Anyone familiar with my work knows I like to throw out music for you guys to try once in a while. How about you give "No Below" by Speedy Ortiz a try today. (BTS players know what's up.)
After a long day of putting up with everyone else's crap, particularly that of a certain someone who shall not be named; Carol makes it to her lovely home at 0312 West Sanford Street.
She lets out a tired sigh as she opens the front door of her luxurious home and flicks the lights on.
"Mom? Dad? I'm home," She calls out.
No answer, shocker.
It's not like she expected them to be home, they never are. But she always checks just in case.
"Pffft… Whatever."
She makes her way through the foyer and into the kitchen. There's a teal sticky note on the counter by some fresh dollar bills.
It reads:
Won't be home til late, honey. Sorry! Here's some money for take-out.
Love you, Mom and Dad xoxo
"Pshhh," she scoffs as she discards the note in the nearest waste bin.
No new messages.
"What? Seriously?!"
After almost seven hours of her phone being dead, she expected to turn the thing on and be bombarded with notifications. Something from Whitney, Dana, Becky, somebody! Nope, not even a stupid email alert from Bold Navy.
"Maybe my phone's just messed up. Dang it…"
She decides to test her theory by sending her mother a text…
Carol: Thanks for the money.
…And before she can even lock her screen, it buzzes with a response.
Mom: :D
She frowns as she puts the phone back on her end table, then she lies down in her cozy queen sized bed to just relax for a minute.
She's used to nights alone; but normally one of the girls would call and she would just go hang out or something. But apparently they can't be bothered to check in on her, even after serving an excruciating fifteen minute sentence in after school detention.
It didn't help that during the drive home, she didn't have the luxury of being able to plug her phone into the aux and jam out to songs in her playlist, and she ended up having to switch back and forth between annoying DJ's, commercials and… Ugh… rock music.
Rock music. Luna…
"Nope! I am NOT thinking about her! She has ruined my night enough as is, and I won't let her inconvenience me any further!"
She sits up, and takes a look outside. It's starting to rain, despite the sun still shining bright. Then she looks her clock, and it reads 4:30.
"Okay… I've still got a whole day left! There's still time to get something productive done!... Maybe one of the girls will call, or maybe Mom or Dad will even come home! Okay, they probably won't, but whatever."
She looks to her phone, but there are still no notifications, and the thing's barely charged at all.
"Well… Either way… This isn't so bad. I'll just get caught up on homework, take a nice bath, maybe sneak in some violin practice, and then pop in a movie or something. By then someone will call, right?…"
She takes all of her things out of her book bag, and runs through her homework checklist.
"Okay, I'm caught up in World Lit and Civics, no Psyc and Soc until Andrews comes back from vacation, so that just leaves… Ugh… Trig and…"
Journalism.
She thinks back to that horrific moment in class when Mr. Sunderland announced that she'd be stuck working with… her. It was almost like her was taunting her! He knew this would all happen!
"He's just a big fat jerk who's jealous because he knows I'm too good for his class, and that I should just be on yearbook committee now, and he just wants to give me a hard time! That's exactly what it is!"
Then he told those other kids about being able to embrace challenges in the real world…
"I can handle your stupid little project- I can ace it with flying colors! Heck, I'll probably end up doing all the work, because that dorky, poser rock wannabe GOON~"
She stops, and takes deep breath.
"Okay… Maybe I've earned a break from homework."
She draws herself a nice hot bath, throwing in some rose petals and lighting a "Relaxing Aromas" candle for good measure.
She dips her toes inside, shuttering with the feeling of instant nirvana, and then lets the rest of herself gracefully slip inside. She lies back and smiles.
"Yeah… This is more like it… I've really earned this. I put too much pressure on myself. Between always being there for my friends, and always putting my everything into my school work… Man, you really are a saint, Carol…"
She opens her eyes, and skims her fingers across the water, graciously motioning the petals around, just the loveliest little speckles on this wonderful little canvas… Not at all like Luna's freckles~
"Ahhh!" she gasps, quickly drawing her hand back.
When she looks back down to the water, it just doesn't seem so nice anymore. It's been tainted by its association with…
"Ughhh…"
"So much for that," she thinks as she puts on her coziest PJ's and heads back upstairs. She decided long ago to start rehearsing in her father's study, since it offers a better view of the garden outside, and he's never home anyway. So, no harm, no foul.
She takes her black case with her carefully crafted violin inside of it, and makes her way inside, getting a whiff of leather chair meets musk smell.
She deflates a bit thinking about how nice things were before Mom and Dad started working so much, but quickly snuffs those feelings to focus on her progress with her latest minuet piece: a rendition of Gershwin's "Summertime."
She feels herself really getting into it, closing her eyes and imagining playing in front of a black tie audience in a beautiful, golden auditorium for a solo. It's so extravagant, so- perfect.
That is, until she accidently hits this ugly C sharp note, really throwing her off. I mean, god, it was just the most awful, cringey sound… All scratchy and sudden, like Luna's unregulated laughter after connecting with that paper wad to Ms. Clifford's~
Frowny face.
"Nope… I'm done."
"Okay, Carol… You seriously need to get a grip. You've had a long day, you've earned some R&R… Just find a movie to watch, turn your brain off a while, and forget about… Right."
She pulls up Fletnix on her smart TV, and looks through some of the featured films and shows.
There's a lot of crap she just doesn't care for: stand-up from washed up comedians, that one prison show with all the lesbians, whatever the heck Weirder Things is, and stupid Princess Pony: The Magic of Acquaintances.
She'd like to check out some of the new anime, but has this childish fear that somebody will walk in on her and catch her watching cartoons.
And then there's all the movies she's watched a billion times before, like Mean Girls, that will bore her to actual death if she tries to watch them again.
"Ugh… Come on… Give me something good!"
As she scrolls through, she sees the thumbnail for the newest Mick Swagger documentary. The guy's like, seventy years-oldest-old, and still acts like he's a drunken college student. What's even more sad, is that there are people out there that actually still buy into his crap: the head banging, the throwing up the goats, the duck walking, the sticking out the tongue, and worst of all, dressing up like it's still 1969…
People like…
She quickly moves along, and comes across the timeless classic: The Most Important Meal of The Day Club. She's never actually watched it, despite lying to some guy named Michael about it last week to try and impress him.
"Hmmm… Maybe I'll give it a try."
She selects the thumbnail, and sees a new image of the cast. There's the stereotypical 80's jock, bad boy, pretty girl…
"I'd so be her."
…geeky boy, and girl that wears punk clothes and has short hair and freckles and wait a minute, er mah gerd, what are those, paperclip earrings?
She shakes her head, hoping it's just her imagination, and it is, thank god. This punk girl's just wearing regular loser earrings. It's just everything else that makes her a spitting image of Lun- uh… Lord Voldemort.
She backs out, and see a romantic comedy about a lesbian couple. The reviews are almost all good, and the stars are pretty good actresses; but she feels weird about the idea of watching it by herself. Like, it'd be one thing if she was watching with someone else, because then she could feel comfortable enough with her sexuality to recognize that she's straight, and she'd have someone there to reassure her. But watching it by herself just feels… Not right.
"The heck with it," she says, despondently tossing the remote to the side, calling it quits.
She returns to her cell phone to see that it is almost fully charged, which is great. She also sees that everyone is apparently too busy to talk to her, because she still has no new notifications.
Which is not great.
She just grits her teeth as she imagines all the colorful words she'll say to her friends tomorrow, but then realizes: it's the 21st century!
She can just creep on them!
She hurries over to her laptop and boots it up, impatiently grumbling to herself some of those colorful words because the stupid thing won't work fast enough. But, slowly enough, she's able to get on all of her social media profiles, and puts her forensic creeping skills to work.
Becky's been absent from anything since posting that one selfie with the girls, where Carol looked better than everyone else with her bright, lovely smile as the others must've gotten the sun in their eyes or something- because they all looked a little uncomfortable.
Dana's threads are full of pictures of clothes that aren't all that slimming or even cute, and childish memes that are the definition of cringey. But, they're all from earlier in the day, so she must be working…
Then there's Whitney… Oh yeah, that Whitney… It wasn't enough for her to basically sic Luna on her tail this morning, but then she had the audacity to act like she had no part in the conversation? Like it was only Carol saying those things?!...
And that's not even the worst part. Of course she's not hanging out with Carol tonight, because she's too busy hanging out with Lori!
"Traitor…"
She considers sending her an angry text message about how she could have been a decent enough human being to apologize for her involvement in Luna's attack, or at the very least, checked to see how detention went. Heck, she could even be a big enough person to just forget about all that, and just text her to say "Hey."
"Nope. No way. I am not going to make myself seem desperate by texting her first. She can text me! And the same goes for Becky and Dana and everybody else!"
Despite her proclamation, she decides to travel further down the creeper hole, and looks at Lori's profile… for reasons. After all, it's been two days since the last time she checked, and a lot can change in forty-eight hours.
She clicks on her profile thumbnail, and finds that the only thing different between now and Tuesday is that: "Lynn makes SPICY subs. #TooSpicy #WooLordy #HotHotHot #LoudHouse."
"How boring! Who cares about that stuff?!"
Said post has twenty-seven likes. Which is twenty-seven more than Carol's last post. But who's counting?
She lets her eyes wander to the "people you may know" section, just for the heck of it.
There's Flip, the creepy old dude from the gas station, one of Bobby Santiago's eight-dozen cousins, Carlota, and then…
"But of course! (Slaps hand on head)"
Luna… Loud…
Grumpy face.
Apparently, Luna Loud is just meant to ruin her whole day. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't escape this chick…
She sighs. "Well… Since I'm here…"
She clicks on Luna's thumbnail, opening up her profile page.
Just livin' a crazy Rock n' Roll dream! :)
Luna Loud
15
Royal Woods High School
Nothing under relationship status. Shocker.
As expected, there's tons of useless information about all things British and Mick Swagger. There's also a bunch of crap for some band named Butthead, guitars, more grody memes, tattoo ideas- "I knew it," a link to a fanfiction story of all things, and dry, cliché attempts at outdoor photography.
"Let's see what other pictures you've got, little Ms.- Uhm… Ms… Ms. Freckle Face! HA!"
"Oh wow. She really does have a lot of sisters."
Nine to be exact… She counts. And one creepy little brother with white hair. Yeah, she remembers him.
"That kid was weird… But I guess he's got good taste. Even he realized I'm better than Lori."
Pictures of weirdo family, pictures of instruments and albums, videos of song covers, more god awful memes, a few pictures with losers she calls friends…
"Crap, crap, crap, mega crap, crap… Hell-o!"
A recent selfie with a boy.
"Oooooo! Now we're getting somewhere!"
There's nothing in the description, so there's no name or page to go by. She does however, recognize him from school, even vaguely remembering him walking with Luna once before.
"Huh… So maybe this is Luna's boy toy. I'm kind of surprised. He's not all that. I mean, she could do better. She's not ugly, and you'd think Lori could maybe introduce her to some~"
She takes a moment to really think about what she's doing… Which is, going through Luna Loud's pictures on a Thursday night, alone, in her room, by herself…
"Oh my god. New low, Carol."
She decides she's surfed the internet enough for one night, and decides to spend the rest of her ruined evening just doing whatever.
But she knows deep down someone is bound to text, or call, or something!
So she timidly pussyfoots over to her phone, just sort of staring at it before actually picking it up and unlocking it…
And…
No new notifications.
She dejectedly sighs. This is the moment of truth: today has been a bad day.
And it makes her feel… Sad… Lonely…
While all of her other friends are out probably having fun, or enjoying time with their families, she's standing her all alone, staring at her stupid phone…
But as she reflects upon, it wasn't all bad.
Because, for a little while, she got have some laughs at Ms. Clifford's expense, with Luna Loud there to enjoy it with her.
And really, she made it all possible.
"Huh…"
Then, it finally happens.
Her phones buzzes, dings, and lights up- revealing a brand new notification.
And she practically runs to it, and grabs hold of it. Realizing she's being a total spaz though, she shakes her head, and takes a breath.
Then, slowly, she turns the phone to face her, and unlocks it.
Bold Navy Email Alert: 10% Off Shipping For Online Orders! Act Fast!
Carol tosses her phone.
"Dang it!"
If you don't remember, Lincoln was going to have Carol takes Lori's place in the LH episode "Picture Perfect." You should know, because that's where Carol made her debut:)
And I decided I wasn't going to bother including Carol's parents as characters for various reasons, so I borrowed the sticky note device used in Ed, Edd, n' Eddy for Double D.
Okay, so small request of you, the reader. I'm not exactly an expert on orchestral music. All things rock and roll? Yessir. But not stuff with violins at the forefront… So, if you think of some good music prominently featuring violin and want to share with me, consider this an invitation. I'd appreciate it, considering I'm writing about a violinist.
With all that, thanks for reading, and please stay tuned my lovelies. Next week, someone dies:D
