[color=gray][right][b][i]TIMESTAMP: MONDAY NOON, AFTER PUFFS AHOY[/i][/b][/right]
[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220901/9fe3bda488e116f74ffbf95ee2710dd7.png[/img][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220901/eacb6a3711c4f6a0f70335a4a365e90c.png[/img][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220901/412b04a8ec9669dc620c688f00f1ecce.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/6UrJ8dZ.png[/img]
[sub]A [@Venus], [@LovelyComplex], [@metanoia] and [@Aces Away] Collaboration
Featuring [color=7B68EE]Natalia Belmonte[/color], [color=fe6f5e]Poppy James[/color], [color=e62020]Jade Taylor[/color] & [color=crimson]Mordechai Boaz[/color][/sub][/center][hr]
[indent][indent]The sound of knocks on her door coaxed the sleeping Natalia into a state of half-wakefulness. After an early breakfast with her father and some invaluable time spent with him and her mother, the fifth Belmonte had retreated to her bedroom in search of the sleep that had eluded her the night before. Thankfully, a lighter conscience and a full stomach proved to be helpful in her quest, and less than five minutes after her head had hit the pillow, Tal had drifted off to Dream Land. She had expected to be out cold until dinner time at the earliest, waking up just long enough to share another meal with whoever was at the house before returning to her bedroom for what she hoped was more sleep. Her plans, however, were thwarted by whoever was currently requesting entry into her chambers.

It took a long few seconds for the lethargic brunette to muster up enough strength to slowly pull herself into a seating position, and another moment until she was able to rise from her bed and trudge to the door. After a few attempts, the young woman was finally able to unlock the knob, turn it and swing the door open to reveal her visitors.

A mixture of surprise and confusion rendered Natalia speechless for a moment. [color=7B68EE]“Heyyyyyyy,”[/color] Natalia mumbled, the sleep still thick in her voice as she squinted in surprise and confusion at the faces standing in front of her. Why would Mordechai Boaz, Jade Taylor and Poppy James be at her house? What could have possibly brought three of the most Southie classmates she had not only to the Northside, but to be standing outside her bedroom?

[color=fe6f5e]“Mind if we just—”[/color] Natalia was a friend of Charlie’s, which meant that she would get the Penelope treatment. That was: Poppy would welcome herself in, regardless of how the person felt, regardless if they wanted her to, and regardless of the vibe. This was what she did and if Charlie trusted the Queen Bee, Penelope would learn to do the same. There was no room for sadness. She was [i]healing[/i] or trying to at least. [color=fe6f5e]“—I’m just going to squeeze, yeah. There we go.”[/color] Poppy had slipped past the groggy Natalia and was now standing in her room, looking at the size and all the things of comfort and leisure. She whistled, impressed, [color=fe6f5e]“Nice room you got. Smells like Cotton Candy. Like a lot of it, but hey nothing wrong with sweet things.”[/color] 

[color=7B68EE]"Thanks,”[/color] Natalia muttered, gesturing for Jade and Decky to enter her room before closing the door behind them. When she looked back at the state of her bedroom, she mentally grimaced. In better circumstances, her parents would have given her an earful for allowing guests entry to the premises when they were in such a state. With its disheveled sheets atop the bed, items of clothing strewn about, candy wrappers, bags of chips, empty water bottles and soda cans littering the floor, the room was nothing short of an absolute mess. At least it didn’t stink, though, according to Poppy’s observation. Tal would never forgive herself if she let any foul odors invade her room. [color=7B68EE]"The, uh, the cotton candy smell. That’s from my vape,"[/color] she explained, making her way to the desk chair in the corner of her room and taking a seat.

Natalia sat in silence for a long moment, staring at the Southies’s faces again while trying to figure out whether this was a fever dream, a bad trip from mixing up the weed and her pills, or real life. The pain from a quick pinch to the palm of her hand coincided with the latter, but there was only one way to make sure she truly wasn’t hallucinating. [color=7B68EE]“I don’t mean to be rude, but, uh, what are you guys doing here?”[/color]

The Angel Princess helped herself, almost mimicking Poppy as she looked around the room, completely ignoring Natalia’s question for the time being. One thing she picked up on was the amount of trash all over the floor. She didn’t know what to expect from the former Queen Bee of their graduating class, but it certainly wasn’t this. Almost reminded her of how her apartment looked. Not as many snacks, mind you and with more evidence of the remnants of nose candy, but it felt familiar. 

[color=e62020]“You look like shit.”[/color] Jade bluntly observed, while the Northie gave her a knowing half-smile and said nothing.

She could tell when someone wasn’t well. She wasn’t well. If the room was any indication, Jade, out of anyone, could understand that. She spent so long in her own self-pity, only coming out of her hibernation for work, shopping, and her weekly Sunday meet-ups with Anya. Other than that, Jade had no contact with anyone. Not her family. Not her club. Not even the two who were in the queen bee’s room with her. She didn’t know if Natalia was cut from the same cloth, but the amount of empty wrappers and other assorted trash hinted at anything, Jade would put her money on it that she was. 

[color=e62020]“Sorry, didn’t mean to say that so..bluntly. Guess I’m the rude one now. Anyway, we’re here for…uh, well I’m not even sure how to put it…”[/color] Jade looked between Key and Poppy. Maybe one of them should bring it up. Jade neither had been around long enough to be entitled to put it out there nor the state of mind to phrase it in a way that didn’t make her seem insensitive. She didn’t understand it fully herself and that might only make things worse. 

Poppy could bring the quest to find Charlie’s sister up but she’d already put in so much effort gathering her two friends and making her way to Scott Street. Plus, from the looks of it, her and Jade weren’t the best at this whole introduction thing. It was a weird situation to seek someone from your class out that you barely knew to see if she’d want to tag along and drive. So instead, Poppy nudged Mordechai to speak up by roughly pressing her elbow to his side. She looked at him and her eyes said it all: [i][color=fe6f5e]Tag, you’re it.[/color][/i]

There was an air of anxiousness coming from the three Southies. It was all over the way they fidgeted around the room, how they seemed to hesitate before they spoke, and how they were trying to measure their words. Their demeanor made Natalia uneasy, adding to the nerves she already had at being this close to Poppy James in a room she and Charlie Decker had been together in. It wasn't long before Tal found herself tapping her foot against the floor, wishing her visitors would just up and say what they needed instead of letting this nail-biting anticipation grow any longer.

[color=7B68EE]"Shit, did something happen to Creed or Jokes?"[/color] Natalia blurted out as the scary thought came to her, searching the Southies' faces for answers. [color=7B68EE]"Or Momma Kam or Mika? Because if that's what's going on then all I need is five seconds to change clothes and we're out the door,"[/color] she told them, pointing at the door with her thumb.

Mordechai had grunted at Poppy's elbowing him and glared at her from the corner of his eye. Yeah, he got that she was pissed at him, but why the fuck did he have to take the lead?! He's only been slightly more active than Jade this past month plus, not to say anything of the past two years. He'd been zoning out since they walked in the room, eyes trailing blankly over Natalia's slow attempt to turn her bedroom into a drug den the Southside would be proud of. The sober part of him itched to clean the place up just as strongly as the part of him that will always be a junkie itched to ask what she had. 

[color=crimson]"I got it,"[/color] he growled at Poppy, the current environment causing him irritation that bled into his tone. He took a breath and closed his eyes to settle himself before opening them to train them on his old kind-of-friend. [color=crimson]"Everyone's fine as far as I know, but I've only really seen Mika. That's not why we're here,"[/color] he kept his hands securely in his pockets, eyes on Natalia so they don't stray to the mess around the room and give her the mistaken notion that he was judging her. He was just feeling empathy for the faded and unfocused gaze behind the mild panic in her eyes. [color=crimson]"Look, we gotta go ta Blue Hill for Hard Times' sister, apparently, and Rhonda Decker named ya as an old friend of his and suggested we ask ya for a ride, so here we are."[/color]

There, the need to know, short and sweet. Or, well, extremely bitter given that Mordechai hadn't had to be any type of front man since the day he left Edenridge and so far he'd led both conversations that were likely to be met with hostility. The joke earlier that morning about testing his sobriety early was becoming less and less of a joke as the day crawled by, and all the references to those he left behind and neglected for the past two years were grating on his already frayed nerves, [i]sue him.[/i]

[color=7B68EE][i]What did he just say?[/i][/color]

It took a few seconds for the words to reach Natalia's ears, and a few more seconds after that for them to fully sink in. The leg that had been nervously tapping the floor suddenly stopped as her body tensed up, and her blue eyes widened with panic.

[color=crimson][i]"We gotta go ta Blue Hill for Hard Times' sister… And Rhonda Decker named ya as an old friend of his..."[/i][/color]

There were plenty of alarming implications in the statement Mordechai had just said. Firstly: Charlie Decker had a long-lost sister, which meant that there was another person out there besides whoever had the diary that could potentially know about her tryst with the deceased school outcast. Secondly: she had been handpicked by Charlie's mother Rhonda to go on this ‘retrieve the mystery sister at the reservation’ quest, which meant there was a chance that she [i]also[/i] knew about hers and her son’s involvement. And thirdly and most terrifying of all, going on this trip could mean that her secret would be revealed to the one person it could rip apart the most.

[color=7B68EE][i]Shit.[/i][/color]

Without a word, Natalia sprung up from her chair, snatched the vape from her nightstand and began to pace around the room, taking repeated pulls from the device and exhaling clouds of cotton candy cannabis vapor into the air. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute, trying to come up with a way to avoid being a part of this excursion. [color=7B68EE]"Are you all sure it's me she wants to go with you guys? Like, she isn't confusing me with someone else?"[/color] she asked the trio, knowing full well it was a long shot but deciding to shoot it anyway. They wouldn't have come all the way to her house if they weren't sure Rhonda was talking about her.

[color=crimson]"Yeah, Puff,"[/color] Mordechai replied, hands curling into fists in his pockets and the biting sarcasm and impatience bled into his tone. [color=crimson]"We schlepped our asses all the way up ta the pinnacle of Northie privilege on a guess. Of course we're fuckin' sure."[/color]

[color=fe6f5e]“Rhonda wouldn’t lie,”[/color] Penelope assured, hooking herself onto Jade’s arm in the process as she observed Natalia smoke, [color=fe6f5e]“We aren’t going to force you, we just thought hey, since you knew Charlie, maybe you’d like to tag along?”[/color] And perhaps, drive us. [color=fe6f5e]“She’s just worried, I guess.”[/color] No, she didn’t guess, she knew.  

Natalia merely nodded, carrying on with her frantic pacing as her hands began to shake. Why would Rhonda Decker be worried about her if she didn't know her connection to Charlie? This basically confirmed that she knew about it, right? And if she knew about it, had she told anyone else-- like this sister, perhaps? 

Sighing to herself as she thought of everything Rhonda told her this morning, Poppy offered, [color=fe6f5e]“If not for us, consider Charlie’s sister. The culprit of the letters threatened her… I just want to know she’s okay. And if you don’t want to come, that’s fine. We’ll call a lyft or something, but we thought we’d [i]attempt[/i] at least. Sorry, though, if this ruined your day.”[/color]

Hearing both Key and Poppy essentially trying to convince Natalia this was true stung Jade a little bit. Actually, if she was honest with herself, it stung a lot. Her own fault, of course. She was out of the loop on a lot of things and had a lot of bridges to attend to and this was the first of them, but she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy set of tasks. She still didn’t know where she stood with Poppy or Key. Maybe a bit better with Key than Poppy. She actually talked to Key.

Jade let out a sigh, quickly smiling at Poppy who had a hold of her arm and turned her blue eyes on the smoke machine. [color=e62020]“Natalia, you’re connected to Charlie, aren’t you? That means you’re part of this.”[/color] Again, Jade didn’t feel like mincing words for anyone’s sake.

Natalia refused to answer that question. Instead, the Belmonte girl ran a hand through her dark locks, avoiding looking at her guests while her chest rose and fell rapidly. There was no way she was getting out of this one, wasn't it? As much as she had stopped caring about what people's opinions on her were, this was one of the very few times in which perception was everything. If Tal refused to go with the Southies, she would potentially be opening the door to a more aggressive line of questioning regarding her involvement with Charlie at a time in which she didn't feel ready to admit culpability. But on the other hand, was this supposed trip to Blue Hill a way for Charlie's friends and the girl who loved him to ambush her into confessing her sins and receiving due punishment? Or was her fourteen-day isolation and crushing guilt making her paranoid?

For Natalia, it felt like the walls were closing in on her, and all she wanted to do was fucking cry. 

But she still had to make a choice.

After walking to the furthest corner of the room and taking some time to blink away the anxious tears and compose herself, Tal squared her shoulders and returned to the Southies. [color=7B68EE]"Hypothetically speaking, how long do you guys expect this trip to take?"[/color] she asked them, once again taking a seat on her desk chair.

[color=fe6f5e]“The reservation isn’t that far, an hour, give or take, I think? But a storm is coming, so we might need to stay the night. I looked up the weather report and it won’t be raining over there, just here BUT,”[/color] Penelope raised her finger with her free hand, the one that wasn’t holding onto Jade, to emphasize her point about the severity of the storm, [color=fe6f5e]“I imagine the roads will be washed out a bit, and now that I’ve said all of this outloud I realized I did not pack a change of clothes.”[/color]

Mordechai looked over at the large backpack Poppy had on, the thing that had gotten her stuck in the window this morning, and couldn't stop the disturbed look that crossed his face. His own backpack itself was light on his shoulders with two changes of clothes and some snacks, even if his person was weighed down by various weapons. He had cash in his back wallet and tucked away in one of his boots and his shit was still less bulky than her bag. [color=crimson]"What the fuck do ya have in that thing, then?"[/color]

[color=fe6f5e]“What else do you pack on a road trip? A book, of course, and snacks, duh. I already knew what you were packing, so I decided on my good ol’ trusty slingshot!”[/color] While Poppy was talking, she released Jade from her hold and unzipped her backpack. Truth be told there was more empty space than not in there. She should’ve packed some clothes but after her talk with Rhonda, and then her phone call with Jade, she was ready to go. [color=fe6f5e]“And we can’t forget Rhonda’s cookies. We love Rhonda’s cookies.”[/color] The James’ girl beamed as she revealed the sugary goodness (safe and secure in a zip lock bag). It was peanut butter. Her favorite. 

[color=7B68EE]"So one night? That's all you need me for?"[/color] Natalia asked the Southies, shifting the conversation back to the matter at hand while wanting to make sure she got all the details before accepting or declining anything.

Mordechai nodded to the disheveled woman, back on track after her words and temper back to short and snippy. [color=crimson]"Yeah, far as I'm aware. Gettin' this far north is a task in an' of itself when none of us have a car, so there's no way we could get ta Blue Hill on foot like this. So you, your car, probably a night on the Rez. I don't really care about anythin' else right now,"[/color] his shoulders had tensed once more and his eyes darted to her pill bottles on her nightstand before he forcibly focused them back to her. [color=crimson]"I just want an answer so we can know if we need ta plan B this shit."[/color]

Damn, Mordechai. Why so serious? If they wanted to convince Natalia, they had to ease her into all these half truths that even Poppy didn’t fully believe in. All the secrets that Charlie didn’t share with her. Lifting up the goods, Penelope leisurely and lazily shook it in the air and smiled, [color=fe6f5e]“We got cooooooooookiessss.”[/color] Lure the stoner with sweets, yes. This was the way. 

[color=7B68EE][i]Goddamn it…[/i][/color] Natalia hadn't expected Poppy James to be so damn sweet. Her cute, comical attempt at convincing Tal to go on their trip when all she could think about was how betrayed she would feel if the secret came out made the guilt on her shoulders grow heavier, and the thought of spending time in close quarters made her nervous.

But as Natalia mulled over the situation some more, a realization came to her: she [i]needed[/i] to accept the invitation. Not out of guilt for what she had done or curiosity about this long-lost sister, but out of self-preservation. How else would she find out what Charlie's sister knew? How could she try to control any potential narratives disclosed at Blue Hill if she wasn't around?

There was only one way to do so, and it involved her presence at the destination.

Letting out a deep breath, Natalia stood up and looked the Southies in the eye for the first time since they'd arrive at her doorstep. [color=7B68EE]"Alright. One night at Blue Hill and that’s it,"[/color] she declared, walking over to her closet to start packing an overnight bag. [color=7B68EE]"But if we're using my car and I'm the one driving, then I'm the one choosing the music,"[/color] she warned, narrowing her eyes at them before giving them a tentative half-smile.

[color=e62020]“As long as it’s not Disney, I don’t care if you put on Mozart’s 7th Symphony,”[/color] Jade said, clearly still haunted by the hell they all had to endure on the way here.

[color=7B68EE]"Not Disney, but... I really hope you guys like Billie Eilish."[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]