Finally I have the first of the "hostage situation" one-shot's written... Sorry that took so long, Koneko... I know you asked for "happy" Tarely, but this was as close to happy as my muse would let me get. Sorry...? Oh, and - lame ending is lame. Sorry about that, too.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, save for Amara.
Prompt Set #3 9Set List) - Prompt #1 - "Let's Get It Started," by the Black Eyed Peas. Tarelyn.
"Okay, you know what? I'm fucking calling bullshit on this crap."
Mirana sighed at the expletives that the taller blonde used; she probably should have been used to it by now. Evelyn didn't even so much as twitch; she hadn't reacted to much this past week. Tarrant just lifted both crazy red eyebrows, while pointedly not looking at the shortest blonde. As for the attending teacher – they were in the middle of their last Advisory period for the day, and the last period for the week, when the eldest of their little group had quietly exploded – Ms. Kelsey just gave up with what sounded like a beleaguered groan; she had been trying, along with most other teachers, to get the girl to clean up her speech, but seemed to have given up after three unsuccessful years. As for the foul-mouthed blonde herself, her expression was grim, but satisfied; she had mostly succeeded in getting her friends' attention, as she had intended.
"Like I said," this time, her was a bit quieter, but no less intense, "I'm calling bullshit, and I don't mean the card game." No-one said anything about it; when Amara stopped making fun of things, even as an act, everyone shut up and listened. Surreptitiously running the tip of her tongue over her split lip – that was going to be fun explaining to her therapist, she sneered inwardly – she gazed at each of her friends in turn, before speaking again. "You two – " Tarrant would have flinched, had he not been used to the blonde getting pissy like this at times, and Evelyn was still in a fog, it seemed, " – need to work this out, or so help me, I am locking you both in a closet until you do." No-one questioned her; she had done it when they were awkward about getting together in the first place, after all.
"Of course…" Green eyes that were brighter than her own narrowed at the blonde; she was plotting something, he just didn't know what. Mirana was vaguely interested – or, at least she seemed to be; he had never really tried to read her, and didn't intend to start now – and Evelyn… He forced himself not to look at her; this was, after all, his fault. No need to make it worse. He refocused on Amara, when she began speaking again. "You could make it easier on all of us, and just agree quietly to allow yourselves to be dragged to Mirana's place for the night." Ah, so that was what she was up to. The young socialite's home would be a neutral zone for them, and, practically speaking, the only place they could have any sort of get-together; Evelyn's and Amara's homes were both out of the question, for obvious reasons, as was the male's own apartment, and so that left the last member of their circle the only one whose home they could use for such things.
Amara smirked, expression all snark and grim arrogance, when Tarrant agreed, annoyed as he so obviously was. She didn't need anything from Evelyn, as she knew that the girl wouldn't respond, but it didn't really matter; she had spoken with the actress' mother the day before, and worked things out. There was no need for the smaller, slightly younger blonde to say anything – again, not that she would have, but that wasn't the point just then. Shaking the useless thoughts from her mind, the martial-artist proceeded to go into a spiel about how they needed a day or two to unwind before Dark Week, so that they could be good little sponges and soak up everything they needed for exams as the bell rang; it was far more for appearances' sake than anything, even if no-one else really cared what they were planning.
She was paranoid and she knew it, but that didn't really matter; all that did was seeing her friends happy, and surviving – in that order.
They headed to their lockers as a group, and made quick work of getting what they needed for homework and leaving what they didn't. Inside of ten minutes later, they had all piled into Mirana's car – a pristine white Lexus with matching white leather interior – and were headed for the Underland residence. Okay, so 'residence' was putting it lightly, but they all knew the girl was quite embarrassed when her family's… social standing and status was brought up, hence why she had been comfortable with her sister getting all the attention and spotlight. She couldn't really do that anymore, since her older sister's incarceration at the end of the previous school year, but her friends knew her well enough to leave the subject alone. To them, she would always just be Mirana – the girl who could recite physics and mathematical formulas in her sleep; a vegetarian, animal/gay rights activist, and environmentalist; and who would always listen when needed. She would always be just that to them, one of their best friends, and never someone they would treat differently just because of stupid things like money and standing in society.
All of that said, no comments were made, when they arrived at the mansion in which Mirana had grown up. As per usual, they all trekked right up to her room, and proceeded in normal fashion to claim their usual places around her room. (Said room was mostly white, but accented with very pale pinks, blues, and greens.) Amara curled up in the window seat of the bay window, Mirana claimed her bed, Evelyn stole the desk and spinny desk chair, and Tarrant plopped right down in the middle of the floor; as always tended to happen, when they all studied together, it took less than twenty minutes for the room to look like a bomb of school supplies had exploded within it. They spent a few hours simply studying, and the silence of this was only broken by the occasional question lobbied across the room randomly (though, understandably, with very few from Evelyn, and those never answered by Tarrant), before Amara uncurled herself, and headed over to the bedroom door.
The click of the lock had everyone looking up at her, varying expressions on their faces, something which she chose to ignore. Turning, she grinned coldly, wolfishly at her assembled friends. "And now," she murmured, "now the real fun begins." Pretending that they weren't all looking at her like she was insane, she made her way back over to her ratty backpack, and pulled out a CD. Inserting it, as she selected the correct track, she grinned like the madwoman they all probably thought she was. "Let's get it started, shall we?" Now, they all tended to have eclectic music tastes, and sometimes 'mainstream' was a foreign word to them, but still… Sometimes, they just looked at each other, when they made references, and all just went, like now, "Huh…?"
It became clear, when the annoyed blonde, and, surprisingly, Evelyn, harmonized on the beginning notes –
"Leeet's get it started, in heeeeeeeeer…"
Mirana's lips formed a soft "oh," as realization dawned, while Tarrant just blushed; he had given her that CD, he should have known. Surprisingly, for the older blonde, she had quite the set of pipes on her, not that she would ever admit or believe it, but still; her friends knew. As for Evelyn, it was good to see the very music-inclined blonde starting to wake a bit from her funk, as "Let's Get It Started," by the Black Eyed Peas continued to play. She tapped her feet and fingers, and seemed to even be smiling a tiny bit, but Tarrant wasn't looking at her enough to be sure. He was still ashamed of what he had done – he didn't even remember why he had done what he did, even just a week ago – but he knew that all of the tension and the gloomy fog Evelyn had been living in since then had been all his fault.
So consumed by this thoughts was he, that he didn't notice when a blonde blur came at him. Well, he did, but only when she had already hit and latched on, crying into his chest. The two sprawled to the ground, but he was already hugging her back by then, his apologies mixing with her sobs into an unintelligible tangle that they could barely even make sense of, and yet understood perfectly. It would take some time, yes, but they could and would heal from his stupidity and her dislike of confrontation – maybe, if they had known that before, they wouldn't have spent an agonizing week skirting each other and pissing their friends off… Speaking of said friends, the other two blondes seemed to be consumed by laughing, as they both rapped (and failed, on Amara's part) along with the song; something no-one else knew but them, was that Mirana could actually rap with the best of them, when she wanted to – or, more accurately, when it was only the four of them alone together..
While most would have felt they were being insensitive, the four of them knew what was really going on – they were giving them privacy and support, in the only way they really knew how.