He spents most of the time talking about something you actually hadn't even considered— safety procedures. It makes sense, you suppose; you're going to be volunteering at a clinic with a focus on treating drug addiction, built in a predominantly poor neighbourhood with minor Brotherhood and ABB influences. It's unfortunately true that those factors means that the clinic likely sees violence on an unpredictable basis. He does assure you that there are multiple safety procedures in place, several security guards on the premesis at all times, and that New Wave will respond in the case of any alarms going off— but you still have to be aware of the procedures, just in case.
Finally, he concludes with a big sigh. "Are you still interested?" he asks wryly.
You nod confidently. "Yeah!" you reply enthusiastically. You're not quite sure why he feels so surprised at that, but you can also feel his weary happiness at your zeal. "Can I start today?"
He glances down at his watch, noting the time— it's six thirty. "You'll only be here for half an hour," he notes, but otherwise doesn't try to dissuade you.
"That's okay!" You grin at him. "It'd be good for me to see what working here will be like, you know?"
As it turns out, it's exactly as boring as the doctor had intimated it would be. It's hard to engage yourself in the mundane tasks of washing windows and mopping floors. Some people do it for a living, but you can't imagine how. And that sounded a lot more denigrating than you intended it to. Oops. Janitors earn their keep, you do know that. The work just isn't engaging you very much.
Still, it serves its purpose. By the time you get home, your mind is full enough that you barely think about Emma twice.
You're not looking forward to school on Thursday, which is a bit disappointing after your enthusiasm yesterday. For a moment, you'd hoped that you were beginning to regain that excitement you'd once had for learning something new. It doesn't look like that's happening, though. At least it isn't affecting your school performance too badly— you spend most nights awake until just before midnight studying, and have for a while now, so even when you're not enthusiastic for classes you're still learning the material. It just... feels like a huge hassle to try and drag yourself into school every day.
It's not too bad, though. School is somewhat less miserable now that you don't have your own personal tormentors— just the school's regular bullies. But you can't do anything about them now, so you're just going to have live and let live.
At least Madison hasn't let yesterday's episode get her down too much, you discover when you get to school the next day. The card she's left for you is noticeably more subdued than the last few have been, but the words within— "Taylor, I'm sorry you couldn't enjoy yesterday's lunch, but I made you a strawberry cake today. Love, Maddie~"— are no less sweet, and the cake she made for you does look mouth-watering.
You give her an appreciative hug when you slide into your seat beside her during first period, and enjoy your regularly-scheduled hand-holding through the lesson, but when the class ends and you're forced to let go of her, your mood instantly plummets. She notices, but the most she can do is give you an apologetic hug before you're both forced to run off to your next class.
Things don't get much better through second and third periods. You have Computer class in place of Maths on Thursdays, and while Mrs Knott gives everyone their assignments, it doesn't leave you with much to do when you're done in less than half an hour. You can't even go onto PHO and try to find something interesting— the one time you managed to circumvent the school's ban on the website (the ban itself claiming that it was "not intended for educational purposes), they'd blocked you from downloading any files anyway.
As such, your mood remains sour right up until you arrive at the Chemistry classroom for your fourth period class and see two amazing sights; Sophia stretching back in her chair, giving you a catlike grin as you enter the room— and an excellent view of her chest through her tight shirt— and a familiar boy clad in the same leather jacket as yesterday scowling ferociously at Sophia from behind her back, sporting a new cast over his nose.
You sit down at your table, giving Sophia an intrigued glance. Her grin only grows larger, right up until Mrs Knopf— your Chemistry teacher— enters the room, at which point she visibly fights it down into a scowl.
Most of the class haven't even unpacked their books from their bags when Mrs Knopf takes to the front of the classroom, clapping her hands together and clearing her throat. Everyone immediately stills, looking towards her.
"Excellent," she says loudly. "Class, as I mentioned on Monday, we are going to be moving to a new unit beginning today. We'll be studying chemical reactions for the next few weeks. Given that some of our students-" She levels a glare at someone behind you; you can't see who it is, but whoever it is gulps loudly— "have been unfairly leaving large portions of their work to their lab partners, I have taken the liberty of assigning lab partners for the unit myself. Are there any objections?"
Predictably, several hands shoot up into the air. Even more predictably, the teacher ignores them. "I'm glad to hear it." She pulls up a clipboard you hadn't seen her holding in her arms. "Lab partners will be as following. Martin Adams, with Renee Phillips..."
You sit there for a few moments, crossing your fingers as hard as you can. Please pair me with Madison, please pair me with Madison!
Finally, the teacher reaches your name. "... Taylor Hebert, with Sophia Hess..."
You're too stunned to reach for a moment. Sophia isn't. Her catlike grin returns when you turn to look at her, this time looking more than a little smug.
Two weeks ago, this would have been the worst result imaginable. Today, you don't actually mind.
When the teacher finally finishes listing off all the names on the roster, conversation fills the room for a few minutes as everyone gets up and begins wandering over to their new seats. Your own partner— a weird guy called Greg— gives you a pleading glance, but you shoo him away, gesturing for Sophia to come sit next to you. She's already on her way, but it's important that she understands that she's doing it because you want her to, not because she wants to.
She slides into the seat beside you, her smug smile replaced by a friendly scowl as she casually rearranges her skirt (why does she even wear a skirt so often? The answer arrives almost as quickly as you ask yourself— she normally doesn't, but she's been wearing them more often lately, she's teasing you) so it doesn't bunch up on her thigh.
"Hello, Hebert," she purrs. "Looks like we're going to be partners for a while."
School goes fantastically after that. It's hard to distract yourself in lessons like Maths, but with Madison at your side during first period and lunch, and Sophia sitting by you during Chemistry, you can distract yourself reasonably well.
Even the afternoons aren't too bad, now that you have your volunteer job at the clinic. You can't go every day, as much as you want to— it's not safe to walk there, and Dad can only take you there when he's not working late and he has the spare gas— but it's something. You're forced to skip Thursday, for instance, but you're able to head in on Friday.
Doctor Fitzgerald feels oddly thankful when you meet up with him again. Somebody must have told him some good news, you think.
The clinic ends up being a lot busier than normal, for some reason. The doctor reassures you that this doesn't happen often, but he doesn't have the time to sit there and explain to you what's going on— he just leads you out to the back room, where a lot of medical supplies have been left scattered haphazardly around out of place, and asks you to tidy the place up.
It's difficult work, not because the work is particularly onerous, but because nurses keep rushing in and out of the room and messing up areas you've just tidied up. It's tempting to yell at them. You refrain, but it's difficult.
You've almost tidied the room up by half past six when a mousey girl, not much older than you, walks into the room carrying a white bundle, tinged with red— dirty sheets, you suspect. "Laundry chute's over there," you inform her quickly, before she can just dump them atop the trolley you'd recently cleared off.
The girl squeaks— honest to god, squeaks— and turns to you, her cheeks almost on fire. "Um," she manages, before having to visibly shake herself. "I wasn't— I was just-"
"It's fine," you say. Honestly, you've grown sick of everyone's excuses by this point. "Don't worry about it... uh, what's your name?"
Curiously, she doesn't have a nametag on. Actually, on closer inspection, she doesn't have anything identifying her as a volunteer on. Her attire is appropriate, at least— her shirt is loose and doesn't draw any attention to her body, and she's wearing tight-cut pants that accentuate her hips without drawing attention to them— but she should really be wearing a nametag. Or so you assume. Actually, maybe you're being a bit presumptuous— this is only your second day.
"Hey!" the girl manages eventually. "My eyes are up here!"
"I know," you reply. Just for the comment, you eye her chest for a long moment, considering it. Her shirt is loose, but not so loose that it completely hides her breasts— the material rests against them. They're small, smaller even than maybe Madison's. A good size, you think.
When you finally look up at her face, her cheeks are blazing red. Embarassment flows through her, but there's no real anger there— just embarassment, and no small amount of lust. It's not strong, but it's there enough that you can feel it.
"W— Well then," she stammers. "Uh, I was just looking for— actually, never mind, I found it!" She scrabbles around behind her back with the hand not holding the sheets, grabbing the first thing her hands fall upon. You're not quite sure what use she might pretend to have for a stethoscope, but you let her get away with it, smiling teasingly at her.
"Alright then," you reply. "Have fun out there, mystery girl."
She hurries out of the room, still blushing furiously, and you turn back to your task, smiling slyly to yourself.
Well, that was interesting. You wonder if you'll see her again.
Eventually, the week comes to a close, and the weekend approaches. School wasn't terrible this week, but there's still a ways to go before you feel comfortable there.
That, though, isn't something you can do much about. Nope; you've got a weekend to plan.
So what are you going to do this weekend? [Pick three.]
[] You're going to head to the library and spend some time studying up on some topics.
— [Write-in topics; up to three. Also enter a justification as to why Taylor is studying these topics.]
[] Go over to Madison's. Terry kind of grew on you a little, and you'd like to see him again. Plus, while you've had a few outlets for your stress recently, you're still not feeling the greatest. You'd like to spend some time with Madison.
— Success chance: 50%.
— General results: Madison gains 2 Affection. Taylor spends some more semi-platonic time with Madison.
— On a success: Madison's mother leaves for the day before Taylor arrives.
— On a failure: Taylor's presence in their house triggers another argument between Madison and her father and Madison's mother. This will result in the schism between Madison and her mother growing, worsening Madison's personal issues.
[] Invite Madison over to your house. Dad's been invited over to Alan's house for lunch; he invited you along, but you declined. This means, however, that you have the house to yourself for most of the day, as he won't be there. This gives you a window to do some things you normally can't do.
— Success chance: Cannot be failed.
— General results: Madison gains 1 Affection, Lust and Submission. Provides a scene in which Taylor and Madison engage in sexual play while nude, although does not result in proper sexual scenes. May provide a scene in which Taylor dresses Madison up in very inappropriate clothing and encourages her to cook for her like that. Provides some mental stress relief for Taylor.
[] Go to Glory Girl's book club again. You haven't been doing very much reading there, but considering what— or who— you have been doing, you're more than okay with that. This time, you're pretty sure you can push her loyalty far enough that you can engage her personally.
— Success chance: 70%
— General results: Increases Lust by 1, Loyalty by 1 and Theatricality by 1. Victoria wears even skimpier panties this week as she allows Taylor to fondle her in front of her book club again, allowing some accidental skin-to-skin contact. Victoria shows her inexperience with girls as she attempts to sexually fondle Taylor in turn.
— On a success: Increases Loyalty by 1 and Affection by 1. Taylor engages Victoria in personal conversation, resulting in Victoria sneakily flying Taylor home and explaining the four rules of her open relationship with Dean. Victoria will cheat on Dean for the first time as she breaks the first of their four rules and allows Taylor to kiss her. Opens up potential for Victoria to visit Taylor at her home in future.
— On a failure: Victoria is called home early. Such a let-down.
[] Do something you may regret, and spend some of your weekend looking into the current state of Winslow. There's bigotry and violence there, and you're not sure what the root cause of it all is, although you know it materializes in the form of high-school gang members. If you're going to address the problems of Winslow— which you're going to need to do if you want to openly date girls there— you're going to need to understand what's causing the issues there.
— Success chance: 50%.
— General results: Provides basic information on gang structures, recruitment methods and general gang activities at Winslow. Increases Taylor's stress levels when done on weekends, but doesn't eat up a more limited weekday slot.
— On a success: Provides further information regarding the above topics. Provides information regarding Rune's association with Winslow and her involvement with the problems at Winslow. Increases recruitment chance of Rune by 5%.
— On a failure: Taylor accidentally draws some gang attention to herself, forcing Sophia to intervene behind the scenes. Oops.
[] Begin searching for a job. It's likely going to be a frustrating process, and might not result in anything. Even if it does, it's going to eat up a fair chunk of your time. But even if it's not as much money as you could make from stealing from gang members, it's honest money— and it won't result in people who are potentially new or unwilling gang members being punished for having thousands of dollars stolen under their watch.
