[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180522/8ad9c79f9f0dda42de86c4c53e7fa87f.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ISEMmDA.png[/img]
[i]With your dose of early morning banter to start the day.[/i][/center][hr]
[indent]While most of her classmates were making last-minute arrivals to school, Soleil Jameson and her group of best friends -with the exception of Marco- were just finishing up their breakfasts in King’s Academy’s cafeteria. The Alphas -who were usually the loud, beefed-up, rowdy jocks in the corner table who annoyed and intimidated the shit of the rest of their schoolmates- were unusually quiet on this particular day. The truth of the matter was that they were all facing the consequences of their actions of the previous night: a killer hangover courtesy of the many drinking games and dares they’d gotten themselves into at Marco’s party. Even after attempting to sweat out the alcohol with an early gym session, The Alphas were left to nurse their pounding headaches, nausea and a thirst that neither water nor Gatorade seemed to quench.

[color=limegreen]“Fuck, man… My head is fucking throbbing right now,”[/color] Johann Shen complained, eyes shut closed while he cradled his aching head between his hands. For the Singaporean-American boy to take the risk of messing up his luscious black locks meant that he truly was feeling badly… As if his slouching wasn’t telling enough. [color=limegreen]“Those Cuervo shots at the end really fucked me up.”[/color]

[color=orangered]“Which of the two heads are we talking about here?”[/color] Fayed Jalali asked, shooting Johann an impish grin and somehow looking as if -contrary to the rest of them- the last night’s shenanigans hadn’t affected him at all. How the Pakistani teen managed to keep his humor and make one of his signature double-entendre jokes while feeling like he was on the edge of alcohol poisoning was a mystery to the rest. This earned him appreciative chuckles from the rest of the group, and a light elbow on the ribs from the Asian. [color=orangered]“But for real, though. My stomach feels like it’s swimming in alcohol and Gatorade.”[/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]“Oh yeah? Try doing an hour of cardio at the gym after puking your guts out at least five times before six in the morning,”[/color] Nolan Bradshaw replied in his usual -although slightly less authoritarian- drawl while slumped in his seat, looking very much like an extra for a Night of the Living Dead movie. The blond male’s head was cast downward, in contrast to the proud, borderline arrogant way he held it when he was sober: a sure sign he wasn’t feeling good.

[color=orangered]“Better out than in, is what I always say. Unless, ya know, you’re in the middle of it. Don’t want the lady to cuss you out because you pulled it out when she was just about to-”[/color]

[color=slategray]“[i]Thank you[/i] for enlightening us, Fayed. We certainly appreciate you passing on the wisdom of your people to us Americans,”[/color] Tommy Prescott cut him off, showing the politically incorrect, cynical, sarcastic humor you wouldn’t imagine the most serious, laid-back member of The Alphas having. If you judged him from the attitude and looks, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this brown-haired, eternally poker-faced young man was, in fact, the younger brother of preppy, bleach-blonde cheerleader Courtney Prescott.

Fayed shot Tommy an amused grin, eyebrows raised in an entertained expression with his friend’s racist joke. [color=orangered]“Of course, man! Don’t want all you beefcakes to fall short on where it [i]really[/i] matters,”[/color] he shot back, making a jab at his muscled-yet-scrawny figure when compared to the rest of The Alphas.

[color=royalblue]“Thanks for the advice, man, but I don’t need it. Girls love me,”[/color] Johann managed to argue, raising his head a little to give Fayed a smirk.

[color=orangered]“If by ‘girls’ you mean one, and that one being Jasmine Brooks on Homecoming last year, then I’m sure girls [i]do[/i] love you.”[/color]

[color=limegreen]“Shit, Jalali. What’s so bad about not sticking your dick into every moving object? Excuse me for trying to focus on other important things!”[/color]

[color=firebrick]“Who needs reality TV when you can have [i]this[/i] for free?”[/color] Soleil finally piped up, smirking at herself while mindlessly scrolling through the ESPN News app on her phone. [color=firebrick]“God, you guys bicker more than a married couple, I fucking swear to God,”[/color] She loved her friends (though she would never say that out loud because it’s [i]fucking gay as shit[/i]), and loved the banter between them. That and intense arguments over sports meant that things were going good and they didn’t have a care in the world. So even if they were all a hot mess today, The Alphas were still going strong.

[color=orangered]“So like you and Big Mac do?”[/color] Fayed interjected without hesitation, aiming his cannons at Sol now and causing a ripple of chuckles to go around the group.

[color=firebrick]“That’s a low blow, Jalali. Mac’s not here to defend himself,”[/color] Shady replied with a smile on her face to show she was joking around too. [color=firebrick]“Plus Mac’s, like, my brother, you perverted piece of shit. Fucking him would be some kind of incest shit.”[/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]“The fuck is Big Mac, anyway? He missed the gym and he’s not here yet,”[/color] Nolan questioned in an attempt to change the subject, blue eyes looking up at Sol now with his blond head cocked to the side.

[color=firebrick]“Knowing him, he’s probably still snoring in his bed after missing all seven of his alarms,”[/color] the brunette replied, rolling her eyes with a smirk. [color=firebrick]“I don't blame him, though. I'm sure he's fucking hammered. Here, let me text him,”[/color] she said, grabbing her phone and tying up a text for Marco as if she hadn’t been texting him since she first opened her eyes that morning.


[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/uiOMCQS.png[/img][/center]

Soleil and Marco had been friends for nearly ten years now. This meant that she knew him as well as she knew herself, including the little quirks that the rest of their friend group wouldn’t be aware of. One of these quirks was that, on every new semester, Big Mac would be late for what seemed like the stupidest reasons in the world. Last semester’s excuse had been that he couldn’t find his left sock, and he refused to wear another pair because “it didn’t feel right”. The semester before that one was because he’d misplaced his backpack, which turned up in the main hallway coat closet, where he’d placed it the night before so as not to forget it the next morning. So, in the end, him being late on the first day was nothing new. And the semester before [i]that[/i] it had been because he’d decided to make cinnamon raisin pancakes from scratch (instead of taking the logical decision of letting his mom or their kitchen lady make them), burnt the first two batches, and by the time he was done eating he was already running late. Smiling to herself, Shady was looking forward to this year’s excuse. She knew it would be as unique as he was.

No sooner than she’d hit “Send”, the warning bell rang, letting the students know they had ten minutes to make their way to their respective classrooms before lessons started. A collective groan of exhaustion was made by The Alphas before they each stood up to throw away their garbage and leave the cafeteria. Making plans to meet up at the gym after their respective practices, the group of best friends walked down the halls in a formation they didn’t even know they were doing. One by one, each member of The Alphas entered their assigned classroom, until only Soleil was left. 

Sighing, the young woman entered her homeroom classroom and took a seat in the back, dumping her backpack in the chair next to her to make sure Marco had a seat whenever he arrived. Her resting bitch face, emphasized by the raging hangover, was more than enough to keep anyone away from Marco’s seat. Shady had just enough time to send Marco one last text before the last bell rang, their homeroom teacher arrived, and the semester officially started.[/indent]