Sunday, April 2, 2017

Sunday Snippet: Unacceptable Behavior

Well, the beginning of April is here and I've been bitten by the spring cleaning bug. This is not a bad thing. House, garage, and computer files are getting spiffed up and decluttered.

The Walking Dead finale is tonight and I'll be there. Not sure I'll pay a lot of attention, but I can't not watch.

The Flash introduced an irritating villain. Can't say I'm sad to see him go. Also really frustrated with the whole Savitar storyline at this point. I'm ready for the final end game and season finale.

Legends of Tomorrow rewrote reality and kept me entertained. Looking forward to the season finale to see how they resolve everything. Mick remains one of my favorite characters and it better stay that way.

Arrow's deft mastery of weaving Oliver's past into his present life will be missed. This isn't to say the writers won't continue churning out excellent fare. In fact, I'm looking forward to seeing how the story continues. Something tells me Oliver's past will still come back to haunt him in many other ways.

Riverdale had a new episode and, wow, I wanted to get a better read on Alice Cooper… I got it. A little sad it's at the expense of Hal, but the interesting wrinkle might be worth it. FP's playing a sly game. He doesn't get near enough credit for being a true mastermind. Come on, people. He's Jughead's dad. The kid had to get his smarts from someone. Just saying.

I'm still binge-watching City Homicide, working my way through season three. The first season is probably my absolute favorite but I do enjoy the later seasons also.

That's it for television this week. Tonight's post is from Unacceptable Behavior, a novella that got started with a writing community prompt of making one of the main characters the new kid at school. I always enjoy spinning tales from a great prompt.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Blain Donahue wants to buy into a fight club and decides to invest when he meets the main attraction Roxane Kewes. He's known her a long time—since high school where she constantly got in trouble—and thinks it's great she's found an outlet for her unacceptable behavior.

And a snippety peek…

Roxane Kewes gazed at the monolithic building sprawled in front of her. "Another school, another learning curve." She had starting over down to a science.
Until this year.
When her mom decided to move during the summer instead of the middle of year like they usually did. The woman had managed to land a "whale" that had more money than sense. She dumped Roxane with her grandma and took off to build a nice, fat bank account.
And she didn't want her almost eighteen and legal daughter cramping her style.
Roxane snorted. "No doubt Winona will land on her feet once she's done lying on her back." She'd been calling her mother by her first name since the age of twelve.
Winona liked to pretend they were sisters.
Grandma Char gave up on her youngest daughter on a long time ago, but she didn't hesitate to take Roxane in. She let Roxane use her car and suggested she get on down to the high school first thing and get signed up for classes, which started the following day. First thing turned out to be seven a.m., according to Charlotte Jackman.
And no one argued with Grandma Char… except Winona.
Roxane usually melted into the background for a couple of days, getting a feel for the social structure and staff hierarchy when she arrived at a new school. If she got lucky, she'd get the goods on at least one teacher or other administrator during her two-day window of laying low.
She chuckled. "Moving thirteen times in eleven years taught me more than any of my teachers did." Striding toward the school, she glanced in the windows of the empty classrooms.
The front doors stood propped open and Roxane ducked inside, staying close to the wall. The floors were highly buffed and super shiny. Creeping along the corridor, she found the administrative office and entered. She planned to do some snooping if no one greeted her.
Amazing what digging through files turned up sometimes. Finding a clipboard with registration forms on the counter, Roxane grabbed it and tucked it under her arm. Might come in handy if she got caught poking around. A folder on one of the desks gave Roxane a list of employees and their positions. Each column had pictures beside the staff member's name. A thump and a muffled groan drew her attention and Roxane edged down the hall toward the sound. Straining her ears, she listened, waiting for something to indicate where the noise came from. Maybe she'd find a chatty janitor who liked to gossip.
Another thud and a low groan came from an office to her left. She made a beeline to the door of the dean's office and cracked it open. Got an eyeful of the dean nailing a woman from behind. Roxane scanned the folder in her hand and barely kept her mouth from dropping open. Pay dirt. The dean of students, Mark Cline and the principal, Sandra McMahon—both married—were getting it on.
Roxane dug her phone out of her pocket and snapped a few pictures. Wishing she had some brain bleach, even though the retina-burning sight would provide terrific leverage, she eased the door shut and left the offices. Stashing the device back in her shorts, she sent a silent thank-you to her MIA dad for sending it to her.
The guy at least tried. Not his fault her flake of a mother bailed on their relationship within six months of Roxane's birth. He tried to stay in touch, usually tracking them down through Grandma Char. He even sued for custody once, but the court considered Winona the more stable parent.
Roxane rolled her eyes. "If they only knew." She'd text her dad later and catch up.
Right now, she beat a hasty retreat to Grandma Char's car. She'd get registered during official school hours.

Roxane's unacceptable behavior is revealed, but it's far from the beginning of her learned ways.



That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin 

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