"No, no, no, no, no. Hell no," Damien muttered. "I refuse to believe this is happening."

"Too late," Roshan says. "It's already happened."

With a glare a faun, Damien continues with his pacing back and forth and frantically asks, half to themselves and half to the group, "I mean, in what way is Roshan even better than me?"

"Faun's wiser," Meg supplies.

"Better," Fitz offers.

"Faun actually has a brain," Asryn deadpans.

"Okay, okay. That was a little too far there," Damien says, putting a hand to his chest, a hurt expression plastered on their features. "But, seriously, I'm the one who started this, shouldn't I be the one to lead it?"

Fitz snorts and mutters a muffled "no."

"Hey, what was that?"

Fitz doesn't respond, just shrugging and playing innocent.

"Oh, and Damien," Roshan starts, and Damien is surprised to feel a little hope towards his circumstances.

"You're kicked off the team."

"WHAT."

"Just kidding."

"Oh! Did you see his face!" Alanna blurts.

"The way their eyes went wide and then—poof!" Meg laughs.

Damien frowns, feeling just a tad bit betrayed. He nods seemingly to themself, then just walks away.

No one stops him.

—————————✌︎—————————

"Hey, I'm sorry about that, man," sounds Orion's voice over the phone. "I voted for you to stay as leader, just so you know."

"It's fine," Damien replies. They're laying in bed, shoes still on, staring at the ceiling.

"I know it's not. But I'm not going to make you tell me all that you're feeling. Just know that I'm here for you. You're a great leader. It's just—well, I guess the others haven't quite gotten the chance to see that."

Damien nods, then, realizing that Orion can't see him, replies, "Yeah. Okay. Thanks."

"Anytime."

There's a click as Orion hangs up the phone. Damien wonders to themself how they got such a good best friend.

He doesn't deserve him, really.

Damien closes their eyes and begins a mental list, simply titled: How To Defeat Roshan Maharjan.

—————————✌︎—————————

"Okay, one burger with fries and soda, what's the name for this order?" Asryn asks, deadpan.

"Alicia," the girl answers in a peppy voice.

"Okay, that'll be eight dollars, 52 cents."

The next person in line is a middle-aged woman with an awful haircut. One that was already practically begging to see the manager. Asryn recognized her from about ten minutes prior.

"I'm here to complain," the lady says before Asryn could say anything. "I asked for a medium-well burger, and you gave me well done. Give me my money back for your mistake, please?"

Asryn blinked. "Ma'am, this is McDonald's."

"Excuse me, are you being rude to me? Where's your manager?"

There it is. The Manager Card.

"Sorry, I'll go get her, one moment please," Asryn said, promptly turning around, then facing the woman again. "Hi."

The woman sputtered. "You are being so rude to me right now!" She looked around, searching for someone to blame/watch her/yell at. "I will take this up with Mr. McDonald himself!"

"You do that," Asryn replied, before taking off their apron and heading to the back of the store. Customer service jobs sucked, but at least she got some cash for it, to be used to pay for gas for her car and rent for her and her dad's apartment. Extra pay, too, because they were the manager.

In the back, Asryn's coworker, Viktoria, was singing some theater song Asryn didn't know as she cooked some fries. They look up and stop singing as Asryn walks in.

"What was that about? I heard yelling."

"Nothing. Just some Karen. She'll be talking to McDonald himself. Anyway, I'm heading out."

"Okay then," Viktoria responded, getting promptly back to singing.

Once Asryn got to her car, they sighed. Finally some time to themself.

She still didn't really know how to feel about Roshan's promotion to leader. Sure, they liked faun better than Damien, but still. Roshan's too... uptight. Honestly, she felt more fit for the job than any of them.

They sighed and started the car, ready to be home.

—————————✌︎—————————

Roshan plops onto fauns tidy bed, smiling to faunself. Ah, another successful day at pissing Damien off!

It's going to be a fantastic year.

Roshan glances around fauns room, slowly taking in the details. The room's not overly decorated, but clean, simple, organized. Just how Roshan likes it.

A bookshelf with Roshan's favorite classics sits in one corner, and three floating shelves hang just above faun's desk. The shelves hold some of Roshan's treasures—fauns awards.

Honor roll trophies, science fair medals, and countless certificates sit there, looking down, almost watching the room, like some shiny plastic gargoyles.

Roshan's won countless things, has mastered every topic, every subject, everything faun's bothered to commit to.

Faun wonders to faunself if faun's ever going to get tired of winning, even if it's at things as simple as being the leader of a senior prank group.

The simple answer is: no.

—————————✌︎—————————

"Hey! How're you doing?" JJ smiles, phone to their ear.

"Good, a little tired from play rehearsal, but good! How are you?" Alanna answers, her voice echo-y over the phone.

"Great! Was play rehearsal fun?" JJ always wondered if they'd be good at theater, but they knew they were a terrible actor. If anything serious happened in a play, they'd probably break character and start laughing in the middle of the scene.

"Yeah, it was! I get to play this homicide detective, following a mysterious murderer and trying to solve a case. It's really cool, I hope you get to see the finished product in a few weeks."

"Of course! I'd love to see it!"

"Cool!" There was a brief pause in the conversation, and then Alanna said: "Well, I should probably help my mom put my little siblings to sleep, since it's getting late. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah! Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

—————————✌︎—————————

Fitz is tired of everyone's shit.

Really, he didn't actually care who the leader of the group was. Damien was just fine, a little annoying and egotistical, sure, but fine. Roshan's not much better. But still, why was everyone obsessing over who the leader was? Why even was there a leader? Who gives a shit?

Fitz joined this group so they could plan and play a senior prank. Something fun to do his last year of school. Something to do, period.

Ugh. Why are teenagers so complicated?

—————————✌︎—————————

"Hey, can I come over?" Lilith's voice buzzes through the phone.

"Um—yeah, sure." Megumi answers. She sat cross-legged on her bed, a mug of tea beside them and a book in their lap. "Why?"

"Oh, I, uh, just need to talk."

"O-kay."

Lilith lived just a street over from Megumi, so it didn't take long for her to walk over.

"Want some tea?" Meg offers once Lilith arrives, flopping face-forwards on Meg's bed.

"No, thanks," Lilith says, her reply muffled by Meg's comforter.

"Is this about Damien's demotion?" Meg sat back on the bed next to Lilith, crossing her legs. Meg's cat, Mr. George, crawled into their lap, purring.

"No." Lilith rolled onto her side, reaching over to pet Mr. George. He bolted from Meg's lap, curling up beside Lilith. He always preferred her over Meg. Unfair.

"Then...?" Meg prompted. When Lilith didn't say anything further, she raised an eyebrow.

"It's this girl at dance class," Lilith sighed.

"What about her?"

"Well, I... think I have a crush on her."

"And?"

"And what? I thought you would help me. You know—tell me what to do."

"I don't know any more about people than you do. Actually, I know less about people than you do. You're the social butterfly of this friendship."

Lilith sighed. "I know, I just... well, with my family and everything..." She looked down, absentmindedly stroking Mr. George's soft fur. "I knew I was a lesbian, you know? I've always liked girls. I just don't know how I'm supposed to date, or, if it's really okay to like girls, and I guess liking this girl just, I don't know, scares me—"

"Lili, it's okay if you like girls. Trust me. But it's also okay to be scared." Meg scoots closer to Lilith as Lilith's eyes begin to well up. "It's okay. I'll help you through this. And if your jerk-ass family doesn't accept you, or is in any way mean to you, I swear I will go over there and kick all of their asses—"

"Thanks, Meg." Lilith sits up to hug them. "That helps," she sniffles, "a lot."

Not used to being hugged, or thanked in general, Meg awkwardly pats Lilith's back and says, "You're—you're welcome."

Once Lilith pulls away and wipes her eyes, Meg leans back. "So tell me about this girl."

—𝙧𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙨!

(1411 words)

𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙨𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜!! 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙉𝙊𝙏 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝. 𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨.

𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙤: 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙞𝙢. 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙞𝙩'𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚.

𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙤, 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙨>>>>