Spoiled and Broken

Keli

The rest of the car ride had gone on as one would expect from normal teenagers. Every now and again, one would look over to find that someone had fallen asleep somehow despite the loud music playing and being sung along to. Curled up in her seat with earbuds in, Mati quietly drew and would at times watch out the window for inspiration. Tam liked to be the one driving, so he would try to keep in the driver's seat besides small restroom breaks. In the passenger seat, Victor would be giving directions and would be wishing Tam would let someone else drive instead of sit all cramped up for hours until he physically had to take a break, but never seemed to get his wish. Then there was Keli and Mantha, the best friends listening to music together through a shared pair of earbuds. Their all black clothing, and Mantha typically having dark makeup on when she wasn't going to be sitting in a car for hours, made it no surprise that they were on the darker side of the alternative music. Various bands ranging from hard rock to metal to goth to classical passed through the earbuds, them dancing together to each song and singing along very much out of key. But this was not a new occurrence for them, or anyone in the car for that matter.

"Forsaken! I walk the night alone! No sanctuary!!! No place for me to call my home!!!! But it's time to break the cycle!!!!!" The pair sang along to one of Mantha's personal favorites, Break the Cycle by Motionless in White, at the moment. However, they were now out of the car and about to check in at the place they would be staying by this point. The car ride had been long, but it was over now.

The girls had their own room while the boys were just next door, Mantha giving them a warning not to be too loud and disturb everyone. The flush that came over them was well worth the commentary in her head, though, so she didn't mind having to be the one to say it. Sometimes it was rewarding to be referred to as the dirty minded friend and not the innocent friend. Then again, could any of them count as the innocent friend in anyone's eyes anymore? Thought wise none of them were really lacking in the gutter section of their mind, and this was especially apparent against their peers. Well, once again, sometimes it's rewarding to be the dirty minded one.

They were not in a hotel, but really more of a motel. The area was not big enough to have any actual hotels around, but this was still quite a nice place. It was of course all one level, and the motel room had a bedroom area, a living room and kitchenette area, and a bathroom. The bedroom was blocked off and had room for two people to sleep in, and the living room had a couch that was able to be pulled out to become a bed. Upon inspection, everything was found to be clean and fresh in the room with no signs of dirt except for light dust from the amount of time the room had sat empty. There was a brief argument as to who would have the bedroom beds and who would have the couch bed between the girls, each one having reason as to why they should be the one on the couch and the other girls the beds, but in the end it was Mati who had won the couch, Keli and Mantha being placed in the beds with Mantha in the bed to the farther part of the room and Keli in the bed to the closer part of the room.

Once things were unpacked and settled, music filled the bedroom and Mati was left to sit there shaking her head at the two girls. Of course they were already playing music. And if she knew her wife, then Mantha was probably playing music off of one of her youtube playlists so as to do makeup and get legitimately dressed to instead of still be in pigtails, her father's shirt, and yoga pants. Truly a sight as worth seeing as it sounded since the shirt was the size of a small dress on her and the pigtails not helping the idea of her being small. Instead of going to check on the other two, though, Mati contented herself with her sketchbook once again, humming random songs from various broadway soundtracks as she drew her latest idea. She was known beyond just the school by this point by how amazing of an artist she was with pencil and paper, and anyone who knew her well enough as Mantha did could pick out her style in a sea of artwork about the same subject in a pile. The lack of straight lines and colour, everything being well balanced in a perfectly rounded way in black and white, there was no mistaking it for anyone else besides maybe a storyboard creator at an animation studio. All this praise, however, was praise she had earned through many a night spent drawing whenever she had the chance. From small doodles to full posters hand drawn, she had earned the talent she was now known for.

Mantha, in her talents, was known more widely for her love of the orchestral instruments, particularly the double bass she played for at least two hours a day, sometimes more, every day of the week except vacation. Beyond this, she was known mainly for one other skill of hers, her makeup. Whenever she had the time to, she would be keeping up to date on her favorite makeup artists as well as the latest trends going around, figuring out her own style from trying new things. Now there were some obvious ones she knew better than to try, lollipop lips and spider lashes as a couple of examples, but she had worked up to where she was as a makeup enthusiast through many hours of practice. What once was a good winged eyeliner took ten minutes and luck was now a wing in two flicks of the wrist, and she was known for her love of dark colours, and especially for using both warm and cool colours on the same eye in a blend that could only be figured out by her and those better than her. And she was proud of the looks she created, especially as a goth where standing out was the normal way to live

By the time Victor had come to the door, Mati was half way done with what she had started as they pulled up to the motel, Mantha had a smokey eye to not be beaten and dark clothing that fit her as if hand made directly for her, as it was, and Keli was sitting with a slight fidget in a chair in the kitchenette watching them in wonder on how they could manage what they had done in the time that had passed. Keli had been the one to open the door, so she was the one to move aside as Victor told them all to head over to the boys' room to all eat dinner together since they still had dinner packed in the cooler they had brought. With all of them gathered together, conversation struck up once again about the group they were forming. This time, though, they ended up getting distracted by musings and casual conversation instead of sticking to the necessary chatter, so the meeting on it was postponed to breakfast the next day when they would all be a bit more serious as they tried to recover from the day before's car rides and fun.