[h1][right][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/588109950006329429/604805293519667220/sara_header.png[/img][/right][/h1][table][row][/row][row][cell][img]https://66.media.tumblr.com/6933691b4a1442b1f9b2fc7204b81a1a/tumblr_pklwyjMSkL1u1fc83o1_r2_540.gif[/img][color=2e2c2c]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/color][/cell][cell][center][color=2e2c2c]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/color]

	

[sup]
[color=dcdcdc][b][color=a9a9a9][i]W[/i] a y  D o w n  W e  G o ,  P a r t  I[/color][/b]
[b][color=a9a9a9]location:[/color][/b] Zhou Residence → P. Johnson's
[b][color=a9a9a9]interacting with:[/color][/b] Zhou Xiaoli → Jack Wilkerson
[b][color=a9a9a9]◂◂  II ▸▸[/color][/b]  [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAEEAMl7d4][color=dcdcdc]People Watching — Jack Johnson[sup]§[/sup][/color][/url][/color][/sup][/center][/cell][/row][/table]

[hider="This is the Bad Place."]
[i]She found the time capsule,[/i] Sara noted absently.

Another Monday night, scrolling through her news feed as the TV blared on in the background, ignored. The reunion was actually happening, huh? Honestly, she thought that Jack was half-bullshitting when she brought up the idea, or that it'd be one of those plans where no one's really organised or committed so it all awkwardly falls apart. But people were actually responding. And the time capsule was brought up. Geez. She didn't want to want it, not in the slightest. And yet...

Sara frowned. It wasn't something to think about now. Tempting for sure, but she already had her closure. Thanks but no thanks, Jack.

A rattling from the hallway made her lean over the couch. Her mother was still getting ready.

[b][color=a9a9a9]"<<Are those the nice earrings, mama?>>"[/color][/b]

Zhou Xiaoli paused, lowering the silver pair.

[b][color=a9a9a9]"<<Ai, I knew they were too much.>>"

"No. No no, wear them!"

"<<I'm trying too hard.>>"

"First of all, no. He won't even notice! I had to ring him up once and he tried swiping his bus card for a solid minute. Plus, you want its good luck. That third date won't reel itself in, ma."

"<<Hmm.>>"[/color][/b]

The older woman clipped the earrings back on. She gave a little twirl before Sara, her modest dress waving with the motion. The daughter responded with a thumbs up.

[b][color=a9a9a9]"Spot on."[/color][/b]

Xiaoli chuckled and came over to press a kiss to Sara's temple.

[b][color=a9a9a9]"<<What time are you leaving?>>"[/color][/b]

Sara squinted. [b][color=a9a9a9]"<<Ma, what?">>"

"<<Tonight. Isn't there something with your high school?>>"[/color][/b]

Ah.

[b][color=a9a9a9]"<<Dunno,>>" she lied, "I don't really talk with them."[/color][/b]

Sara pointedly returned her attention to her phone, not seeing her mother raise an eyebrow. [b][color=a9a9a9]"<<I heard Jessie Bennett's son is back in town for a few days.>>"[/color][/b]

Crap. [b][color=a9a9a9]"Uh-huh."

"<<Melissa's girl too. And Krishni, Mrs Larsen, Aaron Percy...>>"

"Boy, that's a lotta people."

"<<I think there's a gathering of some sort. Imagine that. All these people coming together, reconnecting, smiling, while my dear daughter sits alone at home, again, re-watching Friends.>>"[/color][/b]

Sara narrowed her eyes. Fidgeted. [b][color=a9a9a9]"It's The Good Place."

"<<Watching The Good Place.>>"[/color][/b]

A tense standoff from the couch to the hallway. Sara wasn't even antisocial by any measure of the word but her mother always acted like she knew something her daughter didn't. It was such a pain. And with the kind of people that were attending tonight, if she didn't go too her mother would rag on about it for weeks.

[b][color=a9a9a9]"Oh, would you look at that. I just remembered,"[/color][/b] Sara conceded through a grit smile. Xiaoli waited eagerly. Sara suppressed a grumble and slipped her phone into her pocket for good. Damn gossippy neighbors. [b][color=a9a9a9]"There's a class reunion tonight. I won't be here."

"<<Oh, how wonderful.>>"[/color][/b]

With that, she headed out for her date, leaving Sara still scowling on the couch.

Urgh. She was gonna need her own damn lucky earrings for this.
[/hider]

P.J's was a bold choice, considering the establishment's whole identity/theme. Considering Jack and her weird insistence on hiding the specifics of her romantic life. Considering the absolute blockheads they attended high school with, and all their baseless jeers and dumb jokes. Maybe the other girl never knew what homophobic idiots they were, what with her constant skipping. Hard to measure the dickbaggery of your classmates if you never even show up.

Sara peered through the window, sneaking a peek. Sebastian at the bar, Jack too, some Adonis-looking guy she couldn't get a good view of. From the football team, perhaps? Not a stellar attendance so far. Didn't know if it was because it was still early but there was a decent lack of familiar faces in the bar for the moment. No assholes for sure. Sara breathed a relieved sigh.

Hm. Maybe Jack did know, and organizing the get-together at P.J's was some lesbian - no, pardon, 100% [i]straight girl[/i] - power move. Props to her.

Honestly, even without the less desirable people from her high school years, this was going to be a chore. Sara only had one target. Everyone else there would just delay her from getting to it. As harsh as it was, Sara had no interest in the others. They'd just go back to their lives after the demolition and she'd still be here, in Delton. There was no use for these connections.

Since there was no way to remain outside the bar without looking like some kid whose friends ditched her at the mall, she headed in. Sara didn't make any move to sit, instead just placing her hands on the capsule to examine it. 

[b][color=a9a9a9]"So, how many people we waiting on before we can pop this thing open?"[/color][/b]