GLITCH.
032 | terrible British accents

MIDSUMMERS, EASILY THE MOST INSUFFERABLE DAY for both Kiara and Renee especially as ex-kooks.

Athough being purely pogue at heart, that isn't what it explicitly said on paper, I mean.. The Lowe's were practically royalty of Kildare island, arguably more cherished than the Cameron's.

Although, not really Renee who no longer was mesmerised at the idea of people kissing the ground she walked on, it was now just freaky.

Despite it all, she was still forced to attend — even a kook princess who threw away her title for a common 'pogue life' was still mandatory to attend. Fake smile and pretend for a single night that she enjoyed her family's cherished status.

Having spent the entirety of the day at Kiara's house as the tense atmosphere between Renee and Lennon (who still was accusing her of being a liar),  was purely suffocating.

Renee had slipped out with her outfit and bag of various makeup before her mom had even woken up and could argue with her about it — god knows that she wasn't going to storm over to the Carrera house and force her daughter back home.

The only positive of this entire midsummers situation was that she had finally managed to convince her mom into letting her choose her own dress — she was constantly running her hands down the soft silk material of the midnight blue colour dress that pooled around her feet. 

gently running her freshly manicured nails through the waved curls that bounced just below her shoulders that Mrs Carrera had done for her earlier that day.

Renee and Kiara had seemed to make a tradition of getting ready for midsummers together: usually with the boys texting them with excitement they had for sneaking in with them and ruining the experience for all the uptight kook families. Yet it was already clear this midsummers wasn't going to be nearly as enjoyable.

" this is disgusting." Kiara claimed, turning around from the mirror she had been criticising herself in for the past three minutes.

Renee looked at her best friend in amusement, her head tilting as a mischievous grin sat beautifully on her lips.

" I know it's just horrible." Kiara's mom spoke, entering the bedroom struggling to clip in her earring " I'm asking you to relax and go to fun party." Her sarcasm evident at the lack of emotion in her voice as she stood in front of the smaller mirror.

" I look like bourgeois pig." Kiara groaned, looking at herself in the mirror. Earning laughter from Renee who looked up from her seat on the edge of Kiara's parents bed — partially from her comment but also a hint of weed that was still in her system from hot boxing Kiara's bedroom earlier in the day.

" I think you'd be the miss piggy of bourgeois pigs." Renee smirked, and began to blow kisses at Kiara when she sent her insinuated death glares, although it didn't last long as a smile broke out on both of their faces.

"Will you please not worry about socioeconomic injustice for one night?" her mom asked in a silent plead.

Kiara approached the behind of her mom who continued to get ready in the vanity on the opposite side of the room.

" mom, people not three miles from here have no power, no running water." Kiara urged " and we're going to midsummers, that is so tone deaf." A genuine expression of sadness and disappointment painted itself on Kiara's face.

" I have to agree with her Mrs C, it is a bit inconsiderate." Renee spoke, earning the familiar glare from Kiara's mom before she turned back to her daughter.

" do you know how hard we had to work to get into the Island Club?" her mom asked,

" yeah, mom how could I forget?" Kiara sighed, " you had to grovel for like, ten years-" Kiara always hated being reminded of the 'sacrifices' her parents made for her, especially ones that were more about their benefits than actually hers.

" twelve." she corrected her daughter who rolled her eyes at her words " and we also had to cough up a huge chunk of dough."

" and do you know why we did that?" Kiara looked at her mom and put on a moody look as she answered.

" to keep up with the Joneses?" she asked, the fakeness of her words practically dripping off her tongue whilst Renee nodded.

" I can't blame you, what very dramatic family." Renee told them, her high obviously affecting her ability to read the room. " could put the Kardashian's to shame."

" no, so you could have the same experiences that I had as a child." Her mom told her, before edging closer to her daughter. "Honey, do you know what the island club is?" she spoke to Kiara hopelessly.

" a factory farm for debutantes."  Kiara said, not putting on a filter to pansy away from what she felt the island club was.

Her mom was obviously slowly become more annoyed at the seemingly ungrateful attitude that her daughter was possessing. Her palms fell to Kiara's cheeks as she continued to speak to her.

" it is a nice place." She explained " with nice people, where you can do fun stuff."

Kiara scrunched up her face at the inaccuracy of her moms words " with out of touch rich-kids while the island sinks slowly into the ocean."

" Amen!" Renee contributed to the conversation finally.

Finally reaching her teather with both of the teenagers. Kie's mom looked at both of them.

" okay, I want you to put on your party face, Kie if you wanna live." she instructed her daughter before turning to Renee.

" you too Renee!" the blonde nodded, although it was unlikely once the effects of the weed wore off throughout the night she would be in any sort of party mood.

" THERE'S SO MANY OF THEM." Kiara sighed, both of the teenagers approaching the party — Kiara's parents looming closely behind making sure neither of the teenagers would ditch the party before they had even entered.

Their hands were intertwined as one of their stupid safety precautions that they had always and would continue to swear by.

Both girls were receiving odd looks by other teenage island club members, most once friends of Renee and now immensely disliking both girls, making this evident through their snickers as they set eyes on the pair and judging looks.

" I can't believe I use to feel like I belonged here." The blonde confessed , continuing along the wrap around patio that covered the entirety of the property, " I can't believe I ever liked these people."

" me neither." Kiara poked Renee's side " hey! I can see Pope." using her free hand to point towards the boy who was currently being scolded by his dad.

" oh thank god." Renee let a small smile tug at the corners of her lips as they began to approach the area segregated for Heyward's cuisine.

" I'm going to do a British accent." Kiara told Renee, she screwed her face up and turned to look at her bestfriend,

"Please don't, JJ taught you how to do a British accent." Renee spoke " hence why it's terrible."

Kiara didn't show how much offence she took to her best friends comment; deciding to go against her friends insinuated disapproval of the idea.

Pope was facing away when they approached the area, " excuse me sir, do we have to shuck these ourselves ." Renee felt her body tinge at the awfulness of Kiara's accent " cause it might mess up our costumes."

The definition of annoyance was engraved in Pope's face, at least until his eyes fixated on his two friends with grins of amusement that they had managed to annoy him.

" we wouldn't want that now would we?" Pope smirked, greeting his two friends with the infamous pogue handshake.

" by the way, I told her not to do the accent." Renee chuckled, still amused by the pure monstrosity that was Kiara's attempted accent.

" yeah, that accent was bad." Pope tried to conceal is cringed expression, Kiara immediately wanting to forget about her attempt.

" yeah it was, I was gonna let it go ." Kiara spoke sheepishly, all three of their eyes scanning the faces of the party, new ones appearing every second.

" you ever seen this many kooks in one place?" Kiara asked, keeping her head straight forward whilst Renee turned her head to look at her friends.

" yeah, last year." Pope spoke in a hidden sarcasm, continuing to work noticing his fathers expressions once he caught his gaze.

" we're quite literally in the lions den." Renee told them, feeling her heart ache at the sight of Lennon and his mom entering the party. She could tell his fake smile from a mile away — it was one she had only just realised she no longer wore.

" exactly." Pope agreed, soon turning to Renee who could feel his eyes burning on her body as she looked back at him.

" hey, either of you heard from JJ?" Popes words were spoken gently and in a delayed time, noticing the instant dropping of Renee's turned up smile as the words left his mouth.

Kiara looked at Renee who shook her head and swiftly turned her head back " no but I'm not worried or anything." she lied profusely

" he's got the survival instincts of like a cockroach, he's gonna be fine." although she hadn't stopped thinking about him for a second since that police car left heywards shop.

So many texts unread, so many calls declined — JJ had never really left slip about what his dad or more specifically the body parts of his dad would target. He didn't like being pitied, and he hated his friends pitying him. and the lack of information she got is what scared Renee the most.

she had no idea of what exactly Luke Maybank was capable of doing to his son. Where he would deem it too far.

" it's all my fault." Pope rushed his words, looking to the floor — Kiara and Renee were both quick to shake their heads at his comment.

" You didn't do this, Pope." Kiara told him gently yet her words with stern.

" Topper almost killed you and you saw what they did to Ren, remember?" Pope swallowed and nodded agreeing with Kiara.

The sudden uprise of applause caught their eyes, Renee scoffing at the sight of the Cameron family entering.

"Here come Lord Capital and the Exploiters." Kiara said in a tone of disgust, earning a small amount of laughter from Renee who nodded.

Her eyes caught onto Sarah's momentarily; she looked pretty...beautiful even but still Renee would never admit it.

And neither would Sarah, who gently looked the girl up and down too acknowledging how gorgeous she looked. Blue was her colour — it complimented the green of her eyes. She still wore beaded jewellery alongside the gold pendant necklaces that sat around her neck and would be taken off and untouched as soon as she got home.

It hurt, a single gaze could bring back all of Renee's pain and loneliness Sarah had caused her. A single look in her direction. And that's why Renee was the first who  looked away.

"Rose is going to poke someone's eye out with that." Renee hummed , her fingers toying with the jewellery that sat on her wrist, still slightly anxious from the momentary encounter with her old friend.

" oh most definitely." Pope agreed shortly,

Renee glanced back at her brother who seemed to be severely on edge with her moms apparently calming words not working.

" I'm going to go see Lennon, I won't be long." Kiara nodded and Pope waved at her as she began to lone wolf midsummers.

Shimming through the groups of people on the dance floor, with abrupt but kind ways of excusing herself she finally made her way up to the patio — noticing Lennon divert his eyes away from his little sister and take another heavy sip from his glass that was clenched harshly in the grasp of his hand.

" hey." Renee's voice was quiet, slightly awkward and confused on what even to say to her brother. " you ok?"

" what do you want Ren?" Lennon's tone wasn't bitter although his words seemed to be — he was so conflicted, the issue that his sister presented him with last night hadn't stopped pulsing through his brain.

" I just-" she huffed and looked at the back of their mom who was currently engaging in conversation with Ward and Rose.

" I just want to know if you're alright." The blonde siblings looked at eachother for a split second in an emotion that for once wasn't negative.

Lennon had mentally let his guard down, his sister could see it and if anyone else was paying attention to him they would have too — her doe green eyes drowning in concern for her older brother looked at his stern ones.

" oh yeah, you telling me my best friend assaulted you put me in a great mood." He spoke in a clear sarcasm, the moment was over as Renee rolled her eyes.

" you still don't believe me, and for some reason I'm surprised." Renee screwed her face up,

"All I'm thinking is that maybe you'd had enough with your little dispute with Sarah and moved on to another Cameron to turn against." His words were horrid, full of vile connotations and characteristics Renee didn't nor would ever possess.

" oh yeah, I forgot that I did this to myself and literally haven't told anyone about it..all to punish Rafe." Her words didn't make sense, which was the exact point. Lennon furrowed his eyebrows — it did make sense: if it were all a scheme to ruin Rafe's reputation, she would have had to tell the police so he could face actual consequences. But she didn't and she hadn't told anyone. Lennon found her injuries, she didn't show him.

" Lennon!" Rafe Cameron's voice stung Renee's ears as she looked up to the boy who stood with his arm wrapped over her brother's shoulders.

A sense of repulsiveness tinged at Renee's skin as she scowled at Rafe's eyes looking up and down her body, even feeling nauseous as his tongue wetted his lip.

" damn you look good Ren, like really good." Renee ignored Rafe with a roll of her eyes and diverted her attention to her brother who stayed silent whilst his friend verbally harrassed. " you wash up nicely for a pogue."

" Lennon, please." her beg falling back to her words last night, he was still questioning on whether to believe her or not.

The vulnerability in her eyes evident as they started to cloud up. " can we just go and talk somewhere?"

"You just worry about who you're friends with and I'll worry about who I am friends with, okay?" picking up his glass he followed Rafe towards Kelce and Topper who already seemed to be in the midst of a tense conversation.

Renee felt a slight shiver at Kiara's hand landing on her shoulder. The blonde almost melted into her best friend — huffing softly.

" I brought money to bribe the bus boys into getting some drinks." Renee withheld a snort at Kiara's words , a fond memory of the past years of midsummers parties lingering in her mind.

" then what are we waiting for, lead the way Carrera!" Renee cheered, grabbing Kiara's hand as they began to sneak around the party.

AUTHORS NOTE
I was going to put midsummers into one chapter but it's a big part of episode 5 and deserves two chapters dedicated towards it :)

also. I already miss writing jenee fluff and it's only been two chapters :(