- Starboy — The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk -
By the time school started again, the story was out and there was no news from the university.
Or at least, there was as much of the story out as Peridot would leak to Amethyst. From what Amethyst could understand, she had come from an abusive home where her mom was a no-show addict and her dad forced Peridot to build computers so he could get paid more. (Like, holy shit, had been Amethyst's reaction, because she knew Peridot was taken from them when she was five, so she must've been even younger when she learned how to program and build tech. What kinda genius was she dating?) But in a stroke of bad luck, Peridot's dickhat of a biological father had been at the review meeting, and cornered Peridot in a closet in order to manipulate her. As a result, she broke his nose. Dr. Sun was then taken to the hospital and authorities were called.
Then Peridot even amazed Amethyst — she went to court.
It wasn't actually that scary, which surprised both of them, because Peridot's case manager handled most of it. The scary part was when her case manager actually showed up. Mrs. Bedford was, upon first appearances, not a very scary person. She was black and always wore her curly, greying hair in a perfectly spherical bun. She had a cute little smile always painted over with plum-colored lipstick. She treated Peridot with respect and called Vidalia "Mrs. Yellowtail".
But she was tall — and neither Amethyst nor Peridot had had good experiences with tall people. And she was always, always taking notes. She also held Peridot's future in her hands.
She happened to come over for the first time when Amethyst was over too, on the morning after the university incident. Peridot had forgotten when Mrs. Bedford was coming, so there wasn't any time for Amethyst to leave, but even while she was in her pajama shorts and Marina and the Diamonds t-shirt, Mrs. Bedford greeted Amethyst and shook her hand respectfully. She herself wasn't bad. And she congratulated Amethyst on their relationship — apparently, Amethyst was a hot topic during check-in sessions, and Mrs. Bedford was grateful to her for making Peridot "feel accepted and comfortable" during such a difficult time in her life. Amethyst chose not to mention that she caused most of those difficulties.
Then she pulled out the legal things and the meet-n-greet went downhill.
It turned out that there were laws protecting Peridot from her biological father (Peridot had started flat-out referring to him as the sperm donor, which Amethyst laughed at) after his rights were dropped, and pressing charges against Peridot would be contrary to them. She had a right to defend herself. Dr. Sun did want compensation for his broken nose, and that would be taken care of by the state, but it would be taken out of Peridot's reimbursement budget (the payment by the state for things like clothing and education). Which meant that either Peridot needed to get a job to make up for it or that Vidalia was going to have to pay out of pocket for Peridot's luxuries.
"I already have a job," Peridot pointed out. "I'm GeekSquad."
At client request, she had kept her small business going. It was mostly because of the wealthy Talwars, who paid her thirty dollars an hour in order to fix Obsidian's videogames and also help Dr. Talwar, who was uninformed that there were not, in fact, thousands of flirty Russian women in his area. Good money, to say the least. And it would pay off.
So the plan was settled and it was established that Peridot was to go to court in three days. Amethyst wanted to go for emotional support, but was working that morning, and they planned to meet afterwards for cuddles and coffee.
And surprisingly enough, when they did, Peridot had nothing to say.
"We just talked, that's all," she said, sipping from her iced mocha. They were at Shawn's, a local café that Amethyst only knew because they supported the high school art department and featured student art in their eating area. A print of Peridot's portrait actually hung right over Peridot's shoulder, which was kind of silly. But besides the point.
"So you went to court, with an actual judge and lawyers and — and a jury and cops and your douchebag sperm donor and everything," said Amethyst, "and you just talked?"
"Of course there were an actual judge and lawyers," Peridot shrugged. "But it was at a local juvenile court. There's a difference. I hardly saw my biological father. We sat on opposite sides of the courtroom and he refused to talk because his nose had tissues stuffed up it, so his lawyer spoke for him. And I'm a minor, so my lawyer and Mrs. Bedford spoke for me. The case was pretty clear cut; Mrs. Bedford made sure of that. It was just for negotiating my insurance and reimbursement cuts. It wasn't like Judge Judy, if that's what you're thinking."
"Dude." Amethyst let out a breath and leaned back in her chair. "That's still pretty raw. You know how cool that is? Going to court 'cause you broke your dad's nose? You know how much rep that'd get you in the bad kid circles?"
"Well, excuse me that I'm not concerned with your 'bad kid circles'." She used finger quotes, a habit she'd picked up a lot lately. "It wasn't exactly high drama."
"But it's still raw."
"Perhaps."
"Still don't understand why all the blame's on you, though. Like, what the hell. He locked you in a closet."
"Not all the blame's on me. In hindsight, I can understand the logic. Breaking his nose was kinda overkill. I could have kicked him and had similar results."
"Yeah. Kick 'im with your metal foot. Wouldn't it break, though?"
"This thing? No way. It's pretty much indestructible. Onion dropped a sledgehammer on it once and I didn't even have to get it checked out."
"What is wrong with that kid?"
"If you're asking for technicalities, he's autistic, like me, and has a LOT of difficulty understanding what's appropriate to a situation. His violence comes from a very specific set of stimming techniques that involve wanting to see things in different forms. Like those paint mixing videos, but with solid objects and fire."
"Oh."
Amethyst finished off her egg, cheese, and bacon sandwich in a bite and asked,
"Did you hear back from the uni? 'Bout your project?"
"No. They're still figuring out what to do with my dad. He was going to manage any research I did. But this news is already out, they've already gotten calls from students and parents saying that they don't want a professor with a bad rap sheet. They can't keep him. But he was the only one with schedule space. So my project's on hold until they can find someone else who knows how this stuff works. Of course…Albus knows more than my dad, but he's not licensed. Can't work in the uni labs."
Amethyst licked her fingers. "So? Go underground. Breaking Bad style."
Peridot gave her a look. "I'm not making meth."
"Pity."
The conversation, as theirs tended to do, bunnytrailed from there. Again, they avoided Rosewood Manor (nothing with the Lazulis, but Pearl had started getting on Amethyst's nerves about school supplies). Instead, they swung by Stevonnie's, Sadie's, and Lars' places and wasted hours at the local arcade, meaning they watched everyone lose horrifically to Peridot.
The little felon went back to court twice - again, not for anything hard, mostly insurance purposes, but they took to pretending that it had been awful and unfair so as to give Amethyst a reasonable excuse to sweep Peridot up in her arms and sing, "Oh, my poor Peridot!" before smothering her in kisses. Like roleplay, but with queerplatonic cuddling.
Not only were the post-court cuddle sessions fun, but for Amethyst, they highlighted a new development in their relationship. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad, so she tried not to dwell on it too much, but nevertheless it was there. The roleplays had become the only time they went "full out". It used to be that all their kisses were that dramatic, every time was the right time to let Peridot probe her mouth with her tongue and play with Amethyst's piercing. It wasn't like that anymore. Their kisses were, more often than not, soft pecks on the cheek as one went a different direction, thoughtless, idle things that hardly inspired the same rush of adrenaline anymore. But they happened more often, and that was what set it apart.
It was a new kind of intimacy, Amethyst realized. She didn't know how to describe it. She wondered if Peridot felt it too. She wondered if she liked it.
And so Amethyst spent her summer - thinking.
.
School returned like always, in a mudslide kind of way. Amethyst was a senior and Peridot a junior. For the first time in her life, Peridot was taking an art class, which was cool because Amethyst had AP Art in the same room and also during first hour. It turned out to be the only class they had together, as Peridot was in all gifted or AP classes, including AP Biology.
Amethyst, instead, had seventh hour chemistry...which took only one class period to figure out that it was gonna be good. The teacher was another uptight dickhat named Holly Bleu-Agate who made it clear that she wished corporal punishment was still legal in schools, and who nearly turned purple because of a girl named Carnelian who accidentally set her syllabus on fire. She wasn't fun. No, it was Carnelian, her girlfriend "Skinny" Jasper, and the eight other Amethysts.
That's right, eight. Amethyst had always known that her name was popular, but this was a new occurrence. Due to a freak scheduling error, all eight kids named Amethyst had been counted as only one person and entered in all at once. And better yet, there seemed to be no intention of changing it as the only negative effects were Miss Bleu-Agate's frustration, "Chip" Amethyst having six study halls, and all the Amethysts getting to share one desk until the seating chart was fixed.
On the first day, the nine Amethysts, Skinny, and Carnelian alike made it their personal service to the community to drive Holly Bleu up the wall.
The rest of her classmates were normal.
But like every year, it didn't take long for Amethyst to realize she would need help. So, naturally, she turned to Peridot. Their first study session was to be the next Tuesday. All was well and all were settled.
Until they got back to Rosewood and Amethyst realized it wouldn't be so simple.
The kitchen table was occupied by Lapis Lazuli, Alexandrite, and Malachite. Lapis and Alexandrite were speaking calmly and Malachite was glaring at nothing in particular. Great.
Two months into rehab, it was pretty clear how much progress (?) Malachite had made. She'd lost the forced, tacky goth punk look — maybe because her goth punk friend group was mostly in jail — trading it for misfitting clothes in strange solid colors, seemingly straight from Alexandrite's wardrobe. Her wild hair was freshly bleached, but nicer done now. Looked like Sapphire's work, she was so good with hair coloring.
Still. A Malachite was a Malachite. Which meant a bitch.
"What's this? Where's Pearl?" asked Amethyst. She already knew Garnet was working and Steven was at Connie's house.
"Pearl's running errands." Lapis set down her glass of iced tea. "But I'm glad you're both here. We wanted to talk to you girls about something. Mostly you, Peridot."
Peridot's mouth opened and she sat down across from Lapis. Amethyst was left to sit across from Alexandrite — closest to Malachite, who met Amethyst's eyes but blinked first and jerked away. Yeah, that's right, Amethyst wanted to say. Feel guilty. You know what you did, asshole.
"So," Peridot said, as if to ask a question. "Ahem."
Lapis gave Peridot a small smile, then folded her hands in front of her. She sighed, long and slow. "Well...I suppose you could say…"
"I'm a hopeless cause and I need school help," Malachite deadpanned.
There was silence.
"That's one way to put it," said Lapis weakly. "Because of her...absence...for a whole semester, Malachite has fallen behind. Some of her teachers have been able to schedule intervention, but not Miss Diamond. Since...she doesn't work for the school anymore. Mr. Albus suggested I find a chemistry tutor and named you, Peridot."
Peridot's eyes were like a deer in the headlights. Then she gave a pressed laugh. "Mrs. Lazuli, I'm very flattered," she replied, fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist, "But, as I'm sure you know, I'm already tutoring Amethyst."
And Malachite drugged me and almost got me raped, so I wouldn't be super thrilled to be in the same room as her, so we can't exactly share a tutor, Amethyst thought, but didn't say.
Then Alexandrite put in, "You could tutor both of them at the same time."
Goddammit, Amethyst thought.
"No offense, Mrs. Lazuli," she said, purposefully avoiding Malachite's eyes, "but that's not gonna work. It just won't. Again, no offense, but I don't think I'd feel safe in the same room as Mal without someone else here. Peridot doesn't count."
Peridot looked hurt. "Hey."
"It would have to be at the same time, unless, Amethyst, you found a different day," Alexandrite said. "My classes run from two to eight on Tuesday and Thursday and Malachite can't be at my house alone."
"Yeah. Because I'm three years old," Malachite muttered.
"Sometimes you convince me."
Normally, Amethyst would respond to the clapback with a resounding OOOHHHHH. But this bad news was too bad. She couldn't just share Peridot with Malachite, of all people. She didn't want anything to do with Malachite, never mind sit in a room and LEARN with her until eight o'clock every Tuesday and Thursday! No. No, that wouldn't happen.
"Nope," Amethyst said stoutly. "Can't. Won't."
Lapis sighed. "Listen, Amethyst. I know how you feel about my daughter. But she's been making progress, and she's told me that she's willing to start over. Just give her a chance."
A radically different message than what Amethyst had heard the few days after the party, when Lapis and Jasper had visited the hospital room. She wasn't supposed to have to give Malachite a chance. "But Jasper said — "
"I don't care what Jasper said," Lapis cut in. "She doesn't know Malachite like I do. She wants her to be sent away, to — to some prison. But she doesn't know what she's talking about. Mal doesn't deserve that."
Lapis kept talking, peppering the pleas with "You can help her" and other sniveling things, but Amethyst had tuned out long ago. It was official, Amethyst was on Jasper's side for this. Malachite DID deserve to be locked up. And Lapis couldn't see it, because she was always too busy blaming Jasper for everything. Manipulating Jasper. Just like Amethyst had been manipulated. And Amethyst couldn't support that. She wouldn't.
Then a familiar hand rested on her arm. Peridot was watching her expectantly, eyes wide. "Amethyst," she said softly, "she's right. She needs my help."
Amethyst was speechless. If anyone, she'd expected Peridot to be on her side. Didn't she know? How much Malachite had helped with all of...that? She thought she'd told her — well, Amethyst couldn't remember what she'd said when calling Peridot...that night. But hadn't Peridot been the one against Malachite originally? Hadn't she warned Amethyst about going to that party? Hadn't she been the one to say "don't trust her again so fast"?
Passing an extra warning glare to Malachite, Amethyst told Alexandrite and Lapis, "Give us a second" before pulling Peridot out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where Biggs and Ocean were curled in their dog beds. They looked up when the girls came in and Amethyst saw Peridot watching them as if afraid, but pulled her around to face her instead.
"What are you thinking?" she hissed. "Do you know how crazy Mal is? She's unstable, she knows more drug dealers than — than you could count on your hands, all she knows is violence, you don't wanna get involved with her!"
Peridot pushed Amethyst's hands off her shoulders and folded her arms. "As if I have no experience with drug addicts and would-be dropouts. Look. Lazuli's asking me nicely. What do I say, 'I can't help your daughter graduate high school because my girlfriend still hates her'?"
"Yes!" Amethyst blinked rapidly. God, she couldn't cry. She was over this. "Don't you remember? She drugged me and kept me in a bathroom so Sugilite c — could have her way with me later, she's just as bad! She tried to hit Jasper and Jasper was trying to help her!"
Peridot's eyes widened, but then her jaw tightened. "This isn't about Jasper."
"This is everything about Jasper! I don't trust Malachite or — or Lapis. All Lapis does is insult Jasper. And — Malachite DOES deserve to be in prison, not get a free pass out of high school. Jasper's right. Open your eyes, for fuck's sake!"
"No, you open your eyes," Peridot spat back. Amethyst hadn't even known how close she was to yelling until Peridot countered it. "If Jasper's right, then so was my dad."
"What?"
"You heard me. I'm certain I know more about dysfunctional families than you do, and you're defending the wrong person. Malachite has never acted out of her own volition, and that's why she's unstable, because she's a product of two people that use her as a tug-of-war rope — and one of them's a selfish, abusive brute. That's why Malachite fell apart when she ran away. She needs to be with someone to grow. She's like me. And damn it if I don't try to help her."
Again, Amethyst was speechless. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. And she couldn't understand it either. Peridot was nothing like Malachite, they didn't even exist on the same plane of morality — not to mention that Jasper was the furthest thing from selfish! Any time Amethyst was home, Jasper was walking her dogs or out looking for a new job. Lapis just sat on her ass and cried about how unfair Jasper treated her and Malachite, then came pining back to Jasper for sex and comfort she didn't deserve. She never made a move to help anyone but herself. Half of this yelling about helping Malachite seemed like just another "fuck you" to Jasper. And Amethyst couldn't let Peridot be blinded by that.
"Peridot, I live with them. You don't know shit."
"Hah! You don't even know what I've gone through!" Peridot threw her hands in the air and clenched them into fists. "You know what? Fine! Stop coming to me for help, you've got a million other friends anyway! I can help who I want, and you don't have to keep shoving Jasper in between us — "
"Who's shoving me?"
Both girls froze. Amethyst didn't even have to turn around to know that they were screwed. Behind them, standing with her arms folded and two dog leashes in her hands, and overall not looking very happy, was Jasper herself.
"No one!" Peridot yelped. She shrank behind Amethyst, but didn't hold onto her arm like she always did. Just stared frightened but defiant up at Jasper, tiny hands in fists.
Jasper raised an eyebrow. "Really."
"Yes, really," replied Peridot. "Everything's fine. I was just leaving to go tutor your daughter."
A pause. Jasper's eyes widened, and she almost imperceptibly pressed her lips together, and then she shrugged and said "Okay. Amethyst, can you help me walk them?"
Even before Amethyst said yes, Jasper tossed her Biggs's leash and began to suit up Ocean. Excited at the sight of the leash, Biggs ran over to Amethyst and sat down, tail wagging. Peridot took a step back. It dawned on Amethyst exactly how hard it was to be mad with Jasper watching and the friendly Biggs waiting, and with Peridot still cowering behind her. She didn't know what to say anymore, what to do, all her arguments had fizzled out and now she just felt lost. And dare say it, but she realized she felt awful for yelling at Peridot, not sitting down and talking through it like she normally would, but…but Peridot just didn't understand and…god. It was so confusing. She just couldn't take it.
She needed a walk.
"Right behind you," she told Jasper, and bent down to clip Biggs's collar. When she stood up again with the dog, she turned to say something to Peridot, but the girl was already gone. The only sign of her was a receding step, clank, step, clank as she stormed away.
As they left via the front door, Jasper asked, "What did you two even talk about?"
"That's a loaded question," replied Amethyst.
"I'm sure it is."
Her tone said that she already knew.
LONG A/N, MUCH IMPORTANT
ok i have no excuse for the chapter song other than i couldn't find another one in time and, like a couple million other people, im kinda addicted to it. think of it as a malachite song idfk
anyway this chapter doesn't make much sense but thats kinda how family feuds go — things are very tangled and amethyst doesn't really understand the jasper-lapis-malachite situation but peridot doesn't either, if that wasn't obvious. will it be cleared up? maybe. is it important for it to be cleared up? not to the immediate plot but i know i have to give closure somewhere because that's just the kind of person i am
peridot's full perspective on this will be revealed next chapter and hopefully make some more sense. but long story short, she DOES in fact empathize with malachite. now is that empathy founded upon stable evidence, that's the real question.
ONE THING THAT I DID ANSWER FOR THE TUMBLR PEOPLE, HOWEVER: peridot did NOT know that malachite was directly responsible for amethyst getting drugged. all she's seen of malachite after the party has portrayed mal as a victim of a bad situation. and having been just in a terrible situation herself, peri's a lot more vulnerable to misinterpretations.
anyway this early update means no chapter until february 3rd at the latest because i'm going to be on a tech-free church retreat this upcoming weekend, though i do plan to stick with fridays i quite like the ring of petri dish fridays. no clue about the update schedule then on out except that
a.) you're gonna wanna hold on tight
b.) tech week is the week of the 10th (yikes) and
c.) i am CONSIDERING a petri dish animatic to be released at the same time as the epilogue, so i might like a bit more spacing.
this A/N is almost longer than the chapter just take it
