Jason never fully noticed who sat next to him in English. He doubted Leo did either.

    But today, Leo gave Jason a passing smile.

    Jason gave a kind smile back and thought nothing of it.

    But as Jason got bored of writing an essay, his mind wandered.

    To anyone else, what happened yesterday was simply a conversation between friends. But Jason and Leo weren't friends. Not exactly. And yet that was probably the most honest conversation Jason had since his father.

    Did Leo not know what happened? No, he must have. The news had spread like wildfire due to Thalia's worry and his mother's fame.

    Not having his father mentioned once in a conversation that had to do with college meant everything. Hell, it meant more than everything to Jason. When he's talked to his mother, she said to put being taken into admission essays.

    Everyone says to just put it in admission essays.

    It's so odd, isn't it? If a relative died while you were young, no one would say to throw it in an essay.

    But being kidnapped is exciting and suspenseful and makes your skin crawl. The same with cults and home invasions.

    Jason had learned to fucking hate the true crime community. Sure, they serve their purpose. Web sleuths can be beneficial on extremely rare occasions, but they can help.

    They stop helping when they use trauma as a form of entertainment. Hell, not even entertainment. Jason was just someone who got out of a shitty situation, and people were going to look at that and say, "Wow, I wish that were me."

    It's fucked up. It's so fucking fucked up.

    But Leo didn't ask for all the "juicy details" of being kidnapped by a relative. Leo simply talked to him.

    When was the last time someone just talked to him?

-

The day trudged by ever so slowly, just to spite Nico.

    It felt like they'd been at school for ten hours, yet it was only second period.

    But that meant it was Mr. Thompson's class, which meant Nico and Reyna could enlist the help of the entire group to figure out anything and everything about Frank Zhang.

    Sadie was currently texting her brother and his girlfriend. Apparently, the girlfriend could gain information from anyone.

    "Hang on, she said to make a chat," Sadie said.

    "Have y'all ever considered Shel?" Will asked. "Doesn't she know literally everyone? I mean, she's like the lesbian aunt we all go to for our problems. Carter and Zia only deal with couples brave enough to go near them."

    Nico paused for a moment while Reyna stopped texting Zia. He turned toward her. "Did you think of that?"

    "I did not think of that," Reyna confirmed.

    Will sighed. "I'll text her."

    Reyna went back to talking to Zia while Nico combed through every bit of information he had about the kid.

    Zhang was a Chinese surname, so he was either Chinese or adopted into a Chinese family. However, Frank is an American name. So either born in America or 2nd generation.

    It wasn't much, but it was a start.

    "Shel says Frank is sweet," Will said. "Don't worry about it."

    Nico shook his head. "That's not enough," he whispered. He then texted Shel.

emo: tell me everything you know

~gay~: this is a very new side of you

emo: it's always been there, just waiting to come out

~gay~: that's not menacing

~gay~: idk much about him he's just kinda vibing

~gay~: he really is sweet though

emo: this has been unhelpful

~gay~: lmao ok

~gay~: Nico, I swear he's a good guy. Trust me you have nothing to worry about.

~gay~: and don't bring Zia into this she'll give you his fucking hospital records

~gay~: just trust Hazel's judgment because I promise he is not the first person she's dated; she knows what she's doing.

Nico raised a brow. Hazel had never mentioned this before.

emo: wdym

~gay~: nvm

emo: shel

~gay~: nico

emo: I need to know this

~gay~: know what

emo: ...

emo: seriously

~gay~: what?

emo: you're lying

~gay~: lmao ok

~gay~: look my dad just got here and I'm about to be suffocated in a hug so ttyl babe

-

Leo was bored.

    Like, really fucking bored.

    What was he supposed to do? He already knew everything Dodds was teaching, completed the homework for all of his classes, and had no access to the internet because Dodds would make the class put phones in a basket.

    Now what could he do, pay attention? No, what the fuck? Who even does that?

    Instead, he looked at a singular speck on the board. How did that get there, he wondered. After all, it wasn't from a dry erase marker. Sharpie, perhaps. Mrs. Dodds had a few lying around; maybe she accidentally used one. But if that was the case, why didn't she just scribble some dry erase ink on top and then erase it? Did she not know the trick? How does a teacher not know that trick? Isn't it, like, their job to know stuff? If it's not, it should be. Last year, when Leo heard about the math cult, he was interested in a subject he'd already mastered. Random little facts make things more interesting. Wonder why that is. How does a little throw-away datum draw Leo in? Maybe because it's something new. It isn't every day--

    Something fell on his desk, a note.

    "What the fuck," Leo muttered as he unfolded the paper.

    Thanks for last night. Here's my number, Jason

    Leo snorted.

    "Mr. Valdez," Mrs. Dodds said. "Can you answer this equation?"

    Leo glanced up. The equation was simple. A 65-degree angle with the short side marked as 5 and the long side and hypotenuse as x and y. Two different ratios for that one.

    Now, Leo was brilliant, but he was not smart enough to calculate the tangent of 65 multiplied by five. A calculator, however, was.

    "Side x is 10.7 and... Side y is 11.8."

    Mrs. Dodds sighed. "Yes, you are correct. But do try to actually pay attention."

    Leo did not, in fact, pay attention.

    Instead, he stared into space, his brain going on random tangents until the bell rang. Then he ran to get his phone and texted the number.

a literal elf: that was some romcom shit

Jason Grace: was it a good romcom or a bad one

a literal elf: define a good romcom

Jason Grace: 10 Things I Hate About You, Enchanted, The Holiday, etc.

a literal elf: lmao no it wasn't that good

a literal elf: I'd rate it a solid She's All That out of Just Like Heaven

Jason Grace: ...

Jason Grace: what does that mena

Jason Grace: mean*

a literal elf: about a 7/10

Jason Grace: valid

Jason Grace: also, what's with the name

a literal elf: it was the nickname dubbed to me by one Sadie Kane

Jason Grace: Persephone?

a literal elf: indeed

a literal elf: though we refer to her as, and I quote, "the best person ever"

Jason Grace: what are the other names

a literal elf: we have stock photo white guy as will

a literal elf: ~gay~ as Shel emo as Nico ace is on the case as Reyna and lightning mcqueen as Piper

Jason Grace: stock photo white guy?

a literal elf: I agree with that one

Jason Grace: what would Sadie name me?

a literal elf: idk I'll ask her

a literal elf: she said "gay guy in netflix movies"

gay guy in netflix movies: NO

a literal elf: ok lemme get another one

a literal elf: she said "idk... blond superman, maybe"

blond superman, maybe: I'll take it

blond superman, maybe: wait not the maybe

a literal elf: but what about the shitty comedy

blond superman, maybe: true we all need the shitty comedy

hiya my violation beans welcome back to tangents with gabby

so early update and also short update and also shitty update.

i have a finals essays tomorrow and i'm dying my hair on friday and a quarter of my hair is enough for a full head so it'll be an all day thing

so i figured i'd update today.

now i know i'm gonna get attacked by the true crime community because... duh

but i will say, i see nothing wrong with watching documentaries however when it's obsessive and you act like you can do a job better than the people that do it professionally unless there is a bias based on minority

you are wrong sit the fuck down.

so i just took that feeling and emphasized it due to the perspective

now i need to talk to you about that fic idea

so there are two options

either i publish asap and have two fics at once

OR

we wait until this is at least in its final arc and then publish it

either way, it'll still take about 2-3 weeks after the designated date to publish because i've only got one chapter and a plan and no cover

so i'm working on that on the side and i might end up publishing it on ao3

i'll lyk if that does end up happening

anyway, i wrote an analysis on Spencer if you want to see that

please do so you can feed my brain gremlin that made me write that

other than that, i think that's all i've got to say

love y'all!