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Master EffeXTimestamp: 7:30am
Location: BHHS parking lot, near the skate park
Savannah "Payout" Payton, Everly Rigby & Nevaeh Morgan
Cameo: Mei Midnight & Jillian "Ashes" O'Brien
@NeoAJ, @Fabricant451 & Cameo work by @BrutalBx
Location: BHHS parking lot, near the skate park
Savannah "Payout" Payton, Everly Rigby & Nevaeh Morgan
Cameo: Mei Midnight & Jillian "Ashes" O'Brien
@NeoAJ, @Fabricant451 & Cameo work by @BrutalBx
There weren’t many things to be thankful for with a move halfway across the country, but one of the advantages was that the biological clock often took a while to adjust itself, and led to earlier wake-up times being easier to handle. It’s why ever since Savannah Payton arrived in her new stomping grounds of Beverly Hills she was able to get up for school at a time she could easily manage. It was still 8:30 am in Austin. Not that she didn’t loathe having to be productive so early, but when one doesn’t have the choice of determining when they wake up, among other things, it becomes tolerable.
By now her routine was pretty simple. With her mom preferring to sleep in, and Chris going off to the office bright and early to try and deal with the traffic, Savannah was left to her own devices to prepare for the day as she saw fit. Right now, that was harder to do than when she first arrived from Texas. Word had gotten out that when you wanted the good shit, be it marijuana, pills or alcohol, Savannah and the PLC always had the hookup. People put money into her pockets and got what they needed. She earned her Payout moniker in Texas, but it spread even quicker here. That meant the money was already coming in at a speedier rate than it did when she was working with Chapolita, and that suited her just fine.
She even had a vehicle to work with in California. While she wasn’t all that thrilled with the Sorrento her step-father decided to bestow upon her, it did have a lot of space. Both obvious and not so obvious. Anything she didn’t want to be seen easily got hidden in some of the hollow spaces of the Korean SUV. No one searching her car without a warrant was going to find anything. Savannah was certain of that.
It was a much quieter ride to school than usual. Of her assembled PLC regulars, only one wanted a lift today. Everly usually went to the school even earlier than Savvy did, intent on grinding the jumps at the park that served as their primary office. The skater girl was determined to nail tricks at a 100% rate, the kind of dedication Savannah respected in her right-hand woman. Ever since Miss Rigby joined the Crew, it was clear she was inspired to better herself in more ways just on the board. Whether that was her own self-realized action plan or Payout actually managed to have a positive influence on someone was not of her concern. The girl worked her butt off and it was appreciated.
The usual source of the noise in the back seat came from one of the most crucial members of the PLC, but Addie wasn’t on board either. The supplier of the best-selling product that Payout had to offer, the hypersonic Addie was always bursting with enough energy to power the Sorrento on a jaunt to Vegas and back. However, she was also absent from proceedings, with the only message sent to the PLC WhatsApp chat being “PANCAKES!!!” before she was unreachable. Every crew needed a livewire after all. Tesla was that member in Austin. Seemed like every time that girl wanted to do something, she’d put her foot down on the accelerator pedal and it would get stuck there. That was Addie here.
Which left the lone occupant of the backseat, the black sheep of Beverly Hills High. At least that’s what she’ll tell you. Nevaeh Morgan was well known for a fall from grace so spectacular the Russian judge had no choice but to give it a 10. The former cheerleader was a pariah following her brief stint in a juvenile correction facility. She was abandoned by her former plastic friends, excommunicated from her fellow drug runners, and left to drift along her remaining year and a half of high school. Right into Savannah’s arms.
Neveah was slow to open up to the Texan after Savannah spotted her skulking about the parking lot that June afternoon. Tough to miss a girl wandering around the California sunshine dressed in all black. However, once the shadow started to reveal bits of herself to the pink-blonde who didn’t shoo her away, what happened to her that left her such an outcast, Savvy couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Another survivor of the “justice” system, only she had so much more to lose when it happened. It allowed for an empathy that was foreign to Savannah at the time, but now proved very useful. Just as Nevaeh would.
It was the Morgan girl who linked Savannah up with Addie, Nevaeh being well acquainted with ADD on the outskirts of the popular cliques. That gave Savannah an opening with the specialty strains the botanical genius was cooking up. It was that success that got the attention of the rival Stratton cartel to the point where she convinced Everly that there was a better path than tailing the twins, who already proved they couldn’t be trusted to watch your back. Nevaeh backed up Savannah with words rarely heard at the time, and rarely heard since. In essence, there is no PLC without the Strattons casting out this… surprisingly well-built goth girl. Maybe that's why they were so pissed off.
But Nevaeh still kept to herself for the most part, the gigantic black headphones latched onto her head like a protective vice to keep her placated with the latest episode of whatever podcast she was listening to, getting her through school, lifting sessions, 10-minute breaks at the Cheesecake Factory, whatever she needed. Her obsession for the past couple of months was Midnight Frequency, a serial podcast blending music and mystery out of Boston that adorned the tank top she wore underneath her jet-black cardigan, the same one that was wrapping up another episode as Savannah arrived at BHHS.
It was easy for the goth girl to adhere to the dress code of the day, black being all she seemed to wear, but Savannah, rebel that she was, refused, sporting a blue crop under that bulky leather jacket that she was so reluctant to give up no matter the weather. Besides, it was October, it was technically getting colder. The ripped black leggings and dark combat boots were the only things that might have counted as showing some Pirates pride, but in reality, Savannah didn’t care. This was just a place she had to be in for another year. Then? Who knows?
The Sorrento pulled into the parking lot of BHHS and Savannah quickly spotted Everly’s board rolling up an incline, although Everly wasn’t on it at the moment. Was it another wipeout? She couldn’t tell. “Shit, let’s go see how busted up Ev is this time,” she commented, unsure if Nevaeh heard her over the synth-pop in her ears, but Payout hopped out of the vehicle, bag in tow, and the dark-haired Morgan girl followed.
As the Sorrento beeped closed and Payout approached the park, she finally shouted down, “Ev, you nail any of those tricks yet or are they just nailin’ your back?”
There was probably no other student at Beverly Hills High School who spent more time on her back than Everly Rigby. Even before the staff begrudgingly allowed for the construction of a mini skate-park rather than adding another extension for more parking spaces on school grounds, Everly was hitting her ass on the sidewalk, the asphalt, grass, even into a filled pool a few times. It came with the territory of being more comfortable on a board with four wheels than her own two feet. She could do simple tricks with the best of them, kickflips, ollies, board slides, but no one was ever truly interested in someone who could only do the basics and if Everly wanted to do anything with a skateboard…then she would have to deal with falling on her ass and getting back up. No one ever accomplished anything without working hard for it. Well, other than the elite kids of gajillionaires that went to school here. But the good thing about rich kids? They always needed what the PLC provided.
If Everly’s fiercely political parents knew that their daughter was, effectively, part of a drug empire, they would likely ship her off to the military to learn discipline or secretly hope she got killed or incarcerated for going AWOL, but Everly never sought out to get involved in the wild world of supplying and dealing illicit substances for students and the teachers who the PLC totally promised to keep secret - it just sorta happened. The Strattons just kind of adopted her when they saw her trying to break her own record for manualing. At the time, Everly needed three things: friends, a support system, and someone to help her step out of the closet publicly. The Strattons provided enough of the three to make Everly shrug and go along with them. It wasn’t until Savannah came around that Everly realized that the only one who thought she and the Strattons were friends was Everly. The PLC provided Everly with what she needed, and not just the pocket change from their little empire.
Everly was often one of the first ones at school in the mornings, not because she had morning sports practice or morning tutoring, she just didn’t want to hang out at home. She often didn’t sleep at home if she could avoid it and when she did, she entered her bedroom by climbing in through the window rather than risk the verbal berating that would happen if her parents saw her walking through the front door. But every morning, at least every weekday morning, Everly was at the parking lot skate park, wheels down, hair blowing in the wind, helmet only sometimes on her head. It didn’t matter if all she did before school hours was fail the same trick a hundred times, if she nailed it once then she was golden. For someone who was dangerously close to flunking out of high school, it was almost shocking how diligent and focused Everly could be with skating.
Today was, of course, no exception. Progress was slow but she was wiping out much less on the backward rotation this time. She was feeling good as she dropped in but the confidence faltered as she came down in an awkward landing on the first take off the ramp. Everly was on her back again, and it was only now that she was looking up at the sky that she noticed it was lighter now than it had been since the last time she bothered taking a break. How long had she been going? Had to at least be an hour and a half, maybe more. School would be starting soon but Everly would still be here. She wasn’t even following the theme of the day other than her jeans being black. Her shirt was a white t-shirt with a pink logo and her baseball cap was purple with the CR logo of the Colorado Rockies. School spirit was for people who would look back on high school as their peak and if Everly ever thought high school was the best part of her life then she’d probably hate herself more than she hated her parents.
The familiar voice of Savannah caused Everly to raise her left hand in a thumbs-up before she rose to a seated position. “You just missed it, dude. I got it twice this morning already. And I didn’t get it like forty times, but hey, I’m not bein’ graded on this so I only fail if I give up.” For the moment, Everly remained sitting but her attention was on her partners in crime. Her friends. And then she stood, brushing her pants with her hands and leaving the comfort of the skate park for the asphalt of the parking lot if only because it was uncool to make friends shout at each other so early in the morning.
“Shit, I’m not missin’ a business meeting or anything am I?” It wouldn’t have been the first time Everly was late for one of those. “Shit, Nev’s wired in again, huh? We gotta get her some AirPods or something. Anyway, what’sup, Sav? Adds didn’t come in with you?”
A laugh was the first thing out of Savannah’s lips as she heard Everly go off. Everly Rigby was never one to be concerned with marks or anything that wasn’t related to her own goals and ambitions. Once she was set free of the Strattons’ influence, it was clear she was more than happy to focus on what gave her fulfillment, and that was one of the things Savannah liked about her. Sure, when they initially met it may have only been on Nevaeh’s tip that Everly could offer a clearer picture of what the Toxic Twins were doing, but once she got to know the skateboarder, she saw more there. It was a refreshing change of pace after a month of watching Nev’s thoughts on the student body at large hold true.
“Nah, no meetin’,” Payout assured Ev. “Not ‘til after class. That’s when everyone’s gonna be lookin’ for that extra bit of school spirit ahead of the game. That’s what we gotta be ready for. Glad you’re hittin’ that five percent land rate on the trick though. You’ll get double that by the end of the week for sure.”
Savannah was also happy to see that Ev was embracing her own style and not dressed in red. That was one of the biggest things that annoyed her about this school. Everything was so cliquey, everyone had to be their own special specific thing, together as one. It sickened her. At least in the TCJCF, it was done out of survival. Maybe it was here, but the stakes were so far under what the other students here made it to be. That’s one of the things that she liked about her current crew. They crossed the various thresholds of the school. An outlaw, a skater, a goth and a brain. So close to a Lesbian Breakfast Club. Her mom loves that movie.
“I tried to get holda Addie, but ya know how that girl is. She is fuckin’ free-wheelin’ at all times. I think she got some breakfast? All she texted me was pancakes, so I dunno what that girl’s on. ‘N ya know I ain’t gettin’ Nev to ditch the cans. I told her before that she don’t need them giant things, but she wants the immersion.” Savannah turned around and pulled one of the cups off the black-haired girl’s head. “Hey Nev!”
The goth girl snapped out of her podcast-induced trance. “Hmmm?”
“Ya got anythin’ ta say to Ev before we check-in to class?”
Nevaeh thought for a second before finally uttering. “Not really. Hi Ev. Skateboarding looks good. Maybe we can have another lesson.”
Savannah shook her head and put the headphone back down. The Texan had no idea what Nevaeh was really like before Savannah arrived, but if reports were any indication, she would have been far more excited for today’s game. Also, she would be saying more than 12 words in a conversation. The Twitter handle and the few pictures that escaped deletion bore out that she once was a cheerleader, but now? Cheerbleeder was more accurate. She still wanted to be in class though, worried that any marks against her that were blatantly obvious would result in another lock-up. It made sense to Sav. Couldn’t make any money if you weren’t there to let the people know what they had. Still, it would be nice if she could get some talking out of Nevaeh that didn’t make her feel like Miss Morgan was operating on a character count.
“Anyway, just checkin’ in witcha. You know I like to keep you up to date on everythin’, so we’ll just meet back here after class ‘n start gettin’ the word out to our usual sources that we are open. I’d like to sell everythin’ before this big shindig I hear is in the works on the weekend.”
There was a big party over the weekend? Of course there was. There were parties all the time, it was exhausting how often rich kids liked to get together and party, though fortunately the big ones were often focused on big events: holidays, school events, the birthday parties of the crusted gunk in the grooves of a shoe that were the Hive Five and the Elite. Typical enough. As far as Everly knew, the only thing happening this weekend was the Homecoming dance. "Shit.” The Homecoming dance. Everly didn’t have a ticket but she also didn’t have a date and there was absolutely no way that she could ask Her to go; Everly was pretty sure that She already had a date, probably had one before tickets were even on sale. Was this the kind of shit Everly missed out on by ditching class?
"Wait, what party?” Though her thoughts were still on the fact that she once again missed out on a chance to tell Her how she felt, Everly was chill enough to focus on the important thing. A party. She didn’t know if she was invited but that hadn’t stopped her before. "We’re gonna wanna hold a sale or something. Fancy parties means some of these dudes are gonna want more than just dimes and nickels. I’m seein’ green in our future. Not, like, you know, weed but, like, cash. Cash green. You get it.” Business was potentially good on a day like this. Sure, people could go to a store but the PLC prided themselves on quality as well as quantity, not to mention convenience which could not be understated.
"On an unrelated note, and feel free to answer too if you want, Nev, but you thinkin’ of going to Homecoming? I know it’s kinda lame, it’s a school dance and all, but I mean..” Everly shrugged. She had no idea where her train of thought was going when she started and the destination remained cloudy even as she spoke. "So…anyway…big day for us today, then.”
Savannah looked at Everly for a second. The Homecoming dance was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. Too many teachers there who didn’t know what was happening on the side. Too many snobs among the revelers who liked to stick their noses in where they didn’t belong. There wasn’t a lot attracting her to that sort of thing. There was no money to be made.
But if it meant something to Everly… it had to, otherwise she wouldn’t be asking. Savannah tried to think about what it really could be. If she thought about anything other than the business for one second… It was tough to do that. The business succeeding meant survival, and survival was the name of the game back in Texas. Here, there wasn’t a dogfight just to get through every day. Could it mean she could take the time to just try and do something for the sake of doing it?
That still sounded kinda sappy in her mind.
“I dunno, Ev. I mean, I’ve never been one for all the fancy dos and such. I always end up stickin’ out like a sore thumb. Between the height ‘n the hair and all? It’s why I didn’t end up goin’ to prom last year either. Not much point in me showin’ up for only two months of bein’ here.” She looked over at the still-silent partner and lifted up the cup again. “What’cha reckon, Nev? You want to go to the Homecomin’ dance?”
Nevaeh thought for a second before sliding the rest of the headphones off her head. “If you had asked me six months ago, I would have said no. I didn’t go to prom either.”
“I remember. Think I found ya skulkin’ around the setup for that blowfest. That’s when we got ta talkin’ about things.”
“Right, so I wouldn’t have gone then. But now? Things are going well. We should have a night to enjoy ourselves. I still have some sleeveless dresses I would fit into. I would go.”
Savannah was a bit stunned by this admission from the excommunicated cheerleader. “Really? Shit, I thought at least you would be a dissentin’ vote. ‘N I know Addie by now, if she were here, she’d be sayin’ something like ‘Addie goes where she pleases, and everywhere needs Addie, so that means Addie is goin’ to Homecomin’!’ Or somethin’ like that.” She looks down and shakes her head before turning back to Everly. “I guess I can’t leave y’all to go without me. Fine, I’d do it if all the PLC is goin’.”
“Hey, look at the bright side. If it sucks we can just bail and go do something fun.” Everly wasn’t showing excitement, but internally she was happy; sure it meant having to raid her mom’s closet for something and yeah the music would probably be lame and the majority of the people even lamer…but the PLC would take a hell of a Homecoming photo…and maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that Everly could score a slow dance with Her. The window of opportunity to do something about the unbearable weight of having a crush so out of reach that She might as well have been on fucking Jupiter was closing by the day and the only thing worse to Everly than getting rejected was not doing anything about it at all. Why could Everly wipe out on a skateboard and get back up a thousand times but the idea of asking a certain girl to dance seemed like the most impossible task in the world?
“I’ll text Adds and tell her we’re goin’. And to have her tell Belmonte that I attended.” Everly was, of course, not going to go to homeroom. It was senior year, who wanted to be bogged down in going to class? “You two headin’ to class? Nerds.” Sometimes, Everly’s comments made her giggle. This was one of those times. “Save me a seat at lunch, though, yeah?”
“Yeah, but you know my idea of fun don’t involve bein’ in a dress, Ev,” Payout confirmed. “But fine. And yeah, Nev don’t need the absences, and honestly, neither do I. When you ain’t showin’, that’s when questions get asked. Least people here know where you are. But yeah, see ya out here for lunch, amiga.” She snapped her fingers at her homeroom classmate. “All right, Nev, let’s go make appearances. And thanks again for havin’ my back on that topic.”
Nevaeh smiled, those black lips standing out on her face even with the tanned skin around it. “You’re welcome, Sav.” Her headphones slid back on over her ears and she followed Payout as the two made their way to class, leaving Everly alone with her dreams of a 15% hit rate on that new trick.
By now her routine was pretty simple. With her mom preferring to sleep in, and Chris going off to the office bright and early to try and deal with the traffic, Savannah was left to her own devices to prepare for the day as she saw fit. Right now, that was harder to do than when she first arrived from Texas. Word had gotten out that when you wanted the good shit, be it marijuana, pills or alcohol, Savannah and the PLC always had the hookup. People put money into her pockets and got what they needed. She earned her Payout moniker in Texas, but it spread even quicker here. That meant the money was already coming in at a speedier rate than it did when she was working with Chapolita, and that suited her just fine.
She even had a vehicle to work with in California. While she wasn’t all that thrilled with the Sorrento her step-father decided to bestow upon her, it did have a lot of space. Both obvious and not so obvious. Anything she didn’t want to be seen easily got hidden in some of the hollow spaces of the Korean SUV. No one searching her car without a warrant was going to find anything. Savannah was certain of that.
It was a much quieter ride to school than usual. Of her assembled PLC regulars, only one wanted a lift today. Everly usually went to the school even earlier than Savvy did, intent on grinding the jumps at the park that served as their primary office. The skater girl was determined to nail tricks at a 100% rate, the kind of dedication Savannah respected in her right-hand woman. Ever since Miss Rigby joined the Crew, it was clear she was inspired to better herself in more ways just on the board. Whether that was her own self-realized action plan or Payout actually managed to have a positive influence on someone was not of her concern. The girl worked her butt off and it was appreciated.
The usual source of the noise in the back seat came from one of the most crucial members of the PLC, but Addie wasn’t on board either. The supplier of the best-selling product that Payout had to offer, the hypersonic Addie was always bursting with enough energy to power the Sorrento on a jaunt to Vegas and back. However, she was also absent from proceedings, with the only message sent to the PLC WhatsApp chat being “PANCAKES!!!” before she was unreachable. Every crew needed a livewire after all. Tesla was that member in Austin. Seemed like every time that girl wanted to do something, she’d put her foot down on the accelerator pedal and it would get stuck there. That was Addie here.
Which left the lone occupant of the backseat, the black sheep of Beverly Hills High. At least that’s what she’ll tell you. Nevaeh Morgan was well known for a fall from grace so spectacular the Russian judge had no choice but to give it a 10. The former cheerleader was a pariah following her brief stint in a juvenile correction facility. She was abandoned by her former plastic friends, excommunicated from her fellow drug runners, and left to drift along her remaining year and a half of high school. Right into Savannah’s arms.
Neveah was slow to open up to the Texan after Savannah spotted her skulking about the parking lot that June afternoon. Tough to miss a girl wandering around the California sunshine dressed in all black. However, once the shadow started to reveal bits of herself to the pink-blonde who didn’t shoo her away, what happened to her that left her such an outcast, Savvy couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Another survivor of the “justice” system, only she had so much more to lose when it happened. It allowed for an empathy that was foreign to Savannah at the time, but now proved very useful. Just as Nevaeh would.
It was the Morgan girl who linked Savannah up with Addie, Nevaeh being well acquainted with ADD on the outskirts of the popular cliques. That gave Savannah an opening with the specialty strains the botanical genius was cooking up. It was that success that got the attention of the rival Stratton cartel to the point where she convinced Everly that there was a better path than tailing the twins, who already proved they couldn’t be trusted to watch your back. Nevaeh backed up Savannah with words rarely heard at the time, and rarely heard since. In essence, there is no PLC without the Strattons casting out this… surprisingly well-built goth girl. Maybe that's why they were so pissed off.
But Nevaeh still kept to herself for the most part, the gigantic black headphones latched onto her head like a protective vice to keep her placated with the latest episode of whatever podcast she was listening to, getting her through school, lifting sessions, 10-minute breaks at the Cheesecake Factory, whatever she needed. Her obsession for the past couple of months was Midnight Frequency, a serial podcast blending music and mystery out of Boston that adorned the tank top she wore underneath her jet-black cardigan, the same one that was wrapping up another episode as Savannah arrived at BHHS.
"And that was Pool Kids with That's Physics, Baby. I don't know about you Mei but I definitely vibe with that song more now than I did when I was actually taking Physics!
“Honestly I don’t even remember taking physics, pretty sure I was wasted most of senior year?”
“Completely understand given a lot of the shit that happened! But back to the matter at hand, I know we were talking about what exactly happened to Erika Miyashima all those years ago, but we still don't really know why she had that plastic wrapped around her fingers!"
“The mystery of Erika Miyashima has endured for a long ass time and will continue to do so until a pair of intrepid explorers with fat asses and bad attitudes solves the damn thing.”
"So we will be back to the cursed shores of Lake Eden at some point to see if we can't wash anything up from the depths, and if we don't, well the bad attitudes will be on display. That won't stop us though! You MFers know it won't!"
“Don’t forget to submit your own hometown mysteries to us! If we find them interesting enough, we might just come to your town, empty your best bar of its alcohol, fuck your wives, steal your daughters and look fine as all fuck doing it!”
"Send us something really tempting and we will shout you out on the podcast, just like Caitlin Dubinsky of Noblesville, Indiana, who got us to come to the Hoosier State to investigate the horrific story of the Tenth Street Bank fire! That got Caitlin a free 'Fine as Fuck' t-shirt, a 1 on 2 meet and greet at Syd’s Fine Food and Spirits, and something that only she knows! So if you want the same experience, find your best mysteries and get in touch with us! Ooh, especially if you're in the Los Angeles area and can get us there around late November! I heard Violet Orlandi is playing a secret show, and I want to get a certain someone VIP tix for our anniversary! I mean, that someone is definitely not Miss Midnight! Nope!"
“She is talking about me because I not only want to hear Violet sing but I also want to bring her to our bedroom to do unspeakable things but I digress. But seriously, submit your stories and we may just wind up at your door. Until then, my ghouls and gals, here’s some slow tracks to bring your mood to where it needs to be. I’m Mei Midnight, this is the burning girl herself Jill O’Brien, you’re listening to the Midnight Frequency and this is Sex & Violence by Pensacola Mist.”
“Honestly I don’t even remember taking physics, pretty sure I was wasted most of senior year?”
“Completely understand given a lot of the shit that happened! But back to the matter at hand, I know we were talking about what exactly happened to Erika Miyashima all those years ago, but we still don't really know why she had that plastic wrapped around her fingers!"
“The mystery of Erika Miyashima has endured for a long ass time and will continue to do so until a pair of intrepid explorers with fat asses and bad attitudes solves the damn thing.”
"So we will be back to the cursed shores of Lake Eden at some point to see if we can't wash anything up from the depths, and if we don't, well the bad attitudes will be on display. That won't stop us though! You MFers know it won't!"
“Don’t forget to submit your own hometown mysteries to us! If we find them interesting enough, we might just come to your town, empty your best bar of its alcohol, fuck your wives, steal your daughters and look fine as all fuck doing it!”
"Send us something really tempting and we will shout you out on the podcast, just like Caitlin Dubinsky of Noblesville, Indiana, who got us to come to the Hoosier State to investigate the horrific story of the Tenth Street Bank fire! That got Caitlin a free 'Fine as Fuck' t-shirt, a 1 on 2 meet and greet at Syd’s Fine Food and Spirits, and something that only she knows! So if you want the same experience, find your best mysteries and get in touch with us! Ooh, especially if you're in the Los Angeles area and can get us there around late November! I heard Violet Orlandi is playing a secret show, and I want to get a certain someone VIP tix for our anniversary! I mean, that someone is definitely not Miss Midnight! Nope!"
“She is talking about me because I not only want to hear Violet sing but I also want to bring her to our bedroom to do unspeakable things but I digress. But seriously, submit your stories and we may just wind up at your door. Until then, my ghouls and gals, here’s some slow tracks to bring your mood to where it needs to be. I’m Mei Midnight, this is the burning girl herself Jill O’Brien, you’re listening to the Midnight Frequency and this is Sex & Violence by Pensacola Mist.”
It was easy for the goth girl to adhere to the dress code of the day, black being all she seemed to wear, but Savannah, rebel that she was, refused, sporting a blue crop under that bulky leather jacket that she was so reluctant to give up no matter the weather. Besides, it was October, it was technically getting colder. The ripped black leggings and dark combat boots were the only things that might have counted as showing some Pirates pride, but in reality, Savannah didn’t care. This was just a place she had to be in for another year. Then? Who knows?
The Sorrento pulled into the parking lot of BHHS and Savannah quickly spotted Everly’s board rolling up an incline, although Everly wasn’t on it at the moment. Was it another wipeout? She couldn’t tell. “Shit, let’s go see how busted up Ev is this time,” she commented, unsure if Nevaeh heard her over the synth-pop in her ears, but Payout hopped out of the vehicle, bag in tow, and the dark-haired Morgan girl followed.
As the Sorrento beeped closed and Payout approached the park, she finally shouted down, “Ev, you nail any of those tricks yet or are they just nailin’ your back?”
There was probably no other student at Beverly Hills High School who spent more time on her back than Everly Rigby. Even before the staff begrudgingly allowed for the construction of a mini skate-park rather than adding another extension for more parking spaces on school grounds, Everly was hitting her ass on the sidewalk, the asphalt, grass, even into a filled pool a few times. It came with the territory of being more comfortable on a board with four wheels than her own two feet. She could do simple tricks with the best of them, kickflips, ollies, board slides, but no one was ever truly interested in someone who could only do the basics and if Everly wanted to do anything with a skateboard…then she would have to deal with falling on her ass and getting back up. No one ever accomplished anything without working hard for it. Well, other than the elite kids of gajillionaires that went to school here. But the good thing about rich kids? They always needed what the PLC provided.
If Everly’s fiercely political parents knew that their daughter was, effectively, part of a drug empire, they would likely ship her off to the military to learn discipline or secretly hope she got killed or incarcerated for going AWOL, but Everly never sought out to get involved in the wild world of supplying and dealing illicit substances for students and the teachers who the PLC totally promised to keep secret - it just sorta happened. The Strattons just kind of adopted her when they saw her trying to break her own record for manualing. At the time, Everly needed three things: friends, a support system, and someone to help her step out of the closet publicly. The Strattons provided enough of the three to make Everly shrug and go along with them. It wasn’t until Savannah came around that Everly realized that the only one who thought she and the Strattons were friends was Everly. The PLC provided Everly with what she needed, and not just the pocket change from their little empire.
Everly was often one of the first ones at school in the mornings, not because she had morning sports practice or morning tutoring, she just didn’t want to hang out at home. She often didn’t sleep at home if she could avoid it and when she did, she entered her bedroom by climbing in through the window rather than risk the verbal berating that would happen if her parents saw her walking through the front door. But every morning, at least every weekday morning, Everly was at the parking lot skate park, wheels down, hair blowing in the wind, helmet only sometimes on her head. It didn’t matter if all she did before school hours was fail the same trick a hundred times, if she nailed it once then she was golden. For someone who was dangerously close to flunking out of high school, it was almost shocking how diligent and focused Everly could be with skating.
Today was, of course, no exception. Progress was slow but she was wiping out much less on the backward rotation this time. She was feeling good as she dropped in but the confidence faltered as she came down in an awkward landing on the first take off the ramp. Everly was on her back again, and it was only now that she was looking up at the sky that she noticed it was lighter now than it had been since the last time she bothered taking a break. How long had she been going? Had to at least be an hour and a half, maybe more. School would be starting soon but Everly would still be here. She wasn’t even following the theme of the day other than her jeans being black. Her shirt was a white t-shirt with a pink logo and her baseball cap was purple with the CR logo of the Colorado Rockies. School spirit was for people who would look back on high school as their peak and if Everly ever thought high school was the best part of her life then she’d probably hate herself more than she hated her parents.
The familiar voice of Savannah caused Everly to raise her left hand in a thumbs-up before she rose to a seated position. “You just missed it, dude. I got it twice this morning already. And I didn’t get it like forty times, but hey, I’m not bein’ graded on this so I only fail if I give up.” For the moment, Everly remained sitting but her attention was on her partners in crime. Her friends. And then she stood, brushing her pants with her hands and leaving the comfort of the skate park for the asphalt of the parking lot if only because it was uncool to make friends shout at each other so early in the morning.
“Shit, I’m not missin’ a business meeting or anything am I?” It wouldn’t have been the first time Everly was late for one of those. “Shit, Nev’s wired in again, huh? We gotta get her some AirPods or something. Anyway, what’sup, Sav? Adds didn’t come in with you?”
A laugh was the first thing out of Savannah’s lips as she heard Everly go off. Everly Rigby was never one to be concerned with marks or anything that wasn’t related to her own goals and ambitions. Once she was set free of the Strattons’ influence, it was clear she was more than happy to focus on what gave her fulfillment, and that was one of the things Savannah liked about her. Sure, when they initially met it may have only been on Nevaeh’s tip that Everly could offer a clearer picture of what the Toxic Twins were doing, but once she got to know the skateboarder, she saw more there. It was a refreshing change of pace after a month of watching Nev’s thoughts on the student body at large hold true.
“Nah, no meetin’,” Payout assured Ev. “Not ‘til after class. That’s when everyone’s gonna be lookin’ for that extra bit of school spirit ahead of the game. That’s what we gotta be ready for. Glad you’re hittin’ that five percent land rate on the trick though. You’ll get double that by the end of the week for sure.”
Savannah was also happy to see that Ev was embracing her own style and not dressed in red. That was one of the biggest things that annoyed her about this school. Everything was so cliquey, everyone had to be their own special specific thing, together as one. It sickened her. At least in the TCJCF, it was done out of survival. Maybe it was here, but the stakes were so far under what the other students here made it to be. That’s one of the things that she liked about her current crew. They crossed the various thresholds of the school. An outlaw, a skater, a goth and a brain. So close to a Lesbian Breakfast Club. Her mom loves that movie.
“I tried to get holda Addie, but ya know how that girl is. She is fuckin’ free-wheelin’ at all times. I think she got some breakfast? All she texted me was pancakes, so I dunno what that girl’s on. ‘N ya know I ain’t gettin’ Nev to ditch the cans. I told her before that she don’t need them giant things, but she wants the immersion.” Savannah turned around and pulled one of the cups off the black-haired girl’s head. “Hey Nev!”
The goth girl snapped out of her podcast-induced trance. “Hmmm?”
“Ya got anythin’ ta say to Ev before we check-in to class?”
Nevaeh thought for a second before finally uttering. “Not really. Hi Ev. Skateboarding looks good. Maybe we can have another lesson.”
Savannah shook her head and put the headphone back down. The Texan had no idea what Nevaeh was really like before Savannah arrived, but if reports were any indication, she would have been far more excited for today’s game. Also, she would be saying more than 12 words in a conversation. The Twitter handle and the few pictures that escaped deletion bore out that she once was a cheerleader, but now? Cheerbleeder was more accurate. She still wanted to be in class though, worried that any marks against her that were blatantly obvious would result in another lock-up. It made sense to Sav. Couldn’t make any money if you weren’t there to let the people know what they had. Still, it would be nice if she could get some talking out of Nevaeh that didn’t make her feel like Miss Morgan was operating on a character count.
“Anyway, just checkin’ in witcha. You know I like to keep you up to date on everythin’, so we’ll just meet back here after class ‘n start gettin’ the word out to our usual sources that we are open. I’d like to sell everythin’ before this big shindig I hear is in the works on the weekend.”
There was a big party over the weekend? Of course there was. There were parties all the time, it was exhausting how often rich kids liked to get together and party, though fortunately the big ones were often focused on big events: holidays, school events, the birthday parties of the crusted gunk in the grooves of a shoe that were the Hive Five and the Elite. Typical enough. As far as Everly knew, the only thing happening this weekend was the Homecoming dance. "Shit.” The Homecoming dance. Everly didn’t have a ticket but she also didn’t have a date and there was absolutely no way that she could ask Her to go; Everly was pretty sure that She already had a date, probably had one before tickets were even on sale. Was this the kind of shit Everly missed out on by ditching class?
"Wait, what party?” Though her thoughts were still on the fact that she once again missed out on a chance to tell Her how she felt, Everly was chill enough to focus on the important thing. A party. She didn’t know if she was invited but that hadn’t stopped her before. "We’re gonna wanna hold a sale or something. Fancy parties means some of these dudes are gonna want more than just dimes and nickels. I’m seein’ green in our future. Not, like, you know, weed but, like, cash. Cash green. You get it.” Business was potentially good on a day like this. Sure, people could go to a store but the PLC prided themselves on quality as well as quantity, not to mention convenience which could not be understated.
"On an unrelated note, and feel free to answer too if you want, Nev, but you thinkin’ of going to Homecoming? I know it’s kinda lame, it’s a school dance and all, but I mean..” Everly shrugged. She had no idea where her train of thought was going when she started and the destination remained cloudy even as she spoke. "So…anyway…big day for us today, then.”
Savannah looked at Everly for a second. The Homecoming dance was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. Too many teachers there who didn’t know what was happening on the side. Too many snobs among the revelers who liked to stick their noses in where they didn’t belong. There wasn’t a lot attracting her to that sort of thing. There was no money to be made.
But if it meant something to Everly… it had to, otherwise she wouldn’t be asking. Savannah tried to think about what it really could be. If she thought about anything other than the business for one second… It was tough to do that. The business succeeding meant survival, and survival was the name of the game back in Texas. Here, there wasn’t a dogfight just to get through every day. Could it mean she could take the time to just try and do something for the sake of doing it?
That still sounded kinda sappy in her mind.
“I dunno, Ev. I mean, I’ve never been one for all the fancy dos and such. I always end up stickin’ out like a sore thumb. Between the height ‘n the hair and all? It’s why I didn’t end up goin’ to prom last year either. Not much point in me showin’ up for only two months of bein’ here.” She looked over at the still-silent partner and lifted up the cup again. “What’cha reckon, Nev? You want to go to the Homecomin’ dance?”
Nevaeh thought for a second before sliding the rest of the headphones off her head. “If you had asked me six months ago, I would have said no. I didn’t go to prom either.”
“I remember. Think I found ya skulkin’ around the setup for that blowfest. That’s when we got ta talkin’ about things.”
“Right, so I wouldn’t have gone then. But now? Things are going well. We should have a night to enjoy ourselves. I still have some sleeveless dresses I would fit into. I would go.”
Savannah was a bit stunned by this admission from the excommunicated cheerleader. “Really? Shit, I thought at least you would be a dissentin’ vote. ‘N I know Addie by now, if she were here, she’d be sayin’ something like ‘Addie goes where she pleases, and everywhere needs Addie, so that means Addie is goin’ to Homecomin’!’ Or somethin’ like that.” She looks down and shakes her head before turning back to Everly. “I guess I can’t leave y’all to go without me. Fine, I’d do it if all the PLC is goin’.”
“Hey, look at the bright side. If it sucks we can just bail and go do something fun.” Everly wasn’t showing excitement, but internally she was happy; sure it meant having to raid her mom’s closet for something and yeah the music would probably be lame and the majority of the people even lamer…but the PLC would take a hell of a Homecoming photo…and maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that Everly could score a slow dance with Her. The window of opportunity to do something about the unbearable weight of having a crush so out of reach that She might as well have been on fucking Jupiter was closing by the day and the only thing worse to Everly than getting rejected was not doing anything about it at all. Why could Everly wipe out on a skateboard and get back up a thousand times but the idea of asking a certain girl to dance seemed like the most impossible task in the world?
“I’ll text Adds and tell her we’re goin’. And to have her tell Belmonte that I attended.” Everly was, of course, not going to go to homeroom. It was senior year, who wanted to be bogged down in going to class? “You two headin’ to class? Nerds.” Sometimes, Everly’s comments made her giggle. This was one of those times. “Save me a seat at lunch, though, yeah?”
“Yeah, but you know my idea of fun don’t involve bein’ in a dress, Ev,” Payout confirmed. “But fine. And yeah, Nev don’t need the absences, and honestly, neither do I. When you ain’t showin’, that’s when questions get asked. Least people here know where you are. But yeah, see ya out here for lunch, amiga.” She snapped her fingers at her homeroom classmate. “All right, Nev, let’s go make appearances. And thanks again for havin’ my back on that topic.”
Nevaeh smiled, those black lips standing out on her face even with the tanned skin around it. “You’re welcome, Sav.” Her headphones slid back on over her ears and she followed Payout as the two made their way to class, leaving Everly alone with her dreams of a 15% hit rate on that new trick.
