Chapter 4: It Had To Be Pigs
Rosalie
-Earlier-
I leaned on the door of our car as I waited for my little sister to bring her ass over here as it was the end of the day which meant I had survived yet another horrible school day at Crestview: The Academy Of Fine Arts. The name's a long one, I know, that's why most people just Crestview Arts/Academy. Usually, her chauffeur would pick her up, and I'd ride my motorcycle since we get off of school at different times, but I have to drive her to and back from school every first day of the year courtesy of my mother.
Today mainly consisted of me sitting at the back of every class I had, avoiding teachers I hate, and believe me when I say I hate a lot of them, some tried to get my attention in the halls wanting to give me more college-related stuff which is the last thing on my mind right now. It's like the moment you become a senior, that's the only thing that matters. College/university.
And I'm not even going to college.
I looked around and still, Charlotte was nowhere to be seen, I took out my phone from my pocket and grimaced as I saw the bunch of text notifications that popped up. I groaned, annoyed that I have to answer all of them but did it anyway.
Evan:
come over.
Me:
Yeah...no.
Evan:
What do you mean no?
Me:
I'm busy.
Evan:
Busy doing what?
Me:
Literally anything else.
Evan:
Me:
Evan:
Me:
Evan:
You're going to the gathering
Me:
Oh yeah? Says who?
Evan:
Your mom.
Me:
Wait really?
Evan:
Yep.
Me:
. You bitch.
Evan:
You left me no choice.
Me:
You can't be serious.
Evan:
I'm not. I'm Evan.
Me:
Evan:
That's right. I just did that.
Me:
Fook u
Evan:
What?
Me:
Autocorrect, I mean to say fook u
Me:
Fook you
Me:
FUCK U
Evan:
Love you too babe
Me:
Evan:
(͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)✌
---
I squished my stress ball until it exploded, the people parked next to me giving me weird looks.
The Social Gathering was...well, it's in the name. It's a gathering hosted by the Top students of the school: Evan Miller, Alexis Morretti, Finn Tanaka, Dylan Adamos, Avery Garcia, Allison Killem, Laron Asfour, Brandon Side, Bianca Okello, Amani Chuol, and your one and only, moi. It was usually on valentine's day or soon after it as well.
Fuck Valentine's day.
Each one of us has had the opportunity to host one in pairs, (whether we wanted to or not, it's never really our choice) ever since the 8th grade. This year it was Evan and I's turn but as he said, he did all the work since I wasn't planning on going anyway up until he...told my mother.
My mother.
That old hag.
I flipped open my Samsung galaxy z flip and dialed a number as I got in my car. The person picked up.
"Send a car to school to pick up my sister and her friend if he wants, he's probably gonna want to go with her. Tell her I couldn't pick her up because something came up. That will be all."
I hang up the phone before he could say anything and drove away.
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My Mercedes gullwing rolled around the back of the manor house. I was heading over to Evans for the gathering planning (and by gathering planning I mean him planning everything and me just nodding and scrolling through my phone).
"Willkommen zurück Miss Davis," the valet greeted as he opened my car door.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out of my car and gave the valet a quick glance before being escorted by him around the outdoor parking lot and towards the main door. The valet then went back to the lot and into my gullwing, driving the car into the underground parking lot.
"Willkommen zurück Miss Davis," the unfamiliar doorwoman greeted me as she opened the door for me. I figured she was new since I've been here a lot and I've never seen her before even though she knows my name. Though now that I think about it she was probably informed beforehand. We passed through the narrow hallway filled with bright yellow lamps completely ignoring the fact that it was broad daylight outside.
When we finally got to the ballroom, she stopped walking and parted for me to enter. "Noch einen schönen abend," she said before walking away when I entered.
I stopped in my tracks and stared at the sight in front of me. The room was huger than I remembered. Aside from the large grey disco ball that was placed in the middle of the ceiling, the said ceiling was also covered with pink and gold fairy lights that weren't turned on yet. The dance floor was placed in the middle and even though it was enormous, it didn't even take up half the room. Chefs were frantically running around holding empty trays and placing them on the tables that were at the corners of the room which held cards that had names of dishes and drinks written on them. Other people were on ladders, putting on decorations for the walls. One person on the ladder was trying to sweep some cobwebs off the corner of a wall but tripped causing her to fall into one of the waitress's arms and they were left staring at each other.
Another waitress walking by cleared her throat and the waitress that was holding the worker immediately let go, letting her fall to the floor.
Evan seemed to be having a friendly conversation with a man who looked to be in his late 40s wearing a grey suit (the party manager, I'm guessing). Evan kept on moving his hands all over the place and motioning to the ceiling and waiting tables. The man was listening and taking into account what he was saying, writing, and scratching out words on his notepad, and nodding a lot. Evan finally noticed my existence and turned to the man again saying: "Vielen dank nochmal James. Ich ruf dich an wieder zu. Noch einen schönen abend."
With a nod and smile, James shook his hand and after giving me once over, was out the door.
"You're here!" Evan clapped his hands together when I put my phone back in my pocket.
I glared at him. "Evan where are my library keys?"
"Yeah, like I'm gonna tell you that," he shoved me towards the front of the room which had a bunch of music/DJ gear. "C'mon, there's lots to talk about..."
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Levi
-Friday- (6th Feb)
I stared at the dead pig in front of me.
This was biology, my chance to shine. Ansel always thrives in art class, amongst the pastels and fine charcoal pencils, but for me, the sight of the laboratory was the heaven I craved. Art was amazing, art was beautiful, but not when drawn by my hand. By my hand it was like a three-year-old with a broken arm was given a crayon and told to have at it. Especially if it's abstract art. Screw abstract art. And Ansel stopped taking Biology after 9th grade because the lab smelled like...a lab and that made him nauseous. Mr. Serenador was beaming at the front of the class, and I fought not to reflect it back.
Okay, that monologue was a bit dramatic. Moving on.
Though as much as I love biology, I definitely don't love how much it stinks when we're dissecting something.
Pigs.
It had to be pigs.
I took a glance around the room. Some students had already started working on their dissections, others had no idea what they were supposed to do even though the teacher explained it thrice and were coping the students that were working on their dissections. Some students puked, others fainted. You know, the usual.
"Don't you just cut it?" I heard a student ask.
"No," his partner shook his head, making a rather disgusted look at the pig. "We need to follow the sheet."
"...What sheet?"
"The sheet that Mr-..." He sighed, a smile forming on his lips. "What am I gonna do with you."
The student smirked. "I could name a few thi-"
I glanced back at my partner, Bianca Okello. After having most of our classes together since we both love Science, I could say she's my only other good friend apart from Ansel. And even though she's considered part of the Royales, she doesn't hang out with them and could almost always be found mixing chemicals in a lab somewhere or taking photos/selfies of her or very odd things. That's what I like about her. She's confident, cheerful, optimistic, loves life, and seems to find the ghastliest things interesting no matter how many people think or say that she's weird for that. She's also incredibly intelligent and gives off a mad-scientist kind of vibe whenever you're with her. Especially with her dying the tips of curls pink and her 60s/70s bright fashion.
After looking through the instruction sheet, she pushed her pink glasses further up her nose and shot me a bright grin.
"Shall we?"
And with a nod, we got to work.
Many connections were made during this dissection from the homeostasis unit as we were familiar with some of the organs and their function. We started off with the lower section of the body. Cutting the skin was much easier as compared to a rat's, so we were much more careful in the procedure.
First, we found the liver, stomach, and intestines, which was no surprise because they were expected to be the anterior organs. Then, we had to take out the uterus which was a bit of a challenge but nevertheless, once we found an organ-like substance near the bottom of the pig we concluded that it was the piglet's female reproductive system. Aside from retrieving the brain stem, cutting the organs out was the hardest part of the dissection. We took a long time trying to cut out the intestines and liver because we didn't want to cut anything that we shouldn't.
Moving on to the upper body, things became more interesting. While extracting the heart and the lungs of the pig, I noticed the colors of the blood vessels, I could see the blue color in the veins and the arteries. Continuing on, we then went on to dissect what I think was the most interesting part of this whole experience, the brain. Like many mammals, the piglet's soft brain was covered by a hard skull making it extremely difficult to get it unharmed. We were very careful as we slowly cut the skull with a knife gently down the center.
Now, this was the hardest part of the experiment, taking out the brain stem. This task was completely based on luck because the only way to take the brain stem out was to yank it. We managed to take it out in one piece (barely), I was pretty proud of us since no one else in the classroom managed to even get this far, but I wasn't surprised after hearing that only very few groups managed to be successful according to Mr. Serenedor's years of teaching.
After high fiving each other, ignoring the glares of our classmates, the bell rang.
"Finally!" Mr. Serenedor sighed. "Levi, Bianca, you can pack up the class while Mr. Cylan and I...have a chat."
I ignored that last part.
My phone ringed and fishing it out of my pocket, I frowned.
Ansel:
Recess. Bench. NOW.
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-Recess-
"I'm disturbed on almost every level and deeply scarred."
Ansel just burst out laughing.
We were sitting cross-legged on the grass, a juice box in my hand and a cookie in one of Ansel's while the other showed me the stuff students posted on the school website about what happened on Monday between Rosalie and I.
Which was nothing.
Cause nothing really happened.
At least to me.
People just love blowing things out of proportion.
And are apparently incredibly...confident in what they post to the public.
"Thirst comments! These are literally thirst comments man!" Ansel laughed, scrolling through what seemed to be an endless amount of comments in the thread. "And they only saw the back of your head!"
I hid my head on my palms, sighing. This could not be happening right now. I was fine with just seven people knowing me by name in this entire school. Now I'm the topic of conversation and all I did was talk to my partner.
My research partner. Don't get it twisted.
So this is why people were staring at me all day.
I just thought I had something on my face.
This was the last thing I wanted but I couldn't help but worry about how this is all affecting Rosalie. And the photo was so obviously taken at a bad angle to cause drama. As much as people adore the Royales, there are others who also want to see them look bad somehow, at least for a little while before the topic of conversation changes. Humans are weird that way.
Great. Now I feel bad for feeling bad when Rosalie's probably gonna get it ten times worse.
I worriedly took a sip of the juice box. Almost choking when Ansel pats me on the back. "Loosen up bro. This is gonna blow over before you know it. Next week's gonna be about some girl being knocked up by a teacher like last time so relax. Have a cookie. Focus on me."
I snatched the cookie out of his hand took a big bite out of it, almost finishing the cookie in one bite.
I'm just gonna sleep and forget all this nonsense.
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-5th period- (P.E)
We made our way to the indoor gym where the other class that we were sharing it with was playing basketball among other students were sleeping and others were probably skipping class but the teachers couldn't care less. Ansel grimaced but raised an interested eyebrow as two shirtless guys (why are they shirtless? It's still winter) ran past us with a ball.
We went to the side of the gym and found some seats on the bleachers while we waited for our pe teacher to take attendance.
Mr. Kaleo Loane is a tall (he's like 6'4, it's quite intimidating), surprisingly pale slim man with majestic long blonde hair, which he puts in a ponytail hanging over his shoulders, and a small brown mustache who's in his early thirties. He has blue eyes which is rare but not impossible for a pacific islander and is covered with black rectangular glasses, and he is almost always seen with a large smile on his face when he's teaching a class.
When teaching a class, he often tries to bring his students up to his level by getting them involved and more active during games. He'd continue to act this way regardless of the students' responses. He also has a good people sense and a great dislike for bugs, to the point where he faints when too many are in his general vicinity. That's why he prefers working indoors than outside on the field during his lessons.
He also always seems to manage to dress like a 16-year-old goth kid who has a rock band of three that plays in his garage and are currently on their seventh hiatus of the year because his teammate knocked up a cheerleader and the other's one drink away from becoming an alcoholic while he struggles to keep his parents from getting a divorce before his 17th birthday cause they promised him a brand new electric guitar so they can win this huge competition they've been practicing for months for.
Except without all the makeup.
So, in other words, it's not very good. But that's just my opinion.
And no one's ever seen him angry.
No one ever wants to see him angry.
After ticking off the last name on his clipboard, Mr. Loana threw it over his shoulder, we watched as it hit a nameless player with the balls' head who lost his footing and tripped letting his opponent get a hold of the ball and make a winning shot.
"Welcome to your first pe session of the year seniors! I know some of you haven't even ran since last year's pe" -some of didn't run during last year's pe- "but that's gonna change this year cause I don't believe in talentless" -I hate enthusiastic pe teachers- "so we'll start by taking a quick jog around the gym then do a couple more warm-ups..."
--------------------------------
"Levi Spot."
Ansel had his hands on both my feet while I did sit-ups. He was talking about how much Laron has talked to him all week which was as much as seven sentences. I tried to and wanted to be happy for him but I just couldn't because I really don't like Laron. I wouldn't say I dislike him because I don't dislike anyone but if I were to dislike anyone he'd definitely be top five somewhere next to Mark Wahlberg.
Ansel let go while I sat up and saw the person who called out my name wrong in a very obvious way.
Brandon whatever his last name is.
Brandon is a conventionally attractive, tall (6'3) why are these guys so tall?), muscular guy with dark brown hair and eyes. I don't dislike anyone but I hate him. I know and you shouldn't judge people you don't know because you never know what they're going through but I don't care. I hate him. He's the embodiment of rich male privilege and he knows it. He especially knows how to misuse it too.
He span the basketball on his index finger then threw it towards me expecting it to hit my head but I caught it effortlessly before it could.
"It's Scott," I said frowning.
He quirked an eyebrow seeming to be taken aback by this. But then he got back his usual smirk and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
"Right. Slot."
That was so funny he had to give me a couple of minutes to find the energy to laugh.
"H-Hi Brandon," Ansel's eyes lit up.
I fought back the urge to roll my eyes.
Brandon ignored him.
I fought back the urge to roll my eyes.
His eyes swept over my body then back up to meet my eyes in a malicious way like we weren't wearing the exact same outfit.
"You and me. One on one," he smirked as he gestured towards the court.
He was daring me to say no.
I got tired of sitting on the floor and straining my head to look up at him so I got up to my full height.
Which wasn't much cause I was 5'11 and he's 6'2 so I still had to look up at him which pissed me just a little bit.
"Sure." I followed silently behind him, ignoring the stares of our peers and teachers. Some even took their phones out probably taking photos and recording us. The students. Not the teachers.
"Shouldn't we tell them to go back to their own classes? We're not doing a multi-class activity," I heard a teacher ask Mr. Loane.
Mr. Loane just grinned. "Just let them be. I haven't had this much excitement since I graduated high school!"
He used to go to this high school by the way.
"Go Brandon!" someone cheered.
"Shut up!" another cheered.
Someone shut up.
"I thought our class was playing basketball..."
"I wanna go home.."
It was only when we reached the court did I realized that i wasn't wearing shoes because I took them when I was doing sit-ups but I also don't know shit about basketball.
I'll just wing it.
-----------------------------------------------
I won.
17-37.
It was a surprise to me as much as it was to everyone else. By the time the game was done, we were both drenched in sweat and both 5th and 6th periods were done. I regretted wearing the pe tracksuit instead of the jersey and shorts as it was now hugging my body in places that were not deemed comfortable. Mid-game I gave up and took my jacket off, hearing gasps and whispers from the students for some reason, and tied it around my waist. I contemplated just throwing the jacket towards Ansel, hopefully hitting his head but decided against it.
Brandon was also now shirtless because...of course, he was.
While we were playing, neither of us realized a bunch of students from different classes entering the gym in groups to watch us play. I can just tell I'm gonna dread coming to school next Monday.
Ansel handed me a towel and drink bottle, giving me a rough pat on the back nearly making me choke. After cursing him out I brushed my hair back, the sweat basically substituting for hair fell, and made a mental note to get a haircut soon.
-
I had told Ansel to wait for me in the car while I grabbed my stuff from my locker. The bell had rung to mark the end of the school day but I had to stay back for something. The hallway was nearly empty except for a couple of students who also had to stay back, had detention, or just didn't want to go back home.
After grabbing the last book and shoving it into my bag, I closed my locker shut. But not before a small note with my name on it fell out.
I picked up the note and stared at the address on it. I looked it up on my phone and scowled when I saw the photoshopped photos of it. I turned the paper around and saw a couple of sentences scribbled in amazing handwriting on it.
Come alone and bring your stuff.
Don't be late.
-Rose
I shivered then turned the note back.
Ps, if you want, I can pick you up.
I shivered once more.
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Crestview High Official Website:
Category Website: General Discussion- Brandon Side:
Alyssa Dumas posted a video one hour ago captioned: OMG guys did you see this happening at 5th period?! I was lucky I had the same class as them lol
Like. Comment. Share
362 likes. 777 dislikes. 666 replies
Hadley Lynch replied to Alyssa Dumas' post: omg I saw that too! Jack Frost recked him like a prooo!
Amelia Celantro replied: Brandon always acted so cocky for someone ranked 5th in most handsome boys of Crestview High (and his name is Levi smh)
Lorraine replied: lmao, I heard Levi doesn't even play basketball lol. That's so embarrassing for him
Benet replied: Can you guys stop blowing up my phone? Go do homework or something
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~This is gonna be a long year~
Sorry, this was such a boring chapter. It was more of a filler because I was too focused on one upcoming chapter that I've been dying to write so most of my attention is on that. Though I can say the next few chapters are gonna be...interesting...hehe.
Meme for the day:
If you get this, I'm so sorry.
Here's another meme for those who don't:
~Till we meet again~
~Potchachoe~