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Thursday, February 2nd

Femme-fatale-esque pop music plays in the Pain siblings' bathroom while Jayden puts her long brown hair up with a claw clip. She begins bobbing her head totally out of rhythm to the song in a silly manner until the music dims and changes to a Snapchat ping.

"Hm? Who could that be?" she questions while glancing down. The familiar weight of her phone makes its way to her hand and Jayden reads the name of the messenger, "Conion". Disappointed, she sucked her teeth loudly and set the phone down to read later when she felt up to it.

Hearing her, P.P. entered the bathroom to find out the cause of her stress.. or to possibly agitate her further. Nearly hitting his sister, he opened the door and peered in at Jayden's reflection.

Mentally laughing at her comfortable but messy look, he asks, "What's got you all annoyed?"

"Bruh, oh my god," she exasperatedly begins as P.P. quirks a brow, "You remember what I told you about Onion the other day?"

"Mm, yeah, him brushing you off and shit?"

"Yeah, totally just ignored me being not girlboss, whatever," she turns the sink on and gathers water in her hands to splash on her face with. After she turns the running water off, she continues, "Well, obviously, that was goofy, so I texted him about it. Told him he needed to do better and grow a penis, and I was clearly angry."

Jayden begins pumping face cleanser out onto her fingers, "So he's probably just-" she motions frustratedly with her hands, "-just trying to argue back. Probably gonna say something stupid about growing a pair or whatever his stupid gamer ass thinks."

P.P. frowns and grabs a hair tie from the door knob. He hooks it onto is thumb and pointer finger while speaking, "Ugh, what an asshole. I could just...", he trails off before shooting the hair tie at a bottle of lotion on the bathroom cabinet. The bottle wobbles in its place and the hair tie falls soundlessly on the toilet all while Jayden eyes P.P., unimpressed.

Under her judgmental eyes, he raises his eyebrows in exasperation, "But seriously! You don't deserve a guy who isn't gonna treat you like the queen you are. There's gotta be better guys out there, Jay!"

Jayden hums mindfully in response as she finishes applying white cleanser to her face. In the following silence, P.P. remembers the events of the prior day and gets a mischievous glint in his eye, "You know, maybe Warsinski wasn't wrong about Henderson! He's a sweet guy, and he means we-."

As he speaks, his sister picks the fallen hair tie up from the toilet seat and shoots it at him. P.P. laughs and wraps the hair tie around the door knob, then looks back at Jayden.

"I'm being serious! You've gotta find someone else, so why not him?"

Jayden finishes washing the cleanser off of her face and takes a moment to consider her brother's words.

Ugh, sure, he's a nice guy, but it's not like we've talked that much anyways! Besides, I'm not even sure he'd like me back...

...he'd never settle for a trainwreck like me!

"Ok, I'll think about it, P.P.."

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Friday, February 3rd

"...we multiply the divisor by 5, and we bring that down below the numbers we got earlier..." Ms. Ludvig explained. They were learning about quadratic equations in this 6th period, the last period of the day. Because Henderson understood this division method perfectly, he tuned his teacher out and continued working on his writing for the next Speech and Debate tournament.

Ugh, what am I even supposed to write about?! I'm hitting a writing block here...

After hitting multiple dead ends in trying to start a new poem, the bell finally rings, signaling the end of the school day. A normal student would be hurrying out of the door to get home and begin celebrating the weekend. However, a Speech and Debate member would begin entering their mindset for the club and stressing over case files and unfinished oratories. Henderson was one of these kids, so he packed up his things, said goodbye to Ms. Ludvig, and met his friend, Roselin, in the large hallway. They began wading through the crowd of students towards their coach's classroom. When it was finally quiet enough to start a conversation in the Speech and Debate room, Henderson confided his insecurities in Roselin.

"Dude, I tried working on my poem in Ludvig's, but I have no idea what I wanna write about!", he sulked, "I don't wanna do something cringey, so I'm still struggling with a topic, and I haven't even written that many poems."

Roselin faced him in pity and empathy, "Sorry, Henny. Maybe you can write about something, like, racial? I know Ashlyn's flower poem was a hit with the judges, so maybe you can do something like that!"

"I don't know, I feel like everyone writes about that stuff. I want to stand out and write about something different, like maybe friends, or food, or..."

While he rambled on ideas, he didn't even notice Jayden walk into the classroom behind his back. She grinned cheekily and answered for him.

"Or maybe that 6th grader you're dating!!" she laughed with her hand up to her mouth, covering her bright red lips and shining smile. Henderson looked at her and laughed with his endearing smile, eyebrows raised in mock offense. Jayden returned the sentiment then set her dirty black backpack down on a desk with a thud and sat on top of the desk next to it. She pulled out her phone while swinging her legs and humming to herself.

As she scrolled, Henderson admired her from afar in guilt and timidity. Unfortunately for him, Roselin noticed his behavior and was about to tease him for it. Although she supported her humble friend, she loved to push his buttons and make fun of him in good fun.

"Oooh, whatcha lookin' at, Henny??" she exclaimed, though hushed. Henderson whipped his head around, nearly hitting Roselin, and went red in the face. As he opened his mouth to speak, a new conversation began that caught the attention of everyone in the room. The present club members, only Henderson, Jayden, Roselin, and 3 more girls, eyed the newcomer with quiet but excited curiosity. The short-statured, coffee-toned guy entered the room and approached his prior-cross country teammate with a bright smile.

"Hey, man. You do debate stuff in here?" he began. They started chatting about Jayden being in debate and what she does during practice. While they talked, Henderson looked pointedly at Roselin with wide eyes, as if pleading for help or context.

"What, I don't know who he is??" Roselin responded indiscreetly to her friend's crisis, knowing of his feelings on Jayden.

Henderson could only wave his hands under the desk out of frustration with this new rival being introduced. With the chances he already felt like he had with Jayden, all he needed was a new, athletic guy in her life.

For the next few minutes, Henderson had to deal with Jayden's close friend, Ezekiel, being swarmed with the girls in Speech and Debate who were eyeing him throughout the room. Of course, nobody was interested in getting with him; they just wanted to know what was up with him and Jayden!

"Haha, how do you know Jayden??" Allison, a short and spirited Hispanic girl, asked with a cheeky smile and strong Mexican accent.

"Oh, we were in cross country together last semester. She was just really funny, so we ended up becoming friends."

"Do you have a girlfriend, Ezekiel? Just wondering, y'know!" Maria, a small and lively Hispanic girl, asked, poorly hiding her awkwardness.

"Uhh, no, haha."

The awkward interrogation continued as Henderson tried his best to ignore the prospect of Jayden's potential new boyfriend.

God, when am I ever going to be her boy?!

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"...So, your descriptions here are really effective. It's almost like I can actually see the scene..." Katti, the Speech coach, advised a speaker on their poetry. Henderson heard the conversation as he was walking out of the room to go to the bathroom. He decided that he needed a breather before getting back to work on his event pieces.

It's been an hour and I haven't even made any progress on my poem!

He grabbed at his hair in stress.

Sure, I've got an outline for my oratory, but what am I gonna do about this whole other event?!

Just as he was thinking doubtfully and miserably, he passed by the Debate classroom and glanced in out of curiosity; the door was accidentally left open during an ongoing practice debate. Before he could stop himself from staring, Jayden caught his eye.

Henderson's crush, Jayden, was in the middle of a cross-examination with her current opponents, Allison and Rudy. Henderson was entranced by the way Jayden carried herself so confidently and passionately as she tore the adversary's plan apart. The way her long brown hair moved with every emotional gesture she made, highlights of blonde and red catching the lights overhead and glimmering with emphasis. Her voice was laid with intimidation and authority as she spoke expertly of the flaws in Allison's previous attack.

Henderson had to remind himself to breathe after being mystified by the beauty of Jayden Pain. He gasped for air in awe of the display he just witnessed. Whatever stresses and struggles he was thinking about previously were all insignificant now. This is because the unearthly elegance of Jayden took him to cloud nine!

Suddenly, he was faced with a new notion...

...her. Jayden will be my muse, my inspiration!

No longer restrained by confusion, Henderson ran back to the Speech classroom with a newfound sense of direction: he would write the most romantic article of poetry ever to see the light and present it with all of his passion for the debate queen, whom he respected so highly.

I'll earn this trophy for you, Jayden Pain!