𝟶𝟷⦂ 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜

❝(𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚐𝚘𝚍𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚐𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎.
𝙸'𝚖 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜.
𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗,
𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝙸 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚛𝚎.)
(𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚐𝚘𝚍𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚐𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎,
𝙸'𝚖 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜.
𝙸 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚎
𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚍𝚎.)
𝚃𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎,
𝚃𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎,
𝚃𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚕𝚕 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚐𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎.
𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝙰𝚙𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚎,
𝙶𝚘𝚍, 𝙸'𝚖 𝚒𝚗 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎.
𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚞𝚙 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚟𝚎.❞
𝚆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚢 𝚆𝚘𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 – 𝙶𝙾𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚂𝚂

"Here's that song you wanted," Caspian Valentine said to a guy. He handed the song, titled GODDESS over.

"Oh, no, she dumped me," the guy told him.

"Oh, no," Caspian replied, in a flat tone, putting the song back in his backpack.

"Fuck off, Valentine," the guy responded, storming off.

"Fuck you too, bro," Caspian called after him, because pretending not to know the guy's name, Mark, was fun.

Now Caspian knew why Mark's girlfriend dumped him. Mark probably pressured her for sex because Mark specifically wanted 'kill to watch you undress' in the song Mark told him to write.

His phone rang and he took it out of his pocket and looked at it. It was his triplet, Cat. Her name on the ID was 'Annoyance 1'. Their triplet, Lolly, was under 'Annoyance 2'. He answered it, "What do you want, Cat?" He ran his hand through his shoulder length white hair.

Cat had dyed her hair red and then Lolly dyed her hair purple. Feeling left out, he just dyed his hair white.

"Hi, Cas, my friends wanted me to call you," Cat said cheerfully, like always.

Caspian was confused, "Your friends wanted you to call me?"

"Yeah," Cat said.

Caspian said, "Are you on speaker phone?"

"Yeah," Cat admitted.

"Oh," Caspian said. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Why aren't you in class?" asked Cat.

"I'm in between classes right now," Caspian said. He was sure he was starting to smell smoke.

"Our teacher hasn't shown up yet," Cat replied.

He spotted Mark coming back at him, "I have to go. I'm about to get punched in the face." He hung up and got punched right in the eye.

And then the school erupted in flames and the fire alarms started ringing.

Cat held Lolly's hand while Lolly held Caspian's hand as Cat led them inside Hollywood Arts.

They had gotten some strange looks because it was a strange sight; Cat was 5'4, Lolly was 5'6, and Caspian was 5'8, so it was an interesting height difference.

Cat had led them to the office so they can get visitors' passes.

She had been forceful about it, because she was the older triplet being born on October 12th. Lolly was the middle one, being born at midnight on October 13th, and Caspian was the youngest being born at three in the morning.

Cat suggested that she can put Lolly's bag in her locker, but it contained personal stuff and the books that Lolly was reading.

After getting the visitors' passes, Cat led them to her locker, which was pink with a tulip on it. She got her books out and they went to a class together.

"It's Sikowitz's class," Cat told them. "You'll like him."

"He has 'psycho' in his name," Caspian said. "I better like him."

The thing was, in their family, Caspian was considered the most normal one.

Lolly's CPTSD made her abnormal because of the fact that she was calm when finding Caspian's body or the other stuff that happened to their older brother, Frankie. Once, she almost got hit by a car when she and her triplets were eleven and just went on to school not even bothered by almost getting hit; even the driver was baffled by her expressionless face.

Mr. Sikowitz ran in, yelling, "Oh my god, there's a huge fire!"

Cat grabbed her siblings' arms and ran for the door to get them out, her older sister instinct kicking in.

Sikowitz said, "Kidding! Kidding! Just wanted to get your blood pumping which I did – ha!" He closed the door behind him, "All right! Now let's get started. Rumps in chairs."

"That's our teacher?" a brown haired girl asked a boy.

The boy nodded.

"Okay, first I'd like to introduce our new student, Tori," Sikowitz said.

A few people gave a bored sounding round of applause, Lolly included. 

"And I'd like to thank Tori for generous gift of two dollars which she handed me outside this morning. Not necessary but much appreciated," Sikowitz said, showing off the money he had received.

The boy asked, "Why'd you give him two dollars?"

"I thought he was homeless," Tori defended himself.

"And I'd like to introduce our two guests," Sikowitz said, gesturing to the two teens standing against the wall.

Heads turned to look at the two teens.

"Uh, I'm Caspian and she's Lolly," Caspian said awkwardly. He was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, but he had stage-fright. He played a tree in a play when they were younger and Lolly was still sure that Valeria hadn't forgiven him for throwing up on her. He couldn't even read essays in front of a class or even go up to write on the whiteboard without crying or freaking out. He couldn't talk to cashiers or order food. It's why he took speech class at the boarding school, to help with his public speaking.

"We're Cat's triplets," Lolly added.

"Ah, Cat's siblings," Sikowitz said.

Cat smiled and nodded. "Their boarding school burned down."

"Someone else burned it down," Lolly defended her and her brother.

"Some girl named Brigid," Caspian stated.

Lolly had dated the Irish girl who wrote beautiful poetry and had a love of fire. Brigid hated the boarding school with a burning passion, which she released by burning the boarding school down. Brigid wasn't an idiot and had made sure no one was in the buildings when she burned it down. Brigid broke up with Lolly because Brigid didn't look good in orange and Lolly deserved better than having a girlfriend in juvie.

Lolly moved her blue hair out of her face and noticed that one guy, who looked like he was wearing coffee, was looking at her.

Tori asked Caspian, "What happened to your eye?"

"I got punched in the face," Caspian replied.

"Anyway, we're going to continue our study in group improv," Sikowitz said. "Tori, I assume you're familiar with improv?"

Tori shook her head, "No."

"Okay, crash course," Sikowitz said, hitting the white board that had IMPROV written on it. He explained, "Improv – acting without a script. Which means, that the actors must make up their own actions and dialog as they perform the scene. Understood?"

Tori held up a finger, like she was going to say something, but Sikowitz said, "Excellent. Jade, you will captain the first group of the day, choose your actors."

Jade got up and got on the stage, with a sigh, she said, "Cat, Lolly, Beck, and Tori."

She said 'Beck' in a very nice tone. Lolly looked at the teacher, confused, as Cat, Beck, and Tori went to the stage.

Sikowitz looked at Lolly, "She chose you."

Lolly wasn't an actress. She also played a tree for crying out loud. Caspian took her bag and Lolly went to the stage, still a little confused. Why was she picked?

Cat beamed at her.

Sikowitz said, "Okay, let's give them a place."

"Home," a boy with a puppet stated.

"Home," Sikowitz repeated, writing it on the white board.

"Real creative," the puppet replied.

"You be quiet," the boy responded. He made the puppet 'slap' him in the face, "Ow."

Lolly was glad to see that there was someone out there more messed up than her and family.

"And now we need a situation," Sikowitz stated.

A boy called out, "Big news."

"André, nobody wants to see big nudes," Sikowitz told him, sounding a bit concerned for the teen.

"He said news," Lolly told the teacher.

"Yeah, I said news," André agreed.

"Ah, well, that's different," Sikowitz said. He said, "Big news!" He wrote it on the board and underlined it twice.

In a fake sweet voice, Jade said to Tori, "Why don't you go wait in the hall?"

"Um, okay?" replied Tori, leaving the room to go into the hall. Cat and Lolly looked at each other, before Cat went to the side of the stage and crouched down to play with imaginary toys. Lolly followed her sister's lead.

"Okay, at home, big news," Sikowitz started, running to the back of the classroom. "And action!" He took a coconut from somewhere on his person to consume its milk, for whatever reason.

"Hey, babe," Jade said to Beck. "How was work today?"

Beck said, "Uh, I got fired?"

Lolly asked, "Again?" She and Cat had gotten off the ground.

"Our daddy's a loser," Cat told Lolly.

"The biggest," Lolly agreed with a smile. Beck gave Lolly a slight offended look.

"Its okay girls," Jade said to her 'children'. "I have great news that will cheer up this whole family."

Lolly asked, "What news?"

"Yeah, tell us," Cat begged.

Jade went to let Tori in from the hall, "I went to the animal shelter and got us a dog."

Tori seemed confused, "Uh, yep, I'm the new family dog. Woof."

Lolly and Cat looked at each other.

Jade said, "Sikowitz, will you please tell this amateur that dogs can't talk. And they don't walk on two legs."

Lolly looked to see that Sikowitz was drinking milk from the coconut.

Jade shouted, "Sikowitz!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was sucking the milk out of this coconut." To Tori, he said, "But Jade is right. If you're gonna play a dog, be a dog."

Tori seemed to roll her eyes and got down on her hands and knees before saying, "Woof!"

"And action!" yelled Sikowitz.

"Uh, I went to the animal shelter and got us a dog," Jade repeated, starting off from where she left off.

"Wow," Cat said.

"So cool," Lolly said, pretending to pet Tori.

Jade took a lock of Tori's hair and said, "Uh-oh, looks like the dog has bugs in her fur."

Tori was confused, "Uh, woof?"

Cat and Lolly jumped back making sounds of disgust.

Jade was smirking, "Oh, it's fine. I read online that coffee is great for getting rid of fur bugs." She walked offstage and grabbed an iced coffee from a student. She walked towards the stage.

Beck started, "Maybe you shouldn't, um—"

"Jade," André warned.

Lolly asked, "What are you going to do with—?" Jade slowly poured the coffee over Tori's head, causing Tori's mouth to open in shock. "Okay?"

Jade dumped the rest of the contents on Tori's head.

Tori got up to face Jade.

Jade was smirking at her, "What's the prob...dog?"

Tori ran out of the classroom.

Lolly looked at her siblings confused, because what was that all about. Sure, Lolly had seen girls get mad at other girls, but dumping coffee on someone?

Okay, prior to the boarding school fire, there was a fight with two older senior girls; the tallest girl had dumped chocolate milk on the other girl, which resulted in a fight, with hair pulling, scratching eyes, and everything. The principal came over to break up the fight, but the taller girl had punched the principal in the balls, dropping him to the ground. The girl got on the lunch table and elbowed dropped the principal who was lying on the ground in pain.

The fight had been about a boy.

André took off after Tori, while Sikowitz scolded Jade for pouring coffee on Tori, especially in front of their 'guests'

Then Sikowitz seemed to notice that Tori and André had been gone a little too long and sent the puppet boy, Robbie, out to check on them, before continuing to lecture Jade, before realizing that the three had been gone and sent Cat out to get them.

It was rather awkward, especially since coffee-wearing Beck kept glancing at Lolly and coffee-pouring Jade kept looking between Sikowitz and Lolly too.

Cat badgered them about it, "Come on, you two. I want to graduate high school with you two by my side."

"We know, Cat," Lolly told her.

"Come on," Cat whined. "I think it'll help with Cas's stage-fright."

Cat had a point there.

"I don't know," Caspian stated. He couldn't talk to a goddamn cashier or do math problems in front of a class, without wanting to either throw up or cry, which was embarrassing, but maybe...it might help him get rid of the stage fright.

Cat whimpered and looked like she was going to cry, which was never a good thing. Sometimes she really did get upset over things, but sometimes she did that as a manipulation tactic, especially when it's directed at her triplets, because pulling the older sister card didn't work.

"Okay, fine," Lolly said.

"Yeah, okay," Caspian agreed, to get her to shut up.

Cat smiled widely and threw her arms around them both.

Lolly and Caspian looked at each other, because they knew they had been manipulated into agreeing with Cat.

Lolly's audition went over smoothly. She sang a song she had written called Dollhouse. Of course, some of it was based off her home life, minus the affair or her brothers smoking weed. Although, the kitchen part was because for some reason Caspian tried to take his own life in the kitchen for reasons that not even he knew.

The judges, the school guidance counselor, Alexander Lane, the principal, Eichner, Sikowitz, and two others whose names Lolly forgot, seemed into the song.

Caspian's audition went a bit rough. He panicked and tried to leave and Cat picked him up (he was a light guy) and plopped him on the stage because it was just five people that he had to perform in front of.

"You'll do fine," Cat told Caspian. "Just picture them in their underwear."

"Yeah, that just makes it worse," Caspian replied.

"Just focus on the wall," Lolly told him. "Look at the wall and nothing else."

Caspian nodded and took a deep breath. He started off singing quietly but he seemed to get used to it and sang louder the way he claimed that the song needed to be sung.

Lolly smiled because he was doing something that he liked to do.

Caspian and Lolly shared Sikowitz's class with Cat, which Lolly found interesting because growing up, barring first grade, they never shared a class together. In pre-school, they had separate teachers, but apparently, Cat and Caspian had started to get anxiety over being separated from Lolly. According to their mother, Cat asked where her siblings were, and when told that they were in a different class, Cat told the teacher to go get them. So, in kindergarten and first grade, they shared a class, until second grade when they were finally separated, and they didn't get anxiety by the separation.

Sikowitz started his lesson and Lolly ran her thumb along the tattoo on her right wrist.

When the door to the classroom opened, Lolly turned to see that Tori was the one who walked in.

Jade sat up straighter in her seat.

"Tori," Sikowitz said, sounding surprised. "You're back. Have you ever thought about coming in through the window?"

"No," Tori replied.

"Well, think about it," Sikowitz told her. "Now, sit, sit." He pointed at a chair. Sikowitz explained, "Okay, today, we're going to do some alphabetical improve. 'What is alphabetical improve?' you ask. So, I answered. It's when we give a letter to the first actor who speaks in the scene. If we used the letter 'a' as an example, then the actor must make his first word start with the letter 'a', which might go something like..." He walked over to Beck and pointed.

"Apples are falling out of my butt," Beck said and gave a cheeky smile.

"Lovely," Sikowitz said sarcastically. "Now the next actor who speaks must start his line with the next letter in the alphabet. In this case, 'b.' So, he might say..." He stood behind André, putting his hands on the teen's shoulders and rested his face on Andre's head.

"Bring those apples so we may all enjoy the fresh fruit from Beck's butt," Andre stated.

"Charming," Sikowitz deadpanned, looking slightly disappointed. Sikowitz went to the stage, "Now, who wants to lead the first group?"

"I do," Tori stated immediately, putting her hand in the air.

"All right, Tori, choose your actors," Sikowitz stated.

"Okay," Tori said, getting to the stage, "André, Cat, Beck, and Jade."

Jade arched an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah, you," Tori told her.

They went to the stage and Jade grabbed Beck, and kissed him very hard, more likely to prove a point to Tori.

"Jade, kiss your boyfriend on your own time," Sikowitz stated.

"Oh, I will," Jade said flirtatiously to Beck.

Sikowitz said, "Okay, if you start the line on the wrong letter—" He made a buzzer sound, stomping his bare foot on a chair, "You're out. Robbie, give us a letter."

"P," Rex called out.

Robbie had a small spat with his puppet.

"'P,'" Sikowitz said. "Okay, the scene can be anything you want, the first letter of the first line is P. Tori, action."

"Please go take a shower," Tori said to Jade.

"Quit telling me what to do," Jade replied.

"Relax, girls. Let's all try to get along," Beck chimed in.

"Totally!" agreed Cat.

Sikowitz made the buzzer sound, "Cat, your line had to start with an 'S."

Cat groaned, "My life's the worst."

Lolly took a piece of candy out of her jacket and handed it over, "Here, Cat. Have some candy."

"Yay, I love candy," Cat said, going to get it.

"I know," Lolly told her.

"Okay, André, letter 's' to you," Sikowitz said.

"Uh, something just bit my toe," André said.

"Turtle, that turtle bit his toe," Tori said, fumbling a little.

"Unbelievable that you're even here," Jade told Tori.

"Very immature of you to say that," Beck said to Jade.

"Come on, André, letter 'w'," Sikowitz encouraged.

André asked, "What if the turtle bite broke my toe bone?"

"X-rays are the only way to find out," Tori said.

"You should shut up!" Jade growled at Tori.

"Zap! I just healed your toe with my magic finger," Beck said, trying to bring the improv back onto the scene they were doing.

"Thanks," André said without thinking.

Sikowitz buzzed André out, "André, your line had to start with an 'a'. Sit down!"

"Aww, I just got my toe bone fixed," André complained. 

"I thought you did great," Lolly told him.

André smiled at her, "Thanks."

"Tori, letter 'a' to you," Sikowitz told her.

"Aliens are the only people who can heal toe bones by finger zapping," Tori said.

"By the way," Jade said and blew a raspberry at Tori.

"Correct, I am an alien," Beck said.

Tori gasped.

"Ooh, a twist," Sikowitz said.

"Don't hurt me, please," Tori said, stepping far too close to Beck. Lolly glared at Tori for the closeness.

"Even though she's extremely annoying," Jade said.

"Fainting because I can't breath the earth's air," Beck said, trying to do the scene. He got on the ground.

"Gosh it fainted," Tori said.

"Excellent, Tori and Jade, keep going," Sikowitz said. "The next letter is 'h'."

With false sweetness, Jade said, "Hey, why don't you go jump off the cliff over there?"

"I think you should," Tori responded with a fake smile.

Jade asked, "Just where did you come from?"

"Kangaroos," Tori stated.

"Lousy animals, kangaroos, they're awkward and dirty," Jade said.

"Maybe they learned it from you," Tori replied.

"Ooh," some students said.

Jade walked to the other side of the stage, "No one talks to me like that."

"Obviously someone should," replied Tori.

"Please run in front of a bus," Jade told her.

"Quite obnoxious of you to say," replied Tori.

Jade asked, "Really?"

"Sure was," responded Tori.

"Thanks," Jade replied dryly.

"Up your nose I see boogers," Tori said.

"Very clever," Jade stated.

"Wish you'd thought of it?" asked Tori.

"X marks the spot I'd like to punch," said Jade, pointing at Tori's face.

"Your...finger smells weird," Tori stated.

"Zero is what you are on a scale of one to ten," Jade told her.

Lolly could see that Jade was getting frustrated because of Tori. 

"As if I care what you think," Tori stated.

"Better watch yourself," Jade warned.

Tori asked, "Can't take it?"

"Don't push me," Jade warned again, clearly on the brink of losing it and yelling at her.

Tori yelled, "Eat your pants!"

"You eat your pants!" Jade yelled and held out her hand, "Wait!"

Sikowitz made a buzzer sound, "Sorry, Jade, the next letter was—"

"'F' I know," Jade yelled and gave Tori a dirty look before stomping off to sit down.

Tori looked far to smug in her ugly ass sandals, so Lolly rolled her eyes at Tori.

Beck looked up at Jade concerned.

Sikowitz said, "Keep the scene going. Letter 'g'."

"Get up, alien," Tori said to Beck. She helped him up.

"Head...feels dizzy," Beck told her.

"I know what'll make you feel better," Tori told him.

Beck asked, "Jumping jacks?"

"Kiss me," Tori told him.

What the hell kind of revenge was that? Lolly knew what it was because it was obvious, but what the hell? What point did that prove? That Tori was willing to kiss someone's boyfriend as revenge? It didn't make any sense to her.

Lolly looked over at Caspian to see that he seemed as baffled as Lolly felt.

"Little weird, let's do it," Beck said and kissed Tori.

Lolly's classmates clapped and cheered for reasons that Lolly didn't quite understand.