EVERYBODY'S EVERYTHING | AV

[3] Fuck SLTs

New term, new SLTs curriculum, if you could really call it that. Most of it was Jojo and Woodsy winging it as they went, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Mickey walked into the the classroom to find the chairs arranged in a half-circle and a desk filled with different mediums set out on a desk and clipboards of paper placed on the chairs. It kind of looked like an art class, which piqued Mickey's interest. What could they possibly be doing in SLTs with a bunch of art materials?

The students filed in and found their seats, picking up the clipboards. Mickey shoved her bag under her chair and held the clipboard in her lap as Jojo waited for all of the SLTs to settle down before she addressed them. Mickey listened as best as she could, but she couldn't keep her mind away from the things happening outside of school. She wondered where Tyler was, what he was doing, if he was making any headway. Last she heard he had found a lawyer that he thought could help them.

"Thought we could start with something gentle. You'll notice art materials in front of you. So pick whatever medium you like," Jojo said, gesturing to the desk in front of her. Everyone got up and approached the desk, some fighting to get there first, others taking a calmer approach. Mick waited for the crowd to clear a little and then picked up a random set of colouring pencils before returning to her seat.

"We're meant to be learning about condoms and blue waffle disease," Spider piped up. "Why are we doing art?"

"Don't think of it as art. Look at the canvas as a way of expressing how you feel. Choose whatever colour speaks to you."

"Miss, Spider's gone with mental illness grey," Missy said with a smirk, picking up her own medium.

"Are you flirting with me?"

"No, I'm just hot and talking."

Once they were all sitting back down, Jojo sat on the edge of the desk and Spider piped up yet again with another complaint. Mickey paid him no attention, drowning everyone out and beginning to doodle on the clipboard in her lap. She picked up a red colouring pencil and began tracing the same pattern she always did. The target, exactly like the one at a shooting range in every American detective movie. The silhouette of a person and the concentric circles around it.

Spider continued his rant, complaining about the class and everything in-between. Mickey zoned back in just in time to hear him say, "How is this crayon gonna fix me?"

She didn't much care about what he was talking about, but she'd probably hear someone talk about it later anyway. Besides, it was Spider. Most things he said weren't worth hearing, especially if it was during SLTs.

"Uh-oh, Spider's gone and literally pokemorphed into peak incel," Darren said mockingly, and that was what set him off completely.

"That's it, I'm done," he said, getting up from his seat and throwing down the clipboard he held in his hand. Mickey looked up from her own and chose to watch the situation evolve. "I am walking out of this class once and for all and I am doing it as a tribute to Anthony Vaughn."

She watched as he kissed his two fingers and pointed them to the sky. Usually, she would come up with some stupid comment or say something to rile him up or shoot him down. But she didn't have it in her. Instead, Mickey stayed quiet and let the other students do the job.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did he die? Did he bleed out?" Darren asked.

"All of you dudes in here, if you're actually men, get up. Walk out with me."

"If you leave..." Jojo began, stepping into Spider's way to stop him in his tracks. Mickey was not surprised to see a few of the guys getting up to join Spider.

"What are you gonna do?" he asked as Jojo held her hand in front of him. "Go on. Touch me. Fuck SLTs, fuck SLTs."

The other guys joined into his chanting and they walked past Jojo, middle fingers in the air as they exited the classroom and filed out into the hallway. Once they were out of her line of sight, Mickey brought her attention back down to the clipboard in her hand and continued doodling the target, adding a bullet hole right in the middle of the silhouettes head.

•••••

Mickey was walking through the oval, phone held to her ear when she noticed Darren, Quinni, Harper and Amerie crowded around a what looked to be a dead bird. She shrugged it off, she would ask them about it later. Now, she had to focus on what Tyler was saying to her on the other end of the line.

"I've spoken to the lawyer, laid out the whole situation," he said. Mickey bit her lip as she listened to him recall everything the lawyer said.

"Ty," she said, stopping him as he began to circle back and repeat the same information he had already shared with her. "Who made the call?"

"I don't know, Mick. I wish I did, but it was anonymous," he said with a sigh.

"It had to have been someone I know," she said. "If I could just listen to it, I bet I'd recognise the voice."

"Leave it alone. The damage has been done and you'll just drive yourself crazy thinking about it," Tyler said, pleading with her.

"Fine, I gotta go."

Mickey didn't give him a chance to answer before she hung up the phone and shoved it into her pocket. She decided to get rid of her phone case to keep up the ruse that she dropped her phone into the ravine. Plus, it gave her an excuse to stay away from the group home for a few more hours. She'd go to the furthest phone shop she could in search of a new one. Mickey pulled her hood over her head and crossed her arms across her chest, crossing the road without looking to see if there was anything coming at her.

She was caught off guard when someone ran up from behind her and scared her. Mickey usually didn't scare easily, but this time she felt her heart almost jump right out of her chest.

"Sorry, didn't meant to scare you," a familiar voice said, revealing himself as they stepped up onto the curb. She pressed her hand against her heart.

"Well, you almost killed me right then and there," she responded, putting on a happy face.

"Are you okay? Shit, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

"I'm fine, it was just a scare. I'm not gonna have a heart attack," she said with a laugh.

"You hear about the thing at the bunker tonight?"

"Of course, who hasn't?"

"Are you going?"

"Why? You want me there?"

"Uh, no. The opposite, actually," Malakai said, a grin on his face.

"Well, guess I'll have to go just to spite you," Mickey said with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.

"I'll see you there."

Malakai spun back around and walked into the direction of his house, leaving Mickey to walk towards the train station by herself.

A party at the bunker. What better way to escape?