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 Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:48 pm
Being Catty 101[Joanne + Kimberley] Joanne unwittingly insults Barren Pines' head cheerleader, resulting in an extreme makeover.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:49 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:00 pm
Nia, Princess of Love [Auditions][Joanne] After hemming and hawwing over it, Joanne finally gets the nerve to turn in her application to work on costumes for the school play. Watching the auditions makes her feel even more alienated from her fellow students. Their energy seems to leak into her, but will it last?
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:34 pm
Dream Prompt You have a dream. In this dream you're not yourself. You could be anywhere -- sitting in class. Sitting in your room. Doing the things you like. All you know is that suddenly in this boring, day-to-day, dull dream you suddenly change. It starts as a longing, a gnawing hunger deep in your gut. You haven't eaten. You're so hungry. Maybe you look around for food -- a candy bar in your bag or your desk, a sandwich you left somewhere, even a water bottle to get something into your system. None of it suffices. You're hungry. You're so hungry. You can't bear how hungry you are. You're in pain, you're so hungry. You stumble around in a fog -- suddenly out of your bedroom or your classroom, dreams are like that. Suddenly you're somewhere else. And there's someone in front of you. You know them, it's a classmate -- -- and you're so hungry. You're so desperately, panic-strickenly hungry. You grab them. They're slow. They smell as delicious as Bella Swan to Edward Cullen after a long period of not vegetarianly eating a wolf the author of this never worked out how that worked, so if you're Frankie Del Rockham you accept this with delight. You're so hungry. They smell so good. The biting's easy, and suddenly your teeth are teeth that rip and shred rather than blunt teeth that can only make ragged, unsophisticated holes -- and the blood's so good and the flesh is so sweet, and so is their screaming. You wake up starving, unfinished and unsatisfied. You're so hungry.
Joanne tried to scream, but she couldn't. There was something in her mouth, stuffing it to the point that she couldn't breathe. She bit down on it out of impulse, the hunger driving her. It tasted of flesh. She bit deeper.
Suddenly, a sharp pain surged through her arm. Joanne's eyes opened to see her chewing on her bare wrist. The only thing that kept her from screaming was the fact that her limb acted as a gag. Trembling and suppressing an urge to heave, she slowly released her teeth and pulled her arm out of her mouth.
Once she had done that, she spat into her wastebasket and pulled a package of Wet Naps off of her desk, tearing it open. She kept a whole box of them in her room for cleaning away the bright orange powder that accompanied her favorite snacks, but this was almost worse. Even if it didn't stain, something about having saliva on her arm was just sickening. She had tried to eat herself!
That wasn't quite right. Images flashed through Joanne's mind as she wiped her wrist with the Wet Nap. A girl with pink and brown hair that she knew mostly by reputation. A savage instinct that unsettled her more than the bite. A sudden dash forward, blood spurting everywhere, the delicious feeling as her teeth sank into flesh...
Squeezing her wrist a little too hard, Joanne jumped. It was just her nails this time, but the sensation of teeth in flesh was still fresh in her mind. She tossed the Wet Nap, no longer wet, into the wastebasket and jumped out of bed, nearly tripping over her pink flowered nightgown. Under the table that held her sewing machines was a large paper bag with a small label that read "For Emergencies" in neat black lettering. If this wasn't an emergency, what was?
At the top was a bag of cheddar cheese popcorn. Joanne ripped it open with strength she didn't recall having and shoved a handful into her mouth. Usually she tried to eat it carefully and never, ever spilled. She kept the mess to a minimum and cleaned up with a lint roller and Wet Naps. As she chewed, she sat on the floor next to the table and leaned against the wall, not caring about the popcorn fragments that fell on her nightgown.
Handful after handful she ate, but it all went right through her. Joanne knew it was time for breakfast, but she couldn't see other students. Not then. Not at the risk of seeing the one from her dream. She tossed the empty bag aside and reached into her emergency kit again, this time pulling out a box of cheddar cheese crackers. These lasted a bit longer, but they didn't seem to do any good. She was unsatisfied.
Two bags of pita chips and a can of Cheez Whiz later, she was starting to feel a little better. But the thought of facing the others was still unbearable. Joanne eyed the door, then went over and shoved her desk chair in front of it. No one would get in. No one would get out.
She hoped she had enough supplies. Who knew how long the siege would last?
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:37 pm
The Sunlit Garden[Joanne + Zeke] This isn't the first time Joanne's watched people run, but it's bound to be one of the more painful times.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:39 pm
It wasn't Joanne's first memorial service. She had been going to them ever since she was born, so it felt like she was used to death. She had lost count of how many stark wooden coffins she'd seen over the years. Family, friends of family, friends of friends of family. For some reason, her grandmother thought it was a good thing for Joanne to be brought to the funerals of her old friends. 'It will prepare you for what always happens in the end, dear,' Grandmama had told her on several occasions. 'And it will help you remember that it's who you are that counts, not your job or your bank balance. Though you shouldn't use that as an excuse to aim low, of course.'
There were always people saying nice things about the deceased at funerals. Sometimes Joanne read obituaries in newspapers, just to see what mattered after you were dead. But those just mentioned jobs and achievements and maybe families. They had nothing to do with what kind of person was being talked about. The whole matter confused Joanne terribly, but she figured she had a while to figure the whole thing out.
Now, she wasn't so sure.
Joanne sat in her chair with her head on her desk. There was a small pile of used handkerchiefs next to her, and a waning pile of clean ones that she went through at a startling pace. Her eyes and nose were red, her hair and clothes wet with tears, and she was starting to have trouble breathing. As used to death as she thought she was, nothing could have prepared her for this. She didn't know most of the students any better than she knew Grandmama's dead friends, but it still hurt. And now, with an added dimension.
Before, death had been for old people. With only one, albeit important exception, all the funerals she'd been to were for people who were retired. When she thought about people her own age dying, her chest got tight and new tears started to fall. It didn't matter that she didn't know them. She felt connected to them, and their deaths signaled a profound loss.
Especially when she did know one of them. Sniffling, Joanne ran her less wet hand over an embroidered blue rose on satin. It was a test for a costume she'd been planning on making her neighbor, as a surprise. She and Miss Abeline hadn't talked much, not ever, but they were neighbors and girls and Miss Abeline wore costumes. That was enough for Joanne to feel like they had a close relationship. She sobbed into the handkerchief she held in her other hand and set the blue rose aside. She would finish it, someday. She owed Miss Abeline that much.
First, she had more mourning to do.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:29 pm
Nothing But Blue Skies[Joanne + Azzo] Azzo helps Joanne after a fall in gym, and then with her feelings about the recent deaths. Joanne wonders if Azzo knows more than he's letting on, and is rather startled by his behavior, but thankful for his attempt at counseling.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:34 pm
Special Delivery[Joanne + Grayson] Joanne tries to be sneaky with a costume she's mailing. She ends up being about as stealthy as a fire truck.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:07 am
Battle Over Interwebs [BTSP][Joanne + Louisa] In an attempt to think about something other than death, Joanne enters an online Battleship contest. Round One: Joanne vs. Louisa. Fight!
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:08 am
THE ROOF IS ON FIRE [SD][EVERYONE] When the dorms catch fire, Joanne makes a decision to live for the memory of her mother. To that end, she jumps from the window her room and somehow manages to survive.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:09 am
The Best Laid Plans[Joanne] When the world goes crazy, Joanne does what she does best: hide in the broom closet.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:10 am
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:10 am
Operation Meatgrinder[Joanne + Lots of People] The surviving humans band together to thin out the zombie horde. Their success does not come cheap; not everyone makes it out alive.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:12 am
Operation Meatgrinder was, in short, a disaster.
It worked, to a degree. Joanne had been briefed enough to know that people might get hurt. She knew that there wasn't anything they could do to really kill the enemies, the 'greenies' as the others called them, and this was just to stop some of them from attacking. It was almost surreal, how calmly she was accepting all of this. Greenies. Killing. A month ago, Joanne thought her biggest problem was staying out of people's way and mastering linen reweaving. Now she actually had to worry about her own survival.
A fact that was cruelly driven in as she watched Miss Evelyn, the girl that rescued her, fall onto her own spikes.
How could something like that happen? How could someone capable enough to go on missions and help her out and set up spikes be killed so easily? And if she was, what hope did Joanne have? Her only skill was sewing, which wasn't going to help anybody. Her aim had been pretty awful, and she got almost no distance with her bricks. She tried, of course, but so had Miss Evelyn. She knew now that trying was not enough.
She also knew that death was simply not an option. She had made that decision, and was not backing down. She would survive. She had to.
But what would happen now that she had tried to trust a group, and they had fallen apart? Miss Evelyn was dead. The older girl with the red hair had vanished. So had their leader, Mister Sue. There were so few of them left. The boy with the green hair was trying, but what could be done? They couldn't fight, not with so few of them.
So Joanne had fallen back on her habits. She was hiding, this time in a kitchen pantry. She'd made sure to bring a can opener from the kitchen proper, so she wouldn't starve this time. She just had to wait for it to end. If she was patient, things would settle down. Even if it meant everyone killing each other- No, that could never happen. She couldn't let it. But she couldn't do anything to stop it.
All she could ever do was hide. So she did, gnawing on a piece of jerky, waiting for the chaos to end.
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 7:16 pm
Now We Are Free[Joanne + Zodiacs + Survivors] Joanne stops hiding and gives all she can to break the curse surrounding Barren Pines. Though she does not make it out, in her final moments, she manages to achieve a sort of peace. She only hopes that the peace will last for everyone else.
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