#rivervale_lodge

The school throbs with rebellious energy on the last day. Double the normal students are just skipping! (Sam is not a lucky one) The ones who are here strain against the invisible constraints of time like horses forgetting they were ever domesticated. Girls flirt with boys just to rile them up! Boys act up, just to make the clock fucking move! The teachers use the only tools they have, carrot and stick to get the throng to settle the bleep down! And everywhere there is music, smuggled in, piped in...and chimerical.

It's as if the collective will and dreams of the students is providing a soundtrack of rebellion. Sometimes a kithain might hear Alice Cooper's pounding 'School's out', other times the even older Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the wall' pulses.... modern songs too arise! It's as each generation that has ever endured this has left an echo of a demand for promised release, and those echoes are back!

Toooo long a day, even if it's only half of one.

"As you go through the summer remember to maintain your reading and math skills, you don't want to lose all that... " blah blah blah... some old person who wants you to STUDY?

So not happening, ha!

Even normally easy going May is muttering "oh fuck that"

"Seriously. Do you think they were ever kids themselves?"

"If they were they need a remedial course" May snorts

"Wow, someone's eager..." Lupita jokes,. but she took stains to look at the clocks the haven't CHANGED in 30 years

"so if you'll remember the many continuing programs we have..." blah blah blah...

And then Zane begins to chant under his breath "Atti-ca, Atti-ca, Atti-ca..."

Jimmy? is that Jimmy.. joins in..

Dirk joins in even louder... "Attica, Attica..."

ANd it becomes apparent the boys are working not just on a disruption, but some sort of bunk?

Eyebrow.

Some mortals join in, not that many of the kids know what the flip Attica is about... a few might have seen an old movie, but mostly the chant is just sounding cool.

"if everyone will just calm down because I AM authorized to detain..." Suddenly the VP stops, blinks as glamour hits, and then says "Well, there's the bell... see you next year"

There was no bell, it's still a good 20 minutes before the bell.

Some of the other staff look confused.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH" Zane says and gives the universal head jerk to the side for 'AMSCRAY while you can'

Don't have to tell Sam twice!

She's up, snagging her backpack as she goes. "C'mon ladies!"

Like a great heaving body tearing itself up from a tarpit, the student collective hits the double doors directly out of the gym/lecture hall like a swarm hitting the sky! Others slide out the side doors, a few risk going into the school again to try for fewer crowds if a longer path! But no one is sticking despite some teacher's voice calling out that the bell hasn't yet rung!

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, the students are OUTTA there!

May is booking hard!

And Gonzalez looks ready to throw an elbow if folks block her path

Sam, of course, leads the way

Daylight! The sunlight never looked so beautiful! Fresh air!

Nadeen gives Zane a rather hot kiss, no longer does she hide that she and Zane are a thing, "BRILLIANT!" She laughs as he almost picks her up and whirls her around.

"Couldn't have done it without the other guys help," Zane says "Thanks Jimmy, thanks, Dirk"

Jimmy gives a quiet thumbsup

Dirk snorts, "You think I helped cause ayou? Ha"

"Helped with what?" May, an unchanted mortal asks confused.

"Nuthin' May. C'mon, let's go to the barn! I bet Tove has ice cream..."

"YAY Tove!" May says then waves "See you next year, Jimmy. Thanks for being my boyfriend..."

Jimmy rolls his eyes, "May, you don't have to THANK me. I liked it. later..."

Jaymes is not there to pick Dagmar up yet. After all 20 minutes early!

But the girls don't mind hoofing it

Or they could flag Siv down before she drives off

Siv is a crazy woman!

They can walk.

Siv ignores those concrete bumps which as everyone knows are more like guidelines than rules

they watch her zip off.

May shakes her head "No. I want to live to enjoy my summer" and keeps walking with them.

"Right? Love her, but damn."

"You know, maybe she should try to be a race car driver instead of a gymnist," Lupita says. It's warm out, but not too hot, and they're young, they're healthy, they're feeling wild!

"So... you and Jimmy are on a Break? or did you actually break up?" Lupita asks May.

"Kind of a mutual thing.. I like him a lot, but .. .you know, I don't want him to feel like he's tied to me during the summer and ..." A blush "I needed the confidence, but now that I have it? I kind of want to see if other guys like me more than I thought? I felt like such a bitch thinking that... am I a bitch just because you know... i K now I'm young and there's no forever thing now?"

It's not particularly banal. May isn't denouncing love, just being honest with her thoughts about her own point in life.

"Well, I think you guys can keep being friends at least."