off your face, cause I'm not going to talk about that with you ”

Alec shrugged “ Suits yourself” and turned his attention back to the skyline. He seemed to be brooding for a few second before adding: “You know, I don't get how you can hang out with these losers. Tough I shouldn't be surprised. You always loved to pick up charity cases so I guess you went from animals to dorks. That's pretty close ”.

Now, that was offensive. Her voice came out cold: “And I don't get how I can lose my time right now talking to a moron”.

He led an inquisitive glance at her, as if he was trying to weight how she would react to his words : “ Look, you deserve better. That's all I meant”.

Deborah raised from the bench in a failed attempt to hide her irritation. Better? Really? And that better was supposed to be what? Some bored full of their own importance kids who couldn't find better occupation than to mess around everyone and waste themselves? When she finally turned around, her pretty eyes were ironically contemplating him “ Better... oh, you mean reach out to your level and jerking around people for fun… maybe making some pranks like the one you did to Caitlin? I guess calling her porky wasn't enough for you?"

He rose up to her level, visibly amused by the whole scene : “C'mon, that was just a joke. I never prey upon the wuss but she was practically begging for it, always stalking me, behind my back like a dog waiting for his stick... It was getting so lame... I just made my point”

Alec didn't even seemed to feel any regret. He never was a sensitive boy but now, this was just pure nastiness and she was starting to be pissed at him :

“ She is not only the sweetest girl I know of, she was also your friend once and you couldn't think of a better way to make your point? The boy I knew would never have done that”

His tone instantly shifted from amused to icy :

“ Caitlin has never been my friend, she was yours. But you're right, you don't know me anymore and that's on you... So do me a favor and stop being so judgy”

His words struck her like a sharpened knife: “Oh my god, you blame me for that?”

“ YOU were the one who ditched me... First, you stood me up and you didn't even cared enough to apologize or explain yourself, damn it. And then every-time I talked to you, you were distant. You needed space, well, I got your message. So don't you dare tell me I'm the bad guy here. You got away from me, not the opposite”

Deborah couldn't control herself anymore and all these feelings long repressed emerged, taking a hold of her. Her gaze darkened, filled with anger as she snapped out: “Un-f*cking-believable! You're the most self-centered person I ever met. You pretended to be my friend, and you never even thought that there might be a good reason for the way I withdrawn into myself like that? No, it had to be about you...Wanna know the reason now? ”, she pursued unaware of the tears that slowly arose from her eyes as she was pulling her heart out at him, “ I just found out that my brother was sick and that he was never going to get better. Oh! And my mother? She just vanished! One day she was here with all her her great speeches about the fact that I was her precious little girl and the next one, she was gone!”, her voice was shaking with anger and sorrow, “So yeah, I'm really sorry I wasn't paying attention to you when you went on and on about how much fun you had with your friends and I'm sorry I bailed on you but you... You swore you would be there for me, you were everything to me and you left me. All alone. I needed you and you left me!”

He had remained strangely quiet, staring gently at her. And as he came closer to her, his arms slowly slided around her in a comforting hug :

“ I didn't know, I'm sorry. I'm here now”.

Her first instinct was to resist but all her anger had vanished and resting her head against his chest as tears were now freely running through her cheeks, she surrendered.

((OOC: To be continued eventually if you guys like it))

Great post, lana As soon as Deb and Alec sat down and started talking, I could tell a lot about their characters from the way you wrote their dialog and reactions to each other. I'd love to read the continuation when you have time for it.

Indeed, lana. I have to agree with everything robokitty said. Excellent post.

Ok, moving on to the next OOC Prompt. Because it looks like several people participating in the last prompt still had sections they needed to finish, please feel free to post another entry in that prompt even though we've moved on. (In fact, I have a post that's half-written for the last entry that I'll probably post in a day or two.)



OOC PROMPT 09: Motivational Posters

Create a motivational poster for one of your (or someone else's) characters. It can be satirical, goofy, or just plain accurate. I'm going to give this prompt about 1 month based on the rate of the last one and because this one does take a little bit of effort and image editing skills.

If you need an image editor btw, Paint should suffice for this. Or you can use:
http://www.gimp.org/







To get us started off with examples, I made a few

((Post from the last prompt.

This obviously takes place some time in the future. Probably in college, though maybe a little earlier or maybe a little later.))


Someone must have slandered Esteban Morales, for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.

When the doorbell rang a little after 11am, Esteban woke up surrounded by books and beer bottles. He stirred awake, wiping the crust from his groggy eyes. In his sleep he had rolled over onto one of the books, and it was digging into his back. Grumbling, he pulled it out from underneath him and tossed it onto the floor. It tumbled onto the floor like a dead bird fluttering then landed with its title staring face-up.

Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads

He didn't know why his girlfriend put so much stock in these shitty books. It's not like raising kids was going to be rocket science. He had more important shit to worry about other than raising kids--providing for them looked like it was going to be far more of an issue. And besides, why did he need advice from a bunch of crusty, old white people?

But, azucarita didn't feel the same way despite how many times he told her she was overreacting and being stupid and emotional. And after their last "conversation" ended in a shower of tears, multiple objects being thrown at him, along with a threat to call off their shotgun elopement (which he knew she didn't really mean), he decided he might as well skim the fucking thing so he'd at least be able to BS his way through their next conversation. So, he'd been up reading it till 3am... or maybe later... he couldn't tell since he'd lost track of when he fell asleep.

The doorbell rang again, and he rolled off the bed, grabbing the nearest pair of pants on the floor and shaking them on. He stumbled through his apartment and past the cluttered living room. He could hear his roomate's television playing through his door. He leaned into it and grumbled:

"What the fuck? You can't answer the door?"

"I'm busy." came his roomate's lame excuse.

Esteban rolled his eyes, and spotted a bong that had long since burnt out was sitting on the coffee table. He picked it up, knocked on his roomate's door, and shove it into him. "Hide that shit."

After his roomate nodded and disappeared behind his door, the doorbell rang again. Jesus f***in' Christ. If this was another fucking Jehovah's Witness, he was gonna tear them a new one. Esteban trudged across the living room, and opened the door. His eyes widened, and something in his gut told him something wasn't right. Two police officers standing outside. He hadn't done anything that bad for a while now. Maybe they were here for his roommate?

"I'm officer Jensen, and this is officer Morrow." A tall brunette woman with a severe look introduced herself and motioned to her partner, a slightly shorter, robust black woman. "Are you Esteban Morales?"

He hesitated and then answered, "...uh-yeah?"

"I have a warrant for your arrest," she said, flashing a sheet of paper before him. He took it, dumbfounded, and squinted at it.

"Stand against the wall with your hands behind your head."

"What the f***? I didn'--"

"Failure to cooperate with an officer of the law is a criminal offense and will only exacerbate your situation."

"Exacerbate my--what fucking situation? I didn't do nothing." He looked down, skimming the document. "What is this? 'Terror watch list?'"

"Mr. Morales," Jensen said with an irritated tone in her voice. She put her hand on her hip, resting it over her baton. "Stand against the wall with your hands behind your head."

F***! He hadn't done anything wrong! F***! F*** f*** f*** f*** s***! He crumpled the warrant into a tight ball and angrily tossed it at her feet. Then, he laced his fingers behind his head and turned into the wall. The other officer, Morrow, began reading his Miranda rights.

You have the right to remain silent...

"This is such bulls***," Esteban growled as Jensen patted him roughly down the sides.

...Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney...

She patted down the inside of his legs and in-between them, and he jumped. "'Hey! Watchete!"

"We speak English here, Mr. Morales."

"That was English, cunt."

...If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you...

"Just stay still," Jensen snapped. She grabbed one of his wrists and twisted his arm behind his back, then did the same with the other and cuffed him harder than necessary. When she was done, she backed away, dusting off her hands.

...Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you? Morrow finished and looked at Esteban, impatiently waiting for his answer.

He glared at her.

"Answer her question." Jensen said severely.

He faked a thick Mexican accent, "Ay... ah... no unnerstand."

"Maybe we should call La Migra instead," Jensen smirked.

"Maybe you should suck my balls."

"Aww... what do you think Morrow? Does he understand his rights?"

"I think so." Morrow nodded.

The officers walked him outside to the police car, shoved him in the back, and slammed the door shut. They stood outside for several minutes, leaving Esteban waiting for them to return. He kept wondering the how the hell we was going to explain this to his girlfriend. She was going to f***ing kill him.

He glanced outside at the two cops. They had just finished talking to one another. Morrow circled to the front of the car and climbed into the driver's seat. Jensen, however, strutted to the opposite door in the backseat and climbed in next to Esteban. Her head was lowered, and her police hat concealed her face from him, but she had a knowing smile on her lips. She raised her head. As soon as her eyes appeared under the brim of her hat, they smouldered at him through her thick lashes.

It all clicked together. Esteban glanced at the car's interior, and was it just his imagination, or was the backseat of this cop car a little bigger than what he was used to? And... wait... were the windows of this car tinted? And didn't Rafael mention something last month about how Esteban needed one last hurrah--a bachelor's party to celebrate life before it got shot to hell by an unexpected bundle of mucous and joy?

"Esteban Morales, you've been a very bad man," she scolded him with a naughty smile creeping across her lips. She tossed off her cap and shook her head. Long, glamorous tresses cascaded over her shoulders.

Morrow revved up the car and started backing out of the driveway, and Jensen grabbed a handle on the car's roof. She stood up. Her hips swayed the way that only strippers can make them move, and she gave him a good view of her body. She thumbed open the buttons on her uniform, revealing her whimper-inducing cleavage in a push-up black bra--the kind that made a man think he might get a glimpse of nipple if only she bent the right way.

Esteban shifted; his jeans were becoming uncomfortable. He leaned back and widened his legs, scooting his ass along the seat to adjust them. Jensen unbuttoned her uniform down to her navel. Her eyes moved deliberately down his body to his crotch, and lingered there hungrily. She bit her lip, and glanced up at his face. Their eyes met. He grinned.

Another great prompt! I laughed so hard on matt's one

And I loved the turnaround in Esteban post. I actually felt sorry for him before reaching the end of it :P

((OOC: removed for editing))

Hehe, thanks lana. I couldn't tell how obvious the turn-around was going to be when I was writing it. I'm looking forward to your next update with Deb.



Here's another poster for the new prompt:

*lol* These are really great. Only wish I could think of some, but I'm just drawing blanks.

Atropa - hehe, thanks. Well, I'm keeping this prompt up for a while, so I'm hoping that's long enough for people to stumble across a picture on the net that reminds them of something in the RP (or go looking for one).

gears: LOL. I want to point out that I would totally date either of those two guys on the bottom one. Diego's arms are kinda nice... I mean, unless the reason they don't have girlfriends is too much homoerotic tension.

Loved all of yours, epic stuff :D
Nowhere near as funny, but figured I'd contribute:

Do I really need to say who? :p

Why was Loren the owl on the right?
He's the one who's seeing everything properly, Cynthia's just nuts and doesn't read enough scripts!

And the Jude and Donnie one! Also confusing. That is the sort of thing that chicks dig! (If you know the right chicks)

And I won't admit how very, very often the minesweeper one happens to me.

*giggles*

I love that Matt & bridal party one. And is it just me or does Donatello look a little pedo-turtle in that pic? Also, the sports one... That's pretty much the only reason I joined judo in high school.


Furry - Loren's the one on the right because I imagine Cynthia makes the one on the left's expression A LOT more than he does :D


I wanted to do one for Deb, but I was having some trouble thinking of a good one. This is all I could come up with for her martyr-like ways...



And another one for Donnie/Nora:

Robokitty, I laughed so much with Deb one. Especially since I was going for the same type of thing for her. She's just too nice sometimes :



And another one for fun:



Yours are all just too funny I wish mine were half as good but what matters is to try your best, right ? :D

Here's another one:



That's all I could find for Deb. I'll probably have to find another more inspiring target :P

lana - hehe, nice ones It actually took me a couple seconds to remember Chewie. I kept thinking, "Wait... Chewbacca? When was Chewbacca in--ohhhhhh."

Also, I saw that you edited your other post and was going to comment on it, but it looks like you took it down for more editing. I'm looking forward to reading it again when you're through, and go ahead and post it as a new reply in this thread so that people can see it.

Haha, I love all the posters so far!
My epic fail of a poster:



It was a lot harder to find pictures than I thought it would be!

((OOC: This is the closing chapter of Deb's story of the last prompt))


They've secretly kept seeing each other. A line had been crossed and everything was now different, complicated. She haven't talked about it to anyone, not even to her best friends. Especially not to them. She could only picture their reaction. Caitlin would probably felt betrayed and Maura. Well. Given that she was engaged on a personal feud against him since Caitlin prank, the last episode occurring at lunch when he spilled all her tray's contents on her clothes by a supposedly unwitting push, she would probably not welcome that news. Not taking sides was really hard and at times, she felt like she wasn't supportive enough of her friends but she didn't wanted to get dragged into an useless public confrontation with him either. Telling Maura was just out of the question. It was nobody's business anyway.

Besides, what would she say? She was still unable to express it clearly for herself so what would she say to someone else? Since it started, they never really seriously talked about it. It was not a no-strings relationship, since she made it pretty clear that if he just wanted a fucking buddy he would have to go looking somewhere else but it was not a conventional one either and she didn't really cared about it. What good naming what was going on between them would do, huh? For her, naming is equal to defining. And defining might give some insight but it's also reductive. If you take a dog, for example. Saying that it's a dog allow you to know a lot of things about it: that it is an animal, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora that has usually four legs, and a whole other list of characteristics. But then it's just a dog. All that she knew was that when she was with him, she was herself and that she felt carefree once again. He was challenging. She knew him probably better than anyone else but he still managed to surprise her, to make her forget about her burden and that's all that mattered. So no, she didn't even knew exactly what was going on between them nor did she wanted to. And now was even less the time to think about how she felt about him. What was the point? Realizing how much it will hurt to lose him? Again. Burying her feelings and pretending that everything was fine like she always did was way easier.

She had almost left the hallway when a familiar voice stopped her:

"Hey beauty!"

Great... the school dickhead wants to put up his favorite show with me as his special guest. I wonder what stupid line he's gonna use. She didn't have the time and she was definitely not in the mood to play these dumb-ass games. Alec was probably already there waiting for her, so she had to quickly get rid of him. She didn't even bothered to stop and kept walking as he quickened his step to catch up with her :

"Nice legs. When do they open?"

Very inventive... Another one who pictured her as an easy target just because she was nice. Sure, she was nice and would rather avoiding conflicts unless they're necessary but that didn't mean that she was defenseless. In the contrary, having to figure out everything by herself and having to rely only on herself at such a young age gave her enough self-confidence to trust that she was able to take care of herself just fine. Needless to say that this kind of lame comment had absolutely no chance of affecting her in any way.

"Nice mouth. When does it shut?" she replied without even bothering to glance at him.

But this wasn't sufficient to kick him out as he kept going: "You like to play hard to get, huh?"

Deborah snickered : "Yeah, you totally got me"
That doesn't bothered him at all as he went on, his thin lips now displaying a cocky smile: "So, what would it take to get a little kiss from you?"

Irony had visibly no effect on him. She should have realized that he was probably too dumb to detect it. She tried a third approach hoping that he would get the hint this time :"Chloroform".

He finally halted, mumbling a pathetic : "bitch"

Good lord, he finally got it! It was about time... As she pursued her way she prudently glanced back to make sure that he wasn't following her anymore. The way was clear. Good. Now all she had to do is take a deep breath and prepare mentally for what lay ahead. She was torn between the excitement of seeing him and the reluctance of having to assume the role of bearer of bad news.

When she opened the door, he was as predicted already there, lazily leaned back against one the wall of the deserted swimming-pool locker room, apparently in a good mood. She approached silently and as their eyes met his grin had faded considerably as he realized that the -I need to see you - message he received earlier wasn't going to be necessarily a pleasant one. He automatically moved toward her, with his famous seductive smile carved onto his face :

"Look, if it is about earlier, I'm sorry"

Earlier? Oh yeah, the lunch incident! If only it was that... She smirked: "Liar"

"Alright, I'm not sorry. But I'm sorry you witnessed it", he admitted without departing from his smile.

Deborah couldn't help but to adopt a quizzical smile on that one "Yeah, I bet you are... You know there's a thing called self-questioning. You should try it sometimes"

"Hum... don't know 'bout that. Sounds boring", he shrugged.

Alec really knew how to carry the role of the fatuous jock to perfection. That was sometimes troubling how much it felt true. She sighed: "What am I doing with you?"

He frowned : "Well, let me think..." before adding devilishly " Didn't we sleep together once? Or was it twice?"

Boys... do they love to brag about that... She scoffed back:

"It must have been once. I never make the same mistake twice"

"Ouch you're hurting my feelings now", he replied with a faked offended voice.

She raised an eyebrow: "So you have feelings? That's good to know".

He was definitely not in the mood for a serious conversation but as much as she enjoyed bantering with him she couldn't keep doing as if nothing was happening. She was leaving and as much as she wanted to just brush aside that fact, she needed to face it.

"We need to talk", all amusement had definitely departed from her traits as the words squeezed out of her mouth.

He casted a scrutinizing look at her before answering:

"All right"

Deborah felt suddenly wordless, as if all the words that were rushing into her head suddenly disconnected from her body. Oh god, how should I announce that? I could joke about it. Like: Oh, by the way I'm leaving. T'was nice meeting you... I'm not sure he would take it well. Maybe I could just say that I'm moving? Nope too blunt… Shoot, he's looking at me, expecting me to tell him about it. I really have to say something now. She swallowed and throbbed hastily " I.. I don't know how to put that... hum. You know that I told you that it was difficult for me these days. Well, it got worse. My father had to sell the house and got us a new place to live. But, it's miles away from here". He remained silent, impassive and even if she knew it was probably a facade it was enough to disconcert her and she began to falter "So... what I'm trying to say is that I have to leave soon".

" When?", he replied in a muffled voice.

"Tomorrow", she confessed reluctantly.

"Tomorrow? And you're telling me now?", he snapped out.

She felt the warm of a blush spread to her cheeks :"I just... I'm sorry... I know that I should have talked about it before but, I guess I didn't wanted to acknowledge it. I was hoping that something would happened. Some kind of miracle. That I wouldn't have to leave... I know it's silly" But as she was talking she noticed that he retreated again into a mutinous silence and was avoiding her glance. She slowly slided closer to him and stretched up to catch his sight:

"Talk to me"

" What do you want me to say... I mean... it's not as if I could do anything about it, is it?" he snapped back in a tone betraying his irritation.

As Alec fell back into an evocative silence she was trying her best to hold back her tears. She knew this was gonna be hard but she didn't expected it to be that heart-breaking. She knew how powerless he felt His frustration and anger echoed hers. She understood how upset he was about it but taking it out on her was unfair. It was not as if she could do something about it either. The pang she felt spreaded out insidiously and she really didn't want to break down in front of him. If it was all that he had to say, there was no reason for her to linger here. But as she was about to turn aside from him, she felt his arms surrounding her and bringing her closer in a firm embrace. She couldn't help but to nuzzle her face into his neck, elated with the sudden proximity, inhaling the heady scent of his skin and feeling the warmth of his breath on her nape one more time. He whispered to her ear:

"I'm sorry"

And as she raised her eyes to immerse them into his own, all trace of anger had disappeared from his glance, replaced by lust. He eagerly claimed her lips, squeezing her even closer to him as their kiss deepened and she gave herself over to his kiss, feeling her breath dangerously speeding. As their lips finally parted, casting off the urge to playfully nip his skin she pulled herself slightly away from him to a secure distance in an attempt to recover her senses. The only thought that emerged from her clouded brain was that she wanted to dwell on that moment, stay in his arms just a little bit longer. But another thought emerged as she came to the sore realization that the more she would stay, the more it will kindle her feelings towards him and the harder it would be to leave. Carefully avoiding his sight, she let her voice out in a tone that she was unsuccessfully striving to keep firm:

" So, I guess this is good-bye"

After a brief silence his voice raised again, and his tone had recovered his infamous teasing nature:

"You're not going to cry on me, right, cause last time you were rubbing your snotty nose on my shirt."

"No I did not-...", she tried to interject, but he just kept going;

"... That was gross."

"That was tears-"

"... no it was worse than gross, you're just... dirty... And I mean it in a bad way"

"Shut up!", she chuckled. He had once more succeeded in bringing a smile to her face at the most unexpected moment with his very "personal" way of cheering her up. He returned her smile and they stared at each other in one of these wordless moment where time stretched until she finally regained time consciousness. She directed a faint smile at him:

" I should go. I've got to help packing".

As she drifted away from him, he caught her hand:

"This ain't good-bye. I'll wait for you"

If he had told her this years ago she would probably have believed it. But the age of innocence was long gone and too many wounds had turned her into a hard-headed person. She knew this was just a sweet lie. She would be away from him for a long time and with the swarm of girls who were hanging round him like bees around honey, he'd certainly broke his word at some point. She had not been enough for her mother to stay, she wasn't enough for her father to care. Why would she be enough for him to wait?

She softly replied "Yes it is" before getting out of his grip and disappearing.

((OOC: I'm sure there's still a lot of room for improvement and I'm still not 100% happy about it but I'll probably never be so here it is))

Great new posters y'all

Here are my new attempts:

The first one is dedicated to all the football players and the second one for Loren.

((OOC: Pardon if I didn't even pretend to use a first line
This takes place several months after the last post))

"Jo? What's wrong? Jo?" Charles called, pounding on the door to the bathroom that she had locked for some reason. She didn't answer, except to continue with a high pitched keening that was coming from the back of her throat. This wasn't happening, she just needed to get up and look at that little stick again, fix her pants, and then it wouldn't be true. That stick wouldn't be blue, or the box wouldn't say that blue meant...

There was a metallic clicking sound as Charles broke the lock of his own house, and if either of them had bothered to look they would have seen fine metallic dust littering the threshold of the bathroom. Charles rushed to her side and kneeled next to her, an expression of panic in his face. "What's wrong, what's wrong," he muttered, looking around frantically. Finally he noticed her one hand clenched into a fist, and Jo nervelessly let him open her hand up and take the pregnancy test out of her hand.

He stood up and went to pick up the box on the counter top, leaving her lying on the floor without his comforting, if trembling arms. Her whining took on another tone, one of slight anger that was barely audible under her despair.

"My god." he said, the first time she'd ever heard him say such a thing. He did swear, a lot, but never in any sort of a religious way. He sat down next to her and pulled her up into a comforting embrace as she sobbed against his shoulder. They sat like that for a long time, long enough for Charles to worry about his parents getting home, but he figured that both of them would leave them be, that they wouldn't mind that he had a hysterical girl in the bathroom.

He stroked her hair gently, and then asked, "I am the father, right?"

Her fist came out of nowhere and she stomped to her feet, turning in a moment from despair to towering rage. "Who the f*** else could be the father! D***t, Charles, I'm a whore, your friggin whore, and now I'm pregnant and my mom will hate me and Mitchell will call me a slut and you're going to hit me and-" She was talking faster and faster and her sobs were getting louder and more incoherent.

Charles managed to climb somewhat heavily to his feet, she had hit him rather hard on his face and he was a little disoriented, but he took her face in his hands and shook it, gently. "I'm not going to hit you."

The look she gave him then was enough to make him absolutely certain that he loved her, and she stepped closer to him and finally, finally stopped crying. This was probably the first time that they had been standing this close to each other and he hadn't felt the slightest stirring of lust. Strange. Was that what love was? That he wanted her to be happy outside of when they were making out or screwing?

She was still puffy faced and rather incoherent, but she finally stepped back and asked, "S-s-so, w-w-w-whadda we do now?"

Charles didn't take his arms from around her, she needed it, and said, with his fingers unconciously tapping her waist as he listed each option. "Well, you can have it, you can marry me and have it, or you can get rid of it."

She pulled away and started chewing on one knuckle, her foot tapping repeatedly on the tile floor. Charles didn't know what he was supposed to do, so he took a step back and watched her foot move hypnotically up and down. It seemed to take forever, but finally she sighed loudly. "I don't want my mother or Mitchell to find out about this. Ever."

Charles looked at her in confusion. Even if she did decide to get rid of it, they'd have to get pills at the pharmacy, or go to a doctor, and her mom was a doctor. Anything like that she would find out about. Jo didn't give any sort of a smile, she just grabbed his wrist and dragged him downstairs and outside, his feet slipping for a second in the pile of metal shavings he made an hour or a life time ago.

She pulled him to the greenhouse that his father maintained as a hobby, and Charles still hadn't the foggiest what she wanted in there. Dad grew spices and flowers in there, spending long summer afternoons and winter mornings in the humid, low growing forest that the homemade construction made. "Your dad showed me this", she said as they went into the greenhouse, so warm after the cool fall day outside.

She walked unerringly towards one bank of plants, and then she took a double handful of one leafy item, and ate it. "Jo!" he called out sharply, knowing that there were plenty of poisonous plants, plenty of strange things, nothing much edible without being cooked.

She doubled over and retched. "Tansy flower. It's an abortificent. Mitchell and mother will never-" and then she couldn't speak for the vomit in her throat and mouth, or the blood that was starting to seep down her legs.*

Charles drew back, disgusted, but finally, finally, well after he heard his parents return home, and well after he heard them looking for them, she finished, and he walked her home. He helped her climb up the trellis outside her room and helped with the window. She gave him a sickly, forced grin, and disappeared under the covers, after pulling a trash can to her bedside so she could vomit if she needed to.

((OOC: *Pardon the dramatization of what tansy flower does, this actually takes several hours))