Loose Lips Sink Bitter Ships (Part I)
<Nice Day by Persephone’s Bees begins to play in the background>
“What’d you do?” Jack asked after a moment of silence.
They were all sitting at the back of the library, gathered near the nonfiction/history section. The nine detentionees sat in a semi-circle formation sharing the bottles of alcohol between them: Flash, Mercury, Alice and Yaoyorozu were sitting/reclining on the left, Jack, Aria and Gary were sitting on the right, Luna in the middle, and Yuffie laying on her stomach, legs swinging idly behind her.
Yaoyorozu blinked in confusion. “M-Me?”
The goth nodded. “What did you do to get into detention?”
“Well, what did you do that landed you in detention?”
“Rhetorical question,” Alice cuts in. “we all know what he did.”
“Not me.” Luna cuts in. “I wasn’t here on Friday. I had a dentist appointment.”
Jack grew, if physically possible, paler at the revelation. “I… May, or may not be the reason why Superintendent Ozpin and his wife are divorcing.”
“Oz is getting a divorce?” Aria sounds.
“Obviously.” Gary stated.
“This still doesn’t answer my previous question.” Luna pointed out.
“You know about Ozpin’s wife right?” Jack says. “Salem (RWBY)? The creepy biochem teacher?”
They nodded.
“I heard through the grapevine that Salem was having an affair with the new guidance counselor, Mr. Lombardo (Wild Things Franchise),” He explains. “and I wanted to see if the rumors were true. So, I went to a spyware store downtown, bought a hidden camera, and I snuck it into Mr. Lombardo’s office and recorded everything.”
“And he was right.” Gary laughed.
“So, I picked a random clip from the video and I aired it during morning announcements.” Jack cackled.
Luna’s jaw dropped. “You put that on the feed?!”
“Yes, I, did~” He sing-songed. “And, I got lucky and picked the dirtiest one.”
“Wh-what did you air?”
“Salem screwing the guidance counselor.” Alice deadpanned.
“I know that,” Luna says. “but what did they do?”
“Her on top.”
Yuffie groaned.
“Don’t let me relive that Liddell.” Aria begged.
“Okay, that sounds bad.” Luna amends.
“No, no,” Mercury cuts in. “her on top.”
“On top?…”
“Strap on.” Flash coughed, ears red.
Pale brows furrowed before her eyes widened in abject horror. “YOU BLASTED THAT?!”
The others quickly shushed her and tried smothering their laughter.
“Yeah,” Jack sighed, wiping a tear from his eye. “Ah, Ozpin was pissed. Lombardo got canned–no surprise there–and that’s when Old Man Oz found out that Lombardo and also slept with a senior from one of his old high schools in Malibu, and did the same at his last school in Miami, so he had him investigated, arrested and blacklisted for misconduct with a minor. Then, he kicked Salem out, filed for divorce, and gave her her two weeks notice.”
“I honestly don’t know how the hell you didn’t get expelled, let alone arrested for pulling something like that.” Yaoyorozu states, nursing a small glass of whiskey.
“Daddy’s paycheck saved him.” Gary stated dully.
“It wasn’t like that.” Jack defended.
“Really?” The brunette scoffs. “Then what was it like?”
“I’m an honor student who skipped two grades.” The redhead points out. “I’m taking college level science, math, and engineering courses; I’m Sunnydale High’s pride and joy. If Ozpin hadn’t convinced the school board to not expel me because of my brains, they’d be screwed.”
“So,” Alice chimed in. “your parents donating a new art room to the school and paying for new sports equipment had nothing to do with it?”
“Money doesn’t buy everything.” Jack defends. “Look at Bryce, his family had a shit ton of money, and Yang’s friend Weiss (RWBY) was the former heiress of one of the richest automobile industries in the country. And look at what money bought them – expulsion and rape charges that got him expelled, and Weiss’ old man got three life sentences for embezzlement, money laundering, and domestic violence.”
“Bryce got 3,500 hours of community service to avoid going to prison.” Yuffie refutes, frowning at the mention of his name. “And, the only reason Weiss’ sperm donor hasn’t died yet is because the prison implemented a protection order against him.”
“He does have a point though.” Momo cuts in. “Money doesn’t buy everything.”
“How would you know?” Mercury mumbled.
“Shut up!” She snaps, causing the eight to stare at her as she got up onto her feet and glared down at the equally stunned delinquent. “Shut up! Just shut the hell up!
“Stop fucking pretending to act like you know me.” She snarled, sharp coal-black eyes glaring into shocked grey ones. “Stop pretending like you know what goes on inside my head. You don’t know what it’s like to be me.” She continues. “You don’t know what it’s like living in a big, expensive house that’s too damn empty, with too little people and only a limited number of rooms you can actually enter that aren’t padlocked on the outside, as well as in.
“You don’t know what it’s like to have your parents not even bother paying attention to you unless it’s to tell you to pull your skirt down, or to tell you to stop eating so much even if you barely had a bite.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be paraded in front of grown ass men in uncomfortable dresses that are too form-fitting or revealing in some way or another, alongside their equally perverse sons that spend more time openly staring at your chest than your face.
“I’ve had grown ass men old enough to be my grandfather sexualize me since toddlerhood.” She hissed. “You don’t know how many times I’ve been asked out on a date, only to have the guy insult – hell, slap me once – and call me a bitch and a tease when all I did was smile politely and say hello, then snicker and make crude gestures when I pass them by.
“Or, when I used to get invited to study sessions, only to be rebuffed and/or saddled with all of the work, and nobody even bothering to give me so much as a thank you when they got an A for just sitting on their asses. Then, have people sneer at me and tell me that I never deserved those grades, despite the fact that I used to spend the majority of my free time studying in the library than with other kids, and mind you, this was in middle school. Only to have people shrug it off because I’m Japanese.
“And do not even get me started on the casual racism, racist comments, or the race fetishism that I can’t even mention because I have a lighter skin tone than most white people!
“You don’t know what it’s like to have people judge you solely by your appearance, your grades, your race, your gender, or your family’s wealth. And, when I finally found friends, real friends, who wanted to be around me because they liked me and not my money. People who didn’t even know that I had money up until I invited them over to study for midterms last year…”
She laughed bitterly, blinking the tears of frustration away, gritting her teeth slightly as she uncurled her fists.
“Midorya (My Hero Academia), Uraraka (My Hero Academia), Todoroki (My Hero Academia), Asui (My Hero Academia), Iida (My Hero Academia), Kirishima (My Hero Academia), Sero (My Hero Academia), Kaminari, Jiro (My Hero Academia), Mina and Bakugou (My Hero Academia) were the first people to see me.” She says, voice wobbling. “And only me.” Swallowing audibly, Momo slides back against the wall and purses her lips together. “You guys don’t know shit.” She hissed, sitting back down and drawing her knees to her chest.
“Then tell us.” Flash says, voice cutting Momo out of her thoughts.
She looks up and blinks. “What?”
“Tell us what it’s like,” He repeats. “To be Momo Yaoyorozu.”
“You’re just gonna tell on me come Monday morning.” She rebuffs.
“No, we won’t,” Aria says. “We swear.”
“Cross our hearts.” Yuffie proclaims, doing so with a smile. “And, hope to die.”
Yaoyorozu paused and looked at the eight miscellaneous, motley faces that currently surrounded her.
With a sigh, she sits down, crosses her legs before grabbing the whiskey bottle to pour herself another (larger) glass, take a long swig, and set the glass off to the side.
“Might as well.” She says.
=/=
<Now playing ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ by Elvis Presley>
Momo: Are you lonesome tonight?
For as long as Momo Yaoyorozu could remember, she had been a good girl.
Good grades, good posture, good social standing, good family, good girl.
And honestly? Yaoyorozu was sick of it.
Momo: Do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
Momo wanted to be more outgoing, she wanted to make friends.
But, old habits died hard.
Momo: Does your memory stray
To a brighter sunny day?
When I kissed you
And, called you sweetheart?
Many people already had a perception of who she was:
Pretty, sweet, nice, quiet, clever, rich.
And, each of those seemingly good qualities held certain… negative connotations.
Momo: Do the chairs in your parlor
Seem empty and bare?
Pretty meant unattainable for guys.
Pretty meant envy and hate from insecure or equally (if not, more beautiful) girls.
Pretty meant having to sit back and have people fetishize you (whether it be because of her body or her race tended to vary), never mind the fact that Yaoyorozu was still a minor.
Pretty meant having grown ass men catcall her, yell obscenities, and make crude gestures when passing them by on the street.
Pretty meant having to cover her shoulders, and her collarbones, and her knees (her fucking knees!) so she couldn’t “distract” the boys (as well as, some of the male teachers old enough to be her great-grandfather!) from their learning and being reprimanded for it instead of, oh, I dunno, teaching the boys how to be respectful towards people and not objectify and/or sexualize their peers (very underage girls mind you) who had more important things to learn and do with their free time and energy!
Sweet meant fake and/or condescending, or worse, submissive (*cough* fetishized *cough*).
Nice meant naive and easy to exploit (psychologically or otherwise).
Sweet and nice meant having to hold her tongue 24/7, because speaking her mind was unladylike or rude, even if all she wanted to say was “No.”, “Please, leave me alone.”, “I don’t want to do that.”, “Stop, I don’t feel comfortable.”, and so many other things people would and will end up taking the wrong way. Which often meant that she was the one in the wrong, and more often than not, ended up being the one who had to do the apologizing, despite the fact that she did nothingwrong!
Clever meant pretentious.
Clever meant arrogant.
Rich meant judgmental snob.
Rich meant ignorant, or worse, bigoted. Never mind the numerous anti-Asian jokes Yaoyorozu and her friends were subject to, along with the outright racist comments she grew up with (and, yes, this was still ongoing) and was forced to swallow her anger at for fear of exacerbating the situation the other person caused!
Quiet and unsociable meant intimidating, rude, closed off, and/or feared. Nevermind the fact that Yaoyorozu was about as aggressive as a fruit fly.
Momo: Do you gaze at your doorstep
And, picture me there?
But, Momo didn’t want to be any of those things.
Momo: Is your heart filled with pain?
Shall I come back again?
Maybe that was why she gave in to other people’s demands so easily.
Why she had trouble creating boundaries for herself.
Not to show people that there was more to her than meets the eye, but to prove something to herself.
Momo: Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?
“I wonder if you’re lonesome tonight.” Yaoyorozu mused. “You know someone said that the world’s a stage, and each must play a part. Fate had me playing in love, with you as my sweetheart. Act one was when we met, I loved you at first glance. You read your line so cleverly, and never missed a cue. Then came act two, you seemed to change, you acted strange. And why I’ll never know.”
The dark-haired girl leaned back in her chair, folded her arms behind her head and sighed. “Honey, you lied when you said you loved me. And I had no cause to doubt you. But, I’d rather go on hearing your lies, than to go on living without you. Now the stage is bare, and I’m standing there. With emptiness all around. And if you won’t come back to me, then make them bring the curtain down.”
Momo: Is your heart filled with pain?
Shall I come back again?
Sighing quietly, she asks,
Momo: Tell me dear… are you lonesome tonight?