Pleasantries - Prologue - Part 1
Apr. 19th, 2010 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
genlisae*Takes a deep breath* Before I completely rewrite the intro again, here we go:
*Update* Timestamps are being added to earlier updates as the editing process goes along. In the meantime if you want an idea of the when things are happening, check out the calendar. :)
Genre: Drama, Modern, Sci-fi, Dark, Crime (additional info in the authors note at end)
Word Count: 4000 ish
Rating: NC 17 / M+ (take your pick!)
Music: Time to Grow Up - J Minus (and unless my powers of deduction have failed me, thanks to someone on the F-list for the youtube link! One of these days I am going to fav all of your uploads!)
Edited by:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
debbycus Thank you!
Notes and Credits: Due to hugeness is split into two parts (link at bottom and they still managed to be fairly huge). More notes and the credits will come at the end so as to not spoil anything or take up more space than required.
Advisories: Language, Graphic Violence, Death, Strongly Suggestive Imagery, Angst. Later chapters will be MUCH worse so don’t take this as any kind of an example. Seriously, I can’t stress that enough.
Did I mention later chapters would be worse yet? I did? Good. I am mentioning it again.
Later chapters will be worse and will contain, at the very least, Course Language, Verbal Abuse, Adult Subject Matter, Alcoholism, Nudity, Discrimination, Alternative Sexuality, Underage Prostitution, Mental Illness and possibly Graphic Sex to name just a few. Okay, I actually have no plans for them to contain graphic sex, that will go in side stories, but I thought I would toss that in there as well, you know, to cover my ass because …
LATER CHAPTERS WILL BE MUCH WORSE!
You have been warned, carry on.
Pleasantries - Prologue - Part 1
Moments. They happen all the time. A chance meeting. An overheard conversation. Pausing for just a second to watch children playing in a park.
Some are insignificant while others lead to significant changes. Spreading out to touch the lives of others like ripples in a pond. Distinguishing between the two is often difficult until much later, if it is ever possible to pinpoint the moment at all.
Not all significant moments are accompanied by fanfare. Those that are, are rarely as far-reaching as they would first appear to be.
Even the easily dismissed moments that happen every day can impact events in unforeseen ways. Shaping lives, changing destinies.
What is merely a moment for one, is a moment of choice for another.
Flee or Fight.
Live or Die.
Take a chance or walk away.
Never to know what could have been.
You make your choice and face the consequences
Consequence becomes common place...
… Until it is the moments of peace that are the rarity.
Fear and shame.
Confusion and regret.
Resignation and despair.
Heartbreak and contempt; these are the norm. They affect us all, accepted, but rarely mentioned. They are acknowledged, though hardly spoken of beyond the privacy of our own homes with our closest friends; like some universal unwritten rule.
When the time comes to step out your door and face the World, these moments cease to exist. You put on your game face and play your part, hiding it all behind a smile and random, meaningless Pleasantries.
* * *
9:20 AM Wednesday, March 4
“Oooh, not even 9:30 and you are in trouble already. This is a new record for you, isn’t it, Lilith?”
Lilith Pleasant looked up at the sound of the voice. Could this morning get any worse?
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she shot back, glaring daggers at the blonde boy. “Like sucking my disgusting sister’s face, or maybe dead even? I like the sound of dead. I could arrange that for you.”
“Can I help you, Mr. Broke?” the aged woman behind the desk cut in before the two students could exchange any more hostilities.
“Morning, Mrs. Rusewicz,” Dustin Broke turned his attention to the woman, “Mr. Stevenson sent me down to get the key to the supply cabinet. We need more of those chemical mixy tube things. Mercutio broke a bunch.”
Lilith snorted; and people thought she was dumb.
Tuning out the conversation in the room, she pondered why she was here. She hadn’t actually done anything this time.
Okay, so she hadn’t done her English homework, and when the teacher had asked her to explain what a dangling participle was, she couldn’t. Of course Angela could though! Her hand had shot up before Lilith had even finished stammering out her mumbled ‘I don’t know’. The teacher had shaken her head, given Lilith a pat on the shoulder and said, “Why can’t you just try a little harder, like Angela.”
Now, here she was, having been publicly summoned over the PA system to the office, much to her embarrassment and the amusement of her peers. She could still hear the snickers and whispered comments of “probably going to expel her this time” that had floated behind her as she left the classroom.
“You know, the ones with the narrow top thing, and they kind of flare out at the bottom like this.” Dustin was saying as the door across from Lilith opened, snapping her attention back to the present.
“Erlenmeyer flasks?” Mrs. Rusewicz clarified.
“Yeah, that’s them!” Dustin nodded, “Those are what we need.”
The balding head of Mr. Swain, the school principal, emerged from inside his office and he fixed Lilith with a stern gaze.
“Miss Pleasant, come into my office please.”
Lilith sighed; this was going to be worse than she had thought.
“Is there anything going on that you would like to discuss with someone, Lilith?” Mr. Swain asked once Lilith was seated in his office, surprising the girl, “Anything of a more personal nature even? We are always here to help, no matter what the issue may be.”
Lilith blinked; where was this coming from?
“No,” she responded tersely. “Why?”
“Well, that may have been a possible explanation,” Mr. Swain replied, “Often if students are distracted by other issues, their grades will suffer. You are aware that your grades are abysmal, are you not?”
Oh, so that’s what this was about.
“I was aware of that, yes.” Lilith slumped back in the chair. She was aware, she just didn’t care.
“School is a stepping stone to your future, Lilith,” Mr. Swain went on. “Your entire life is dependant on the grades you have now. What college you go to, your future career, all rests on your current academic achievement. It is important to put forth your best effort.”
“Yes,” Lilith fought back a yawn; she’d heard this all before. “Vitally important.”
“We are here to help you with that in whatever way we can,” Mr. Swain told her. “It is important to us that you succeed. Your success is our success.”
“Wonderful,” Lilith wondered briefly what it was about being in this office that seemed to make time stand still. It happened every time she was here. She sat down in the ‘chair of doom’, and seconds seemed like years.
Mr. Swain frowned. He was not getting through to her. It was time to change tactics.
“I had the opportunity to speak with your mother regarding your academic performance a few weeks ago,” Mr. Swain continued, “We agreed there was serious cause for concern. You are an intelligent girl, Lilith, there is no reason you should not be excelling to the same level your sister is.”
Inwardly Lilith seethed. Why must they always compare her to Angela?
“I am not Angela,” she said out loud, “Angela is usually much better at most things than I am. Always has been.”
“Nonsense,” Mr. Swain dismissed her argument with a wave of his hand, “Angela has merely learned to apply herself. It is my belief that, with a little extra guidance and support, you can unlock your full potential and blossom.”
He was still speaking, something about hands on learning and individualised lessons. Lilith was no longer listening.
Damn Angela.
She didn’t want to be anything like Angela with her sickeningly sweet smile and perfect grades, perfect behaviour, perfect boyfriend, prefect everything! It was disgusting! Even their parents were always comparing her to Angela.
“Angela wouldn’t wear that,” their mother had told her just that morning when Lilith was getting ready for school. That had been the point, of course. She was not Angela, and the sooner everyone realized that, the happier Lilith would be!
“…and your Mother agreed, so we have found you a tutor,” Mr. Swain finished, beaming at her.
It took a moment for his words to sink in.
“A what?” she asked, still not believing she had heard him correctly.
“A tutor,” he confirmed, his smile widening. “A very intelligent young man by the name of Winston Talbot. He will be working with you every day instead of your regular classes. I am sure that with his assistance you will make great progress.”
Lilith just stared at him. Tutors were for the people who actually gave a damn; the geek wannabes who had no social life, who wanted to make Mommy and Daddy proud, and not go to summer school. Tutors were not for her. Especially not tutors named Winston.
She could just picture it: stuck in a room all day with this dork, trying to stuff her head full of useless facts she would never use anyway. She had enough of that in class from condescending teachers … the classes she would be missing if she was being tutored instead.
“So I won’t be attending my regular classes, then?” she asked, a sudden silver lining to this otherwise miserable cloud starting to show itself.
“You are so far behind the other students that there would be little point,” Mr. Swain explained. “If you continue to attend regular classes, you will be repeating the entire year. By working with Mr. Talbot one-on-one, there is a chance for you to get caught up with your peers.”
No classes. No annoying teachers looking down their noses, no sniggering idiots making her feel stupid. And best of all, no Angela.
“When do I start?”
* * *
On to Part 2
Navigation
* * *
*Update* Timestamps are being added to earlier updates as the editing process goes along. In the meantime if you want an idea of the when things are happening, check out the calendar. :)
Genre: Drama, Modern, Sci-fi, Dark, Crime (additional info in the authors note at end)
Word Count: 4000 ish
Rating: NC 17 / M+ (take your pick!)
Music: Time to Grow Up - J Minus (and unless my powers of deduction have failed me, thanks to someone on the F-list for the youtube link! One of these days I am going to fav all of your uploads!)
Edited by:
debbycus Thank you!Notes and Credits: Due to hugeness is split into two parts (link at bottom and they still managed to be fairly huge). More notes and the credits will come at the end so as to not spoil anything or take up more space than required.
Advisories: Language, Graphic Violence, Death, Strongly Suggestive Imagery, Angst. Later chapters will be MUCH worse so don’t take this as any kind of an example. Seriously, I can’t stress that enough.
Did I mention later chapters would be worse yet? I did? Good. I am mentioning it again.
Later chapters will be worse and will contain, at the very least, Course Language, Verbal Abuse, Adult Subject Matter, Alcoholism, Nudity, Discrimination, Alternative Sexuality, Underage Prostitution, Mental Illness and possibly Graphic Sex to name just a few. Okay, I actually have no plans for them to contain graphic sex, that will go in side stories, but I thought I would toss that in there as well, you know, to cover my ass because …
LATER CHAPTERS WILL BE MUCH WORSE!
You have been warned, carry on.
Pleasantries - Prologue - Part 1
Moments. They happen all the time. A chance meeting. An overheard conversation. Pausing for just a second to watch children playing in a park.
Some are insignificant while others lead to significant changes. Spreading out to touch the lives of others like ripples in a pond. Distinguishing between the two is often difficult until much later, if it is ever possible to pinpoint the moment at all.
Not all significant moments are accompanied by fanfare. Those that are, are rarely as far-reaching as they would first appear to be.
Even the easily dismissed moments that happen every day can impact events in unforeseen ways. Shaping lives, changing destinies.
What is merely a moment for one, is a moment of choice for another.
Flee or Fight.
Live or Die.
Take a chance or walk away.
Never to know what could have been.
You make your choice and face the consequences
Consequence becomes common place...
… Until it is the moments of peace that are the rarity.
Fear and shame.
Confusion and regret.
Resignation and despair.
Heartbreak and contempt; these are the norm. They affect us all, accepted, but rarely mentioned. They are acknowledged, though hardly spoken of beyond the privacy of our own homes with our closest friends; like some universal unwritten rule.
When the time comes to step out your door and face the World, these moments cease to exist. You put on your game face and play your part, hiding it all behind a smile and random, meaningless Pleasantries.
* * *
9:20 AM Wednesday, March 4
“Oooh, not even 9:30 and you are in trouble already. This is a new record for you, isn’t it, Lilith?”
Lilith Pleasant looked up at the sound of the voice. Could this morning get any worse?
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she shot back, glaring daggers at the blonde boy. “Like sucking my disgusting sister’s face, or maybe dead even? I like the sound of dead. I could arrange that for you.”
“Can I help you, Mr. Broke?” the aged woman behind the desk cut in before the two students could exchange any more hostilities.
“Morning, Mrs. Rusewicz,” Dustin Broke turned his attention to the woman, “Mr. Stevenson sent me down to get the key to the supply cabinet. We need more of those chemical mixy tube things. Mercutio broke a bunch.”
Lilith snorted; and people thought she was dumb.
Tuning out the conversation in the room, she pondered why she was here. She hadn’t actually done anything this time.
Okay, so she hadn’t done her English homework, and when the teacher had asked her to explain what a dangling participle was, she couldn’t. Of course Angela could though! Her hand had shot up before Lilith had even finished stammering out her mumbled ‘I don’t know’. The teacher had shaken her head, given Lilith a pat on the shoulder and said, “Why can’t you just try a little harder, like Angela.”
Now, here she was, having been publicly summoned over the PA system to the office, much to her embarrassment and the amusement of her peers. She could still hear the snickers and whispered comments of “probably going to expel her this time” that had floated behind her as she left the classroom.
“You know, the ones with the narrow top thing, and they kind of flare out at the bottom like this.” Dustin was saying as the door across from Lilith opened, snapping her attention back to the present.
“Erlenmeyer flasks?” Mrs. Rusewicz clarified.
“Yeah, that’s them!” Dustin nodded, “Those are what we need.”
The balding head of Mr. Swain, the school principal, emerged from inside his office and he fixed Lilith with a stern gaze.
“Miss Pleasant, come into my office please.”
Lilith sighed; this was going to be worse than she had thought.
“Is there anything going on that you would like to discuss with someone, Lilith?” Mr. Swain asked once Lilith was seated in his office, surprising the girl, “Anything of a more personal nature even? We are always here to help, no matter what the issue may be.”
Lilith blinked; where was this coming from?
“No,” she responded tersely. “Why?”
“Well, that may have been a possible explanation,” Mr. Swain replied, “Often if students are distracted by other issues, their grades will suffer. You are aware that your grades are abysmal, are you not?”
Oh, so that’s what this was about.
“I was aware of that, yes.” Lilith slumped back in the chair. She was aware, she just didn’t care.
“School is a stepping stone to your future, Lilith,” Mr. Swain went on. “Your entire life is dependant on the grades you have now. What college you go to, your future career, all rests on your current academic achievement. It is important to put forth your best effort.”
“Yes,” Lilith fought back a yawn; she’d heard this all before. “Vitally important.”
“We are here to help you with that in whatever way we can,” Mr. Swain told her. “It is important to us that you succeed. Your success is our success.”
“Wonderful,” Lilith wondered briefly what it was about being in this office that seemed to make time stand still. It happened every time she was here. She sat down in the ‘chair of doom’, and seconds seemed like years.
Mr. Swain frowned. He was not getting through to her. It was time to change tactics.
“I had the opportunity to speak with your mother regarding your academic performance a few weeks ago,” Mr. Swain continued, “We agreed there was serious cause for concern. You are an intelligent girl, Lilith, there is no reason you should not be excelling to the same level your sister is.”
Inwardly Lilith seethed. Why must they always compare her to Angela?
“I am not Angela,” she said out loud, “Angela is usually much better at most things than I am. Always has been.”
“Nonsense,” Mr. Swain dismissed her argument with a wave of his hand, “Angela has merely learned to apply herself. It is my belief that, with a little extra guidance and support, you can unlock your full potential and blossom.”
He was still speaking, something about hands on learning and individualised lessons. Lilith was no longer listening.
Damn Angela.
She didn’t want to be anything like Angela with her sickeningly sweet smile and perfect grades, perfect behaviour, perfect boyfriend, prefect everything! It was disgusting! Even their parents were always comparing her to Angela.
“Angela wouldn’t wear that,” their mother had told her just that morning when Lilith was getting ready for school. That had been the point, of course. She was not Angela, and the sooner everyone realized that, the happier Lilith would be!
“…and your Mother agreed, so we have found you a tutor,” Mr. Swain finished, beaming at her.
It took a moment for his words to sink in.
“A what?” she asked, still not believing she had heard him correctly.
“A tutor,” he confirmed, his smile widening. “A very intelligent young man by the name of Winston Talbot. He will be working with you every day instead of your regular classes. I am sure that with his assistance you will make great progress.”
Lilith just stared at him. Tutors were for the people who actually gave a damn; the geek wannabes who had no social life, who wanted to make Mommy and Daddy proud, and not go to summer school. Tutors were not for her. Especially not tutors named Winston.
She could just picture it: stuck in a room all day with this dork, trying to stuff her head full of useless facts she would never use anyway. She had enough of that in class from condescending teachers … the classes she would be missing if she was being tutored instead.
“So I won’t be attending my regular classes, then?” she asked, a sudden silver lining to this otherwise miserable cloud starting to show itself.
“You are so far behind the other students that there would be little point,” Mr. Swain explained. “If you continue to attend regular classes, you will be repeating the entire year. By working with Mr. Talbot one-on-one, there is a chance for you to get caught up with your peers.”
No classes. No annoying teachers looking down their noses, no sniggering idiots making her feel stupid. And best of all, no Angela.
“When do I start?”
* * *
On to Part 2
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-04-19 11:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-30 12:58 am (UTC)I am completely in love with the intro. Keep writing!
My first comment.
Date: 2010-08-28 11:22 am (UTC)I shall keep reading. I like dark stories.
PS:
Date: 2010-08-28 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 02:40 am (UTC)