Cool For the Summer (Steve)

Mark and I met for lunch and, though the food was good, I hardly remembered it. He made me laugh and unwind in a way that I didn't think was possible. We headed to the mines, pickaxes in tow. The cold air of a cave makes me feel at home. I still miss Caitlin--I always will--but the way Mark talked to me made me realize that I like him in a way I never thought I would. I don't know if fate is actually something, but it must have been fate that we were friends. Can we be more than that? It seems that the answer is not if, but when and when is this moment and onward.

Mark and Caitlin were polar opposites in more ways than one, but similar in many others. Mark had the same inviting smile, genuineness, and warmth about him. However, he wasn't bashful about it. He walked like he owned the world. I don't know why he was nervous about me telling me that he liked me. If anything, I should be the nervous one. I shake before I face the camera or step on the podium. I stay up all night worrying about how I come off to others. Mark isn't like that, partially because he's not the face of the world, but something tells me that he would be better at it than I am.

I found a few diamonds, but they didn't shine as bright as Mark's eyes when he comes up with a bad pun. I need to get my sword repaired soon. A zombie groaned behind me, but a groan had alerted me that Mark defeated it with his two katanas. I returned the favor by charging a couple of skeletons and collecting their armor. The combat program at Mark's school can use some armor, especially since the seniors trashed the armory in support of banning compound bows and bows with automatic nocking functions on school campuses.

Since it was getting late and that meant having to fight even more zombies, I suggested that we stay at my place. Mark agreed and followed me. We removed our helmets and found an overhang to rest under and, as I started to breathe, I felt a hand making its way around my waist and a tugging sensation as I was tugged into a kiss. I tried matching the movements of Mark's lips the best I could and having played the lead part in Bugler's Holiday in the morning my embouchure had its warm-up for the day.

          "You're a good kisser." Mark was now on top of me. Blushing fiercely, I furtively agreed and we continued on.

When we got back, I waited to shower. Both of us have marching seasons to prepare for and that means not writing drill while sleep-deprived. I got both of us glasses of water, but, when I turned around, Mark wasn't there. After looking around, I caught a whiff of something that smelled like roses, strawberries, cinnamon, smoke, and many other things that shouldn't go well together, but did. What was going on?

I followed my nose to my room. I wanted to sleep, but, judging by the way Mark positioned himself on my bed amid some random rose petals, he had other ideas. The burning incense wasn't overpowering, but distinct enough to clue me into what Mark had in mind. His clothes were in a pile at the foot of the bed, so I followed suit and joined him.

          "How was that?" Mark was on top of me once again. He put his clothes back on and sat next to me. I would have said he did excellently, but I couldn't. Every part of my body trembled with a pleasure that I've never felt before. Before, I wouldn't have said that soulmates exist, but Mark had proven me wrong. When the shaking died down, I took my shower, put on my pajamas, and curled up in his arms feeling safer than ever.

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Lovely Laura (Landon)

My score is coming together quite nicely, but will I get the production rights? In this era, it seems unlikely, but I've never been one to avoid risks. I tried all sorts of directions to go with the lead, Josh. I tried the sociopathic edgelord, but that didn't fit. I tried directionless anger and that failed too. I tried the victim angle too, but that just made me shatter a glass in frustration. It was when I found another article on Masumi Shoji that I decided which direction to go: desperate and defensive.

It made me sick that the Havencraft High School shooting inspired what happened to the talented musicians at the Desert Violin Convention. However, the reporters made me even sicker than I already was. I had thought of killing my parents at times, but can anyone really blame me? All they cared about was lovely Laura. They shoved pills and lectures down my throat instead of listening to me. They kicked my brother out of the house for being trans and losing his hearing. Speaking of that, I'm picking up ASL pretty well and even wrote optional ASL lines into my musical. If I'm getting a message out, I might as well make sure everyone can get it.

Speaking of Lysander, he helped himself to the cookies I had made and then crashed on the couch. It was as if he had always been a boy and Laura hadn't made us feel disappointed in ourselves by subtly rubbing our failures in our faces. Sometimes, I still wish I wasn't gay. I still love my new boyfriend, Yuuto, more than ever, but I just wanted to be accepted like everyone else I knew. If not for that, I wouldn't need to have Laura's ghost hanging over my shoulder.

Wandering Son (Yuuto)

Landon did his presentation at DesiredCraft High School and, to be honest, I didn't think he had any reason to be nervous. He spoke with authority and passion that could only come from the heart. I heard Landon working on his musical adaptation of "Bang Bang You're Dead". I help by fetching props, adjusting mics, and giving feedback.
         "Hey, let's work on the promotional singles." I sipped my tea.
         "Sure." Both of us got to work. Landon's voice swelled into a soul-piercing scream and I loved it. The sound, both awful and awe-inspiring at the same time, diminished into a whimper. I interjected with jabs of my own from time to time making sure to sound as angry and hurt as possible.
         "That was good. Let's get some food." Both of us had drained several mugs of honey lemon tea in an effort to maintain our vocal health, but neither of us had eaten anything besides some chocolate pudding. We made a sukiyaki pot of sorts using strawberry jelly instead of white sugar in the teriyaki sauce. Landon is so creative and can find solutions to any problem. I cooked the homemade tofu I had brought and we ate. He bit into the tomato like an orange wedge and sprang back to work again, but I had another idea.

I suggested that we take a break and binge watch Hourou Musuko in an attempt to really understand his (now) brother, Lysander. Landon agreed, which surprised me as this anime is the opposite of his normal genre. However, I did not expect what came next. He fell asleep about halfway through the third episode, probably because of the soundtrack, so I turned it off and watched him sleep. He looked peaceful and breathed evenly as I ran my hands through his hair. Why was I doing that? I couldn't help myself.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Landon)

Mark did great skating to Eros and donated the prize money to his band program. I'm doing a review of the original Havencraft RPG with both actual gameplay and commentary. Most of the bootlegs (I wouldn't even call them bootlegs.) are from people trying to be edgy and offensive, but, even without taking accuracy into account, the games fall flat in every sense. One was a generic shooter game that pretends to have a story. Am I supposed to care about this caricature of myself? No. He's an annoying sociopathic edgelord with no interest or purpose besides killing. If I could blow his brains out, I would.

I'm in the research stage and, so far, the direction that the creator went with was totally different from everything else I've seen. The creator's humor interspersed with his take on me were interwoven brilliantly. Lisette even made a few appearances and had some influence on the gameplay. Speaking of Lisette, she DM-ed me on a private Twitter account.

Hey.

Hey.

What's up?

I feel like crying.

Why?

Well, long story short, I got kicked out of the house. I'm losing my hearing. My parents said they could put up with cerebral palsy any day of the week, but couldn't take me having hearing loss.

Oh no!

Yeah. It sucks 'cause I can't hear my music, I moved down a few chair positions, and now I can't even hear the teachers in my classes. I have to lip-read.

That's terrible. They kicked you out for something you can't control.

Well...that's not why they kicked me out. I said I've felt "off" for a while about a year ago and I couldn't figure out why. I started getting interested in binding, but I just wear oversized shirts. 

Are you... I didn't want to finish the sentence at first. Are you transgender?

Yes. I can't take it anymore. 

I can't just call you Lisette anymore. You need a new name. 

I want to stick with the L theme, but I don't really like Liam, Lance, or Luke.

Lysander?

What?

Lysander. From A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Great, now all I need is a Demetrius. 

At least you didn't want to change your name to Hermia. 

Idk what to title this (Steve)

Let's face it. Meetings suck, especially when they have to do with a student doing poorly. That happened to be the case with Lisette. Her grades were falling fast in some classes and holding up pretty well in others.

Nothing really seemed to add up, so I asked questions about mood, what the classrooms were like, and where she sat. I noted that she did worse in classes where she sat in the back and where there were fewer visual aids and seemed to be a bit depressed, but nothing that would be alarming if not for the academic decline. Seeing that she survived a mass shooting, getting doxxed, and her first year of high school, I think her mental state is no surprise.

I noticed that she haphazardly off all of her hair in a bathroom, started wearing really baggy clothes, and wasn't as active on social media (although that could be attributed to the doxxing). Mark asked me to meet him in person for his help where he would normally text. I had already said that I suspected some form of hearing loss, but my suggestions were brushed off as usual. Her intonation got markedly worse, but she always managed to adjust and recover. I tried talking to her, but she would always storm out of the room crying. Needless to say, I need Mark's help with this one.

We met at Mark's place, which was covered in vines and even had some cocoa and coffee pods growing in the trees. He poured me a cup of coffee to make sure I would stay awake.
         "How have you not noticed?"
         "Not noticed what?" Lisette's brain is a melting pot. Hearing loss, PTSD, and other factors may be at play, but I'm not sure what. I attributed the hair thing to a case of disinhibition.
         "I don't think Lisette is Lisette."
         "What do you mean?"
         "Well...this is going to require me to share something very personal that I should have told you before. My students already know, but I was more nervous about telling you." Mark took a shaky deep breath. "I'm transgender." Well, I wasn't expecting that. I took a long sip of my coffee and made sure I heard that correctly.
          "So...how long have you wanted to be a woman?" I didn't expect Mark to want to become a woman, but I'd do anything to help. I even know a thing or two about makeup.
          "What? No! Been there, done that." Leave it to Mark to make some clever quip...and cause even more confusion.
          "So...you were born a girl, but then became a man." Excuse the political incorrectness, but I just learned some groundbreaking information.
          "Right on. Anyway, I think she might be a he."
          "That's...fairly outlandish." Lisette seemed fairly comfortable as a girl, but appearances are just that: appearances. Maybe Mark was right. I'm just even more lost than I was before.

All I Can (Jordan)

Thanks to the help of the nutritionist, Alex is already taller than I am. She's been growing like a jungle vine and, because of it, she needs lots of food...that she still refuses to eat. We're making progress, though. Alex ate a fruit and yogurt bowl with chocolate granola for breakfast and, hopefully, she'll eat this sandwich. Luckily, I caught onto the signs before Alex had a risk of re-feeding syndrome. Her personality and energy are coming back and new positive characteristics are emerging as well.

She is coping with disappointment way better than she used to. She actually came home crying when the ballet master told her she couldn't audition for the role of Clara in The Nutcracker. The tears are a sign that Alex is more open to expressing negative emotions rather than burying them deep within herself. Although most people are nice, I've had to stop using Facebook because of the influx of negative comments.

Most of them, thankfully, are not directed towards Alex, but towards me. They come mainly from other Mindcrack parents who didn't support me pulling Alex out of the school for good. They act like college is everything when it's simply not. I don't know how they were raised or what their stance is on this particular issue, but I knew early on that college wasn't for everyone. Moreover, it certainly wasn't for me.

College just didn't make sense to me. I could make more money as a blacksmith without subjecting myself to all sorts of academic nonsense. Not only that, I'd probably receive death threats for bringing Alex to my classes. Speaking of Alex, she's resorted to curling up in a ball in bed and refusing to do anything. I took the sandwich up to her room and told her to eat. She refused. Naturally, I asked what was wrong as she's been acting kind of odd lately.
         "My stomach hurts."
         "You seemed fine this morning."
         "I'm getting cramps." That could only mean one thing: Alex was about to get her first period. It's one thing to read on the Internet and another to see the changes happen with your own eyes. I obviously can't give any firsthand accounts, but I'm still determined to help in any way I can. She still had a mysterious rash from one of the dance costumes too. When I read the tag, I found that there was latex in the product. I didn't know that Alex was allergic to latex, but I'm just glad her life wasn't endangered again.

Pumped Up Skates (Landon)

The short skates are today and I've been dumped.

Why did I let him kiss me? He only pitied me and now he dumped me for who knows what. I knew from the start no one could ever really love me. I mean, look at my parents. I had my older sister, Laura, to overshadow me. She was practically perfect, even when she was imperfect. When Lisette was born, I went completely unnoticed. While she was the light of my life, she also managed to pull the light away from me and keep it there.

It wasn't like I was perfect like Laura either. I had my own issues, such as having nocturnal epilepsy. They scolded me for wetting the bed when I had a seizure, but they never did anything like that to Lisette when she wasn't able to get to a toilet. After I tried to drink myself to death at the age of eleven, they dragged me to a psychiatrist loaded me up with drugs that made me feel insane. I only took my meds to please my parents, but this "treatment" replaced my numbness with rage.

At the same time, I was to blame for my actions. I had "friends" that taught me that I should solve my problems with violence rather than constructive means like using the voice I had to sing. The choir director hated my voice because it was better for rock songs. Instead of saying "Screw it" and using my voice, I let my anger fester infect me. Since our group skate is the reprise of Dead Girl Walking, it gave me the opportunity to look back on what I did and realize how lucky I was to have lived and become a better person.

To put it simply, there was a girl who had everything in the world, another who needed the world, and a boy whose soul drowned fighting the resulting tide. I will put my presentation on the ice today and head off to Mineplex High School to tell it in words. Given the climate at Mineplex, I'm surprised that nothing happened there yet. Students are at each other's throats all the time and none of the teachers really seem to care.

I'm skating after Phillip; the sudden mood rotation will allow me to get the audience's attention. I heard name and I skated out to the sound of a song to tell my story.