Jack et Violaine's Story

Emma knew that Michaline was probably playing tennis by now and that she should probably be there so they could leave right away once school end...but she had other shit to do. Namely, get paid to do a couple piercings in the school bathroom for a couple of kids who were feeling rebellious. People like that never failed to make her eyes roll, but she never once bitched. It was just a few more bucks in her pocket and she didn't care what parent she pissed off. It wasn't her fault their kids decided that they absolutely had to have matching belly button piercings or nose rings or a second set of lobe piercings. It wasn't her fault that everyone knew she had all the tools she needed to do a professional piercing in an amateur setting.

"You're going to feel a slight pinch," Emma warned and a few moments later she was shoving a hollow needle through the belly button of some sorry ass freshmen. The other girl squealed in pain and it was all Emma could do to keep back an irritated sigh. Normally she was quite nice and polite, but she had little patience for people who thought the pain of a simple piercing was the end of the world. Nor did she have the patience for people who immediately thought they were bad ass for their single body piercing or small tattoo.

"Oh my God, you could have been a little more gentle!" Exclaimed the owner of the freshly pierced belly button. In reality, Emma had been as gentle as she could be. She may have only been eighteen, but she knew what she was doing. She had apprenticed under her aunt for months now and had been piercing herself and others for a couple years.

"That'll be thirty bucks," Emma said, holding out her hand. It was cheaper than the shops price and she very rarely got tipped when she did things outside of work, but it didn't matter. It was more experience under her belt. She pocketed the cash and threw everything away in the trashcan outside of the bathroom: needle, wrapper, gloves, etc.

She reached Michaline's tennis practice just in time to see her pass out. "Holy shit, Micky!" She yelled out and rushed towards her friend's side. "Somebody get the nurse or give her water, fuck. Don't just stare." Idiots. Everyone at this school was a fucking idiot, spare a few.

Rose saw Michaline sprint to the bathroom and the soul that existed somewhere deep within fluttered with concern. Rose had never really been mean to the so-called "misfits". She had just gone along with what was to be expected of the queen bee. Deep down, she had always regretted making them feel so terrible because she knew she would never have wanted people to treat her that way. She heard the end of school bell just like the rest of the students and she sighed hopelessly. It was either go back to the group home and hide in her room until morning, or hide in the bathroom where the security guards didn't dare venture. She opted for the bathroom, and made her way along.

On her way, she passed Niko and Parker and felt a lump in her throat at how good they looked together. But a part of her knew the look on Niko's face, and it was a look of fake happiness. If it was even possible for her to feel happy anymore, she would be happy at the fact that her ex-best friend was disgusting her ex-boyfriend. Walking past them, she accidently tripped and fell in front of Niko's feet. Looking up at them in horror, she quickly regained her posture and walked in the opposite direction towards the bathroom at the farthest end of the school, where she knew none of her old friends would be.

She opened the door quickly and slammed it shut, sinking down the wall and covering her face with her hands as tears started to flow down her face. She just sat there and cried as she usually did when something like that happened. Something that she knew they would laugh at her about when they met in private little groups as she used to do. She cried and she let all of her sadness overwhelm her, not realizing that she had accidently picked the bathroom where Michaline and Jack were already conversing.

Rose looked up abruptly at the sound of voices and trained her tear-filled eyes on Michaline and Jack, two misfits who she had no business hearing about their business. "I don't eat meatballs, you overgrown ogre. And apparently it would take less than a meatball, because I am pregnant!" Micheline announced and Rose looked from both their faces. She gasped and turned to Michaline, knowing her face was streaked with tears and her eyes probably looked wild and frightened. She mulled over what Michaline had said in her mind but could get no words to leave her lips. That was the case with her lately, always crying and never speaking.

She saw Michaline slump against one of the stalls, and recognized the vacant look in her eyes. It was the look that forever haunted Rose's eyes since her mother's death and the abandonment of her so-called friends. She knew what would happen. Michaline would detach herself, just letting shit roll her way and not giving a damn if it ran her over. That's how Rose was now.

Forcing herself to swallow her tears and bring up her voice she hadn't used in months, she looked at Michaline and whispered softly in a voice that was hoarse from lack of use, sounding very far from the old Rose. "Don't." Rose whispered, a tear slowly falling down her left cheek. "Don't let it consume you. Fight against it." With that, Rose's voice was gone again and she let out another sob before closing her eyes and burrying her head in her arms, wishing she could be invisible.

"Jack what the fuck! You can't just barge into the girl's bathroom like that!" While Jack may not have had any tact or shame, Max did, and that is exactly what kept him from entering the girl's restroom to check on his twin, despite his immense desire to ensure her safety. "Mickey! Jack! What the fuck's going on!"

The bathroom's thick walls cancelled out most sounds from within, and the fact that he was able to recognize his sister's voice was a point of some concern, and his worry got the best of him. He quietly slipped inside, and what he saw was not exactly what he had expected. First of all Jack was staring incredulously at Mickey. Secondly he saw Mickey, hand clamped over her mouth, eyes wider than dinner plates. Finally, he saw Rose, eyes wide, cheeks streaked with tears, and sobbing into her arms.

"Ok, what the hell did I just miss?" He just kept staring at them, alternating between each of their faces, "And don't say 'nothing' like you normally do Mickey, 'nothing' doesn't cause situations like this! 'Nothing' doesn't make you pass out on the tennis court!" He crossed his arms across his ukulele, waiting for whatever lame lie his sister was going to tell. He could always tell when she was going to lie, and he could tell when telling the truth would cause her too much pain. He would let her get away with it for now, but he would demand the truth at a later date.

He was also having a hard time giving his sister his undivided attention, he wanted nothing more than to give Rose a hug and never let go... She just seemed so sad... He couldn't help but keep glancing softly at her, and then going back to staring daggers at Jack and his sister for making him worry so much and not giving him a damn good reason!

Rose peered out of the crook of her arm at the scene that had just unfolded. She had stopped sobbing, and now it was just sniffles as she tried to calm herself down. She looked at Jack, a guy she had thought to be quite the jerkwad before she fell from grace, and shook her head slightly as he told Max, who had suddenly appeared in the room, that Michaline was pregnant. The former her would have laughed and made fun of Michaline for turning into one of those girls. But the new her, the constantly sad and lost her, simply felt the utmost sympathy for Michaline. I mean, Rose was definitely a person who knew what it was like to have your entire world turn upside down in the blink of an eye.

She looked up completely as Michaline rushed out of the room, and as Max tried to touch her, Michaline yelled at him. Poor Michaline... Rose's eyes were filled with sympathy for the young girl, but her voice had already made an appearance today, and all Rose could do was watch her leave. Then, it was just Max and her inside the bathroom and that was...well, Rose didn't really know what that was. Today had already been odd enough for her. Standing slowly, she glanced at Max before walking to the mirror and gazing at her reflection for the second time that day, as if she couldn't even recognize herself.

Her hair was hanging in messy clumps down her shoulders after her falling and crying into it, and her face was red and puffy from the constant tears, echoeing with her washed out eyes still brimming with tears. She bowed her head and sighed, not bothering to act like anything in front of Max. This was who she was now.