An all girls schools 50th high school reunion

I want to ask you guys to go gentle on me because I’m heart broken but knowing if I personally AITAH is important to me because I feel sick to my stomach.
Some background, we were high school sweethearts. We have undoubtedly been through SOME SHIT. Everything from teen pregnancy, me losing my grandmother who was essentially my mother and father, him losing his brother suddenly, I was S/A’d and stalked by a stranger a year into marriage, job loss, covid, so much. We made it through everything. Then my husband began battling significant depression. The worst I have ever seen, it also seemed to be coupled with anger issues/possible manic episodes?
He stopped working about 4 years ago and I became the bread winner. It was a lot to handle along with our child. Throughout this he did remain an amazing dad but our relationship was rocky. We hit a breaking point about 3 months ago and I left temporarily with our son because I told him he finally needed to go on meds. To his credit he did. He sees a psychiatrist every two weeks, he asks for my input, we’re in marriage therapy, I’m in couples therapy, we’re starting family therapy. His psychiatrist believes he may have bipolar disorder.
I returned after many sessions and belief he was making a difference. And lord, he has been. This is where I feel like the asshole. I want to throw up because I know he is trying but how do you tell someone you love it’s not enough? Because the last 4 years was solely on me we lost our car, our house is in foreclosure, I had to file bankruptcy, and we’re living on a prayer. Throughout this our therapists have remain steadfast that turning towards each other is the way, but I’m exhausted. He’s applied to jobs but it’s been impossible without a vehicle and he gets discouraged quickly while waiting for disability (recommended by his psychiatrist).
Meanwhile I’m in a BSN, RN program and our son starts a trade school in the fall I want to be full prepared for. I want him to have everything he needs and more. My husband had no inclination I would get up and leave this morning. I realized he had no plan other than going to his mothers (who doesn’t like me or visit our son but adores my husband and doesn’t hold him accountable). She also lives an hour away from my college and my son’s school. I realized this isn’t going to work so I called the only family I had who I know will help me finish school, get to work, has more than enough room for my son and I… and I told my husband I was leaving. I felt like my entire world as falling apart.
My son chose to stay the night with him because he’s the fun parent, everything there is fun, his friends, video games, all of it and my mom heart died inside but I didn’t let it show. When we were temporarily separated I always was flexible and we brought him back and forth whenever he asked.
I told my husband I didn’t want a divorce, I just need stability for myself and our son. That we CAN reunite but that I’m feeling too shaky to not start planning/providing (foreclosure is scheduled end of summer but he’s speaking with investors to possibly sell in July, the equity will be very very small).
I firmly believe marriage is in sickness or in health but I also am a mother and even if my son thinks I’m the boring one as painful as it is to here, I am the one he asks for his necessities. I am the one who plans. I take care of my husband and make sure he has what he needs. All while juggling nursing school. I plan to start working at a warehouse overnight until I find a job as a student nurse.
AITAH for making him feel like he’s not doing enough?

He’s my coworker and we don’t know each other very much. I started noticing him when I’d catch him looking at me. I thought it was cute and carried on like normal. The more I saw him around, the more attractive he started to become. He’s on the thicker, muscular side and taller than me. I asked another coworker if she knew how old he was and she told me he graduated high school last year. I got the ick immediately and was able to get over it quite fast.
He started initiating conversation about work and what he could do to improve. Sometimes it takes him a while to talk to me, as if he’s trying to think about what to say since I’m trying my hardest not to initiate or entertain this myself. I would often notice him get close to me and when I’d wave hi, he would get shy and look at the floor and fix his hair. He’s always observing me and once asked me a bunch of questions about myself, trying to get to know me better. He then asked how old I was. He couldn’t believe I was 28 turning 29. He swore I looked 22-23 at most. We had a situation where our eyes locked and I didn’t smile but I just looked at him, since I’m trying to keep it professional. But then he started ignoring me, so I took it as him taking it as a form of rejection. I felt bad so I made sure to smile more around him to make him feel at ease. This is where it gets complicated.
He stood next to me waiting to use a machine I was using. I made a comment that might have come off as flirtatious. I said “Now that you’re here, I’m going to take my time.” I was trying to be playful and he smiled. Didn’t expect him to say anything, but then he told me that I have a very inviting smile and how I walk around with a smile on my face. This tells me he’s been keeping on eye on me. His eyes were intensely focused on mine, then he looked down at my chest area, then back to my eyes about 5 times in a row. I felt his slight nervousness and how he was paying attention to my reaction.
Not even my ex who I was with for 7 years had ever looked at me this way. At that moment, I lost composure and let myself regress to a teenage girl who just had her crush tell her she’s cute. I smiled, thanked him then told him that most people think I look intimidating (this was my way of trying to make the moment more casual) and his face sort of went into confusion mode for a split second. I then told him I smile when I think about my corgi dog. He chuckled at that but perhaps he was waiting for me to admit that I smile when he’s around specifically.
I felt like I was put in a trance. I find myself scanning the area at work to see if I can get a glimpse of him. This isn’t my first rodeo with limerence and I can feel myself spiraling. My obsession with my last LO lasted 2 years. He’s all I think about from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. I’ve already thought about dating and about possible scenarios between him and I. What makes this feel so awful is the age gap. He’s a young guy and I’m at that point of my life that I’d rather find someone that’s ready for marriage. But I feel like I’m in this agony fighting myself over why I care this much.
I feel that concentrating at work is becoming harder and harder. I’m still in college since I went back and moved in with my parents after my failed 7 year relationship. It technically feels like me and him are somewhat on the same stage of life, despite me being way older. I want him to ask me out on a date, but he’s not even old enough to drink! I also thought about allowing it to be a casual, fun thing but at the end of the day he’s my coworker. I don’t know how to proceed with this. I don’t think I can ignore him fully.
TL;DR I noticed a coworker, who’s 10 years younger than me, watching me, and found him attractive until I learned his age. Despite this, he often initiates work related conversations and gets shy around me. He even complimented my smile, making me feel flustered. I've developed a crush and constantly think about him, but the significant age difference complicates things. I'm struggling to concentrate at work and don't know how to handle my feelings, as I can't fully ignore him but also know dating might not be appropriate. I feel that my brain is consumed with thoughts of him and I spend my days stressed out and ashamed of my feelings.

I served for 4 years getting honorably discharged june of last year. I just want to talk to people in same situation I landed myself in directly during my discharge. I was married for 2 years and found out during their deployment (both AD) that she was cheating and that came to When I got discharged I was treated like crap until I had to leave the apartment leaving behind my pets and some belongings to take what i could fit in my car to go back and live with my parents and I traveled to a school to do training (that didn't even come into fruition due to legal issues at the school and not finding employment after). Started at first being at technical homeless and moreso risk of homelessness since I couldn't afford a place in that high cost of living area (plan was to do this while I was still married but didn't wanna back out). Between training living in different friends hotel rooms so I wasn't on the street. My brother then realized my situation and allowed me a place to stay so traveling all the way there for months but never felt like a home. They didn't understand what I was going through at all and treated me like a kid (I am young age but experienced a lot during and after service). A pet of theirs that attacked me and I couldn't walk to the bathroom without being attacked and they wouldn't do anything about it calling him "misunderstood". No mind the fact my sleeping issues and constant nightmares I endure during then and afraid of what my future will hold since I was unemployed for months, couldn't get a job and firefighting didn't work out. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. I did then get 1 job as a janitor and that made me feel like all my experience and awards and knowledge was wasteful and felt like nothing and pay was terrible but something. Eventually, I was getting removed from the house (I had a job, just family drama) and I eventually grabbed my stuff and moved into a RV I currently live and store my stuff at and this job pays really well but the hours are kicking my ass (90 hour weeks 7 days) and my mental health has never been at an all time low then now with the disabilities I have. I had to cancel my VA appointments because I couldn't make them, no time during days to progress myself and finish what I was starting because I'm working to pay off lots of my debt I accrued being at "technical" homelessness and I'm just really anxious and can't focus at work right now. Been doing this work for 3 months, away from home but I'm tryna financially survive but mentally it's getting harder. I really like some advice and perhaps motivation to keep going. This is a simplified version of it all since I already been going on long but I hate doing this, I can't get new medication for my anxiety rn being away for so long for 3 months and also lowkey want to make new vet friends, I can only relate to other veterans. I don't want a sob party about my situation, I just want some uplifting and advice of people in my situation. I hope this is the right community to find it.

I saw a post here the other day where a lot of people were talking about how they believe they have limerence due to watching a lot of romcoms growing up and seeing these serendipitous situations or the overlooked girl finally getting the guy and I totally have to agree. While I do have an anxious attachment style and OCD which furthers the limerence and a number of traumas in my romantic life (abuse, rape, etc.) I would say the main thing that keeps it all going is seeing signs and reasons for us to be together.
I truly believe the universe gives us what we need at the time we need it and my LO continues to re-enter my life at the exact right time. About a month ago I decided to start choosing myself and blocked my LO. Then a few weeks ago I couldn’t stand it anymore and unblocked him on socials… then a week ago I sent him a text while intoxicated. He never responded and even left me on delivered… it started to eat away at me… in my head I thought if I ever chose to reach out again he’d have me back in his life… now I’m thinking did I lose this guy for real? I sent him another text a few days later… one asking for help with a situation he’s a professional with. I locked my keys in my trunk by accident and he works for CAA. I saw him read my text and then not respond. I sent him a third text a few days later.. still on delivered.
A mutual friend of ours believes he’s punishing me for the blocking or playing games but I’m certain he’s just absolutely done with me and I’m spiralling. Today I was at the store with my kids and I had a gut feeling I’d run into my LO. The feeling was so strong I thought I was going to puke. I didn’t end up running into him but instead ran into his brother and his nephew who he’s sent me endless photos and videos of… it felt so bizarre to see them there in the flesh. I haven’t run into his brother in about 12 years… now I’m reading into all of this .. like why is this brother appearing in my life right at this time when I once again can’t get LO off my mind? The obvious response is because coincidences happen and he lives nearby. But now I’m having these thoughts like I hope he recognized me, I hope he tells my LO about it .. I hope this makes my LO think about me… it’s so ridiculous and yet I can’t stop.
I keep coming up with reasons that I would improve my LOs life and vice versa… I’m thinking back to every convo we’ve ever had, mutual friends, a song he sent me in high school… like who would have thought back then that we’d ever end up lovers. Everything is a mystical magical connection that led us here. It’s almost like my mind refuses to accept that he has free will lol. I feel totally crazy and I know my friends are so friggen sick of hearing about him. Except our mutual friend who feeds into the limerence by showing me cute photos of him, speaking fondly of him, agreeing with my interpretation of events that his feelings for me scared him away as he’s an avoidant who hasn’t had a real relationship in decades.
I’m trying to focus on the idea that his exit from my life is because the lessons are finished now and the fatefulness here is now complete. He came in for a reason and that reason is now done with.

I, 11 year old female, just finished sixth grade and started summer! I have had tons of amazing teachers this year, and as a present for the last day of school, I decided to write them all letters! All of the letters were handwritten and personalized, as well as decorated in marker with all of their favorite colors! I also spent the money I got from my grandfather on envelopes for all these letters. I, of course, wrote letters to all of my core class teachers. I also wrote one for my wood shop, gym, and robotics teachers. As well as one for our In-School sub and the lunch lady. I actually made the lunch lady a goodie bag full of candy and little gifts because of how kind and sweet she is. Those were all of the teachers who I made letters for, unfortunately, there was one of my teachers who I didn’t make a letter for. I had a rotating elective system throughout the year, for the first quarter I had wood shop, for the second quarter I had pottery, then art, and then finally robotics. My art and pottery classes were both taught by the same man, who we’ll call Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones was always kind of weird in class. He would always make inappropriate jokes with and about his students, which always made me very uncomfortable because we’re only in middle school and he’s an authority figure. The students never minded his jokes and would always play along making similar jokes about him, which he highly encouraged. He wouldn’t just make inappropriate jokes about his students, but would also sometimes make jokes about engaging in inappropriate activities with his students. He would always describe these vulgar activities very crudely and in great detail. All of the students loved it and thought it was hilarious, but I always thought it was very creepy for him to make these jokes about minors. I wanted to report him, but all of the students urged me not to. They said that I was just jealous because he never made those jokes about me and that no one even cared. None of the other teachers even knew he did this, honestly though, even if they did I’m not sure the school would do much about it. They once hired a different teacher who had a history of sexual harassment, and ended up doing unspeakable things to one of his students, and was thankfully fired and taken to jail for it. Anyway, the end of the year finally rolled around and I was making the letters. As I was making them, I decided not to make a letter for Mr. Jones. Because, frankly, I couldn’t find something nice to say about him. On the last day of school, I was passing out the letters. I tried to pass them out as discreetly as possible, to both spare his feelings and to not draw attention to myself. Unfortunately though, despite this, he still saw me give a letter to my wood shop teacher, who we’ll call Mr. Smith. I didn’t know this at the time, but Mr. Jones had been just around the corner. He confronted me, and started yelling at me! There was very loud music and there weren’t many people around so no one really heard him but Mr.Smith and I. He was yelling about how he knew that I had been giving letters to all my teachers, except for him. I never told anyone about the letters, so I imagine he found out because the other teachers told him after receiving their letters. He was yelling about how I was excluding him and that I was being petty! I don’t even really remember the rest of what he said, but eventually I started to tear up and ran to the bathroom where I proceeded to ball my eyes out. I heard Mr. Smith cussing Mr. Jones out when I left. When I got home, I told my brother, who we’ll call Tom, the whole story. He was furious! He told me that I should have told the principal and that that teacher is way out of line. Everyone keeps on telling me I’m in the right, but I don’t know. I really hurt his feelings, and I feel terrible about that. So…Am I the bad Apple?

It’s been almost two years since I picked up a drink. It’s kind of like you gave yourself PTSD from a person you used to be. Sometimes you can’t even believe half the shit that haunts you. I drank since I was 19 all the way until my 26th birthday. I’m almost 28 now.
I suffered from a lot of physical and verbal abuse from my dad growing up and a toxic marriage when I was right out of high school. I got injured in the military and my divorce also killed it. After my divorce at 21, my drinking and whoring around got even worse. I could still hold a job because blue collar life, drinking is all but part of the uniform. But then the pandemic hit when I was 23 and I couldn’t even go to the gym and it got even worse. Next thing I know my job laid me off, gyms shut down, and I already lived in the middle of nowhere but then it got even more isolated. I became homeless for about 6 months which was awful by itself. I moved back in with my parents 1300 miles away from where everything I knew was. My mother gave me a really good incentive, “you drink you’re kicked out”. And I had nowhere else to go so I agreed.
I just turn 26 and I’m trying to figure out who I am because I feel like because of the drinking I never had a chance to grow up. It’s like I was meeting myself for the first time the longer I’m sober. I never went to AA. I feel like I’ve gotten a good grip on it from staying at my parents. Slowly but surely I get my life together. I moved in with my best friend from high school and we start roommating. We make it work really well. I got a job as a pizza delivery driver for almost 1 years and a half. It’s what I did as a teenager, and it’s a long jump from a welder to delivery driver but I was in no position to argue. I start my life over from there and I figure out who I am.
Next thing I know I’m losing the weight I gained from drinking, weight lifting became my therapy and I basically started body building. lol and I didn’t look anything like I did years prior.
I dated someone from where I used to live. She and I got back in contact and was glad that I was doing so well and was glad I quit drinking. She had a little girl I considered a daughter. And tbh I did miss them.
2 months later I packed my bags and headed back to where I lived previously. No one even recognized me from how much I changed. Not just physically. And it took me going back to realize how much sobriety had an effect on me.
Now I’m 27, almost 28 now. And it’s been almost exactly two years since I quit drinking. I’m so thankful to be alive from almost dying. And there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about those times when I’m down because it makes me realize things could be worse whenever I’m feeling down.
And there’s a song that I want some of you to listen to: Life Is Beautiful by Sixx A.M..
Because sometimes, there’s nothing like a trail of blood to find your way back home.
I am now engaged and my step daughter is now 4 years old.
If you’re ever struggling to quit, it is a struggle. Every day is. Every day will be. But it gets better. You start to snap out of it. And you learn to recognize that addictive voice. And you start to figure your life out one day at a time and piece it all together.
You’re not alone.

I’ve always had bb since I was little and I even got comments in elementary school about it. Middle school and high school we were allowed to chew gum, so that helped a bit, but I developed anxiety about not having gum and mints on me. When I entered the workforce and college it got so bad to the point that I would have anxiety attacks if I forgot to buy more gum/mints. I started buying them in bulk because I ran through them so quickly.
Over the years I’ve tried it all. Extra strength gums and mints (altoids - iykyk), mouth washes, etc. My dentist has given me prescription strength toothpaste and antiseptic mouthwash and that’s helped a lot with my oral health, but my bb remained. My dental hygienist was confused as to why I was still getting cavities if my gums were healthy because I was obviously doing something right.
So a week ago I googled what was going on and I found this subreddit. I looked through and I saw a lot of posts about GERD/acid reflux causing bb. My mom had that and bb too, I wake up with a burning sensation in my chest/stomach, my bb is bad without eating anything, I wake up with a white tongue in the morning, I have tonsil stones, and I did have stomach issues when I was younger. So I tried the DIY baking soda rinse suggestion and oh my fucking god. My breath got way better. I don’t wake up with a white tongue or an acidic taste in my mouth. My breath isn’t bad immediately after my dental routine. Even my floss doesn’t smell like anything!
I’m so happy I found this group, this is the first thing that actually did something noticeable. I’m working on cutting things out of my diet to improve the symptoms so I don’t have to take another medication, but I thank you all so much!

OK so this girl joined my school about a year ago and became best friends with my cousin. Me and my cousin along with a few of our friends hang out every once in a while and this girl is usually there with us. I really want to ask her out or something but I don't really know how and I'm way to scared of rejection. I have 1 class with her as well as i see her at these gatherings too but that's it. She is new to everyone here and its really awkward trying to hold a conversation as I am not a conversationalist at all. I doubt she even likes me back and she barely even knows who I am. I have gotten info through my cousin that at least she considers me a nice person and has spoken positively of me to my cousin but I just feel like I am in the wrong for liking her and that she thinks I'm weird. I do really like her and I really really want to confess to her that I do like her but I am just way to scared that I'll end up like the guy that got rejected in the cafeteria. If I don't say something in the next half year or so then I will never get the chance to ask her out. On my birthday in 2 months I was going to have a party and the whole group was going to be invited so I might have an opportunity there, other than that and maybe a few small events or in school I won't have a chance to ask her out. I have her number already but I have only messaged her once about 3 months ago and all the friends who I told that I liked this girl have pretty much forgotten about it. I have never been in a relationship and the last girl I asked out nearly got me concussed so everyone who I've crushed on I gave up on but I think I might have a chance here. I've liked her ever since we met a year ago and I only told my friends recently. I've been dying to ask her out but I just never did but now I really really want to. Sorry for this being so long and if you have any advice at all it would be appreciated very much.

TW: Mentions of abuse, mention of psychiatric hospitalization
I wanted to see if anyone else here has dealt with this same confusing situation. I experienced physical + verbal/emotional abuse my entire life until I moved out at 18. My parents were by far the worst when me & my siblings were very young, think elementary school ages. I was also the oldest and definitely got some of the harshest treatment since my parents eased up and genuinely did change a lot over the last few years. We all suffered a lot at a very young age. I had to be hospitalized for the first time because my CPTSD flashbacks were unbearable then.
Now, my parents are very different. They do all the “right” things now that I’m an adult such as giving emotional support, respecting my boundaries, being non-judgemental, accepting me for my differences such as being autistic/trans/queer, etc. this is a stark constant to experiencing constant ableism from them as a child and casual more “discreet” homophobia that pushed me into the closet for many years. My feelings would be constantly invalidated, I experienced verbal and physical abuse that caused long-lasting issues with self esteem, ability to form relationships, and chronic anxiety and depression.
Despite how they’ve changed, they’ve never acknowledged any of the harm they inflicted upon me and my siblings. I highly doubt they are aware they were abusers. They demonstrate a lack of self awareness quite frequently. I go through periods of intense anger where I can barely talk to them without going into a rage and have had to take breaks from communication entirely. I am so conflicted because I am so angry with them, yet I still love them very much and now I actually enjoy spending time with them. I also have a lot of good memories with them too, even if there are equal or more bad ones. Having such conflicting feelings makes me feel like I’m misremembering things and it wasn’t that bad, which I know isn’t actually true. It would be more simple if my parents were still really toxic and awful, I could just cut them off without hesitation. I’m not planning on doing this but I have no idea how to proceed with them.

I(18f) am graduating high school this week. It’s an emotional thing for me, not because of leaving school and friends but because I want people to come who can’t or simply won’t. My sister(25) just called me saying “Hey my friend invited me to this award thing and the after party and I have an extra ticket.” I was thinking maybe she is about to invite me or maybe she wanted me to cat sit her kitten while she was away. Nope. Instead she said “I don’t HAVE to leave early but it would be better for me if I did. And if I did, I would be skipping your graduation.” I was pissed and heartbroken at the same time. “Okay?” I said. She then asked if I would be okay with that. I said absolutely not. Why even ask me that if you didn’t HAVE to do it? And there is other family drama that basically gets summed up with me contacting my dad’s side of the family who I never met and never even knew what they looked like up until 2 years ago, in the hope of starting a relationship and having them come to my graduation and be present. That went to shit. And then also the people who are attending my graduation, aka my moms side, have treated me like shit to the point where I don’t even want them to come and threatened to withhold my tickets from them. She is aware of this and has been through similar things. It feels like she doesn’t care. She feels so materialistic to me now. She got close with our aunt and uncle, who treated me like crap and left me out of stuff but did everything for her, and then started getting into arguments with them and it messed with her anxiety. She then comes to my home, treats me poorly, but wants me to throw her a pity party all because her plan to get everything she wants goes sour. She has my mom pay her medical bills, groceries, school and cat supplies, and gas. A few months back she didn’t talk to me from August 2023 up until April 2024 all because I refused to give her free services now that I am a licensed cosmetologist. And now this. I told her straight up that I wasn’t okay with that and I want her there. She said okay but I knew she was upset. I went to my mom about it, crying and all. She went to my other siblings grads but wanted to skip mine to go hang with her girl friend who is fake to her? My mom made the situation about her and my baby cousin who is turning 1 year old on the day of the award night. And then I popped off because my mom ALWAYS makes the situation about her, especially when she brings up the drama with my dad when I need comfort. And then also my cousin won’t even be able to remember my sister not being there on her birthday. And everyone cares about my cousins birthday but mine hasn’t even been celebrated since I was 9 because my grandma died 3 days before. I am so tired of being put on the back burner. I’m tired of everyone caring about everyone except for me. I just want a family that actually gives a damn and I don’t even have anyone on either side of the fuckin tree.

I've been married for 14 years now and it hasn't been as pleasant as I would have liked it to have been. A bit of a backstory, my husband and I have been to several grade schools together when we were younger. We later rekindled between the ages of 22 23. We dated for 6 months and got engaged in 2009. We got married on March 27th 2010. I have two previous children from two previous relationships. After we got married we had our own child together which was a baby girl who was born in 2011. After I win your anniversary my husband was accused of sodomy against one of my children. I immediately took her to the hospital, filed a protective order, complied with CPS, and still end up losing my kids for whatever reason they never told me. From April 1st till sometime in August I was not communicating with my husband because I truly believe that he did it. Long story short we go through courts and my daughter said she doesn't know she doesn't remember him doing anything to her, on top of us having a video of the day that she was talking about and what she was not present because I was giving birth that day. So my husband and I get back to talking after he gets out of jail and we set our life again together. Me thinking that he was innocent and that I had put a man in jail because my daughter wanted to lie made me feel bad. We had six more kids throughout the 12 years after that. We've had issues on and off about me being able to trust him as far as talking to other women because we've had several incidents where he was supposed to be talking to other women but made it seem like he wasn't. Fast forward to this year, it was March 17th and my husband and I had went out to bingo with his mother earlier that day and we had came back and our TV in the room wasn't working, so everybody decided to be on their devices which were our phones. I ended up having to use his laptop for our baby girl that we just had back in June. I went to his search browser and started typing in y o u and as soon as I did the history popped up and I could see that he was watching incest porn right before he went to sleep. I went to his web history and started recording everything that I seen for my eyes which was basically a lot of incest born going all the way back to January before we switched our phones, mine's Android and he upgraded his to a iPhone. The reason why he upgraded his phone is because my 16-year-old daughter that he adopted had an iPhone. Not knowing that he was keeping tabs on her and messaging her throughout the night, I started browsing the history yes I had a brows in the passwords and the website that he had and it was very damaging. I clicked on one of the searches to see the details and it was coming from his iPhone. Mind you he went from working 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the morning to working from 6:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. in the morning. All the times and dates from the video for being watched while he was at work and most times when he was at home. So it prompted me to ask my 16 year old daughter had he touched her or did anything to her that he wasn't supposed to, and she said yes. She explained what he did and how he did it and the times when he did it. It was mostly when I was either sleep, pregnant, at work, or out on a run to the store that he sent me on. After finding out that this happened I immediately got my kids to safety and confronted him partially about the situation. Since then I've a filed a protective order and child support. My daughter and I have talked to the DA and it's been 3 months now since this incident was addressed to the police and to CPS and no charges have been filed yet. I have submitted DNA evidence I have submitted video evidence and phones one that he previously switched from to his iPhone. They're telling me that they can send him the protective order because it's addressed to our house or try me we got him kicked out of. The police has called him for questioning and he has refused to talk to the police even without his lawyer. And I know he has the right to do that but he's running around telling his family that he didn't do it that I'm crazy and that I'm only mad because I found out that he cheated on me with somebody else. I wouldn't give two shits if he cheated on me with somebody else I would rather for him to cheat on me with a woman than my child. I am trying to figure out where do I go from here and would help I can get because unfortunately I'm not working and have not been working for 3 years because I got in a bad car accident when I was 8 months pregnant well that's second to last child and haven't been able to really work and end up staying at home with the kids. This is beyond stressful of trying to play a waiting game that seems inevitable of anything happening to him. I'm trying every possible way I can to get the help and understanding of what it is I need to do to protect me and my kids and to also most importantly get Justice for my daughter and my children because they lost the father. My daughter is already in counseling I'm already in counseling and some of my children are already in counseling. I'm just trying to figure out what it is I can do before I do something that I will regret years down the line because I'm trying not to let my emotions get the best of me but they're about to win because it feels like I have no help and no one is helping me like I need them to help. I've had several organizations help me with rent but even with that his aunt on the house that we're in and we were on our last year of making payments to own the home and now that this has happened I'm facing eviction because of the condition of the house which has been like this for the last 6 years. Please please I'm asking for help in any way shape or form. Because at this point in time I have nowhere to go take me and my children, and I have no family here to help me seriously be able to do what needs to be done and to at least try to get some peace.

Helloo! I'm a rising senior and I need help completing my college list and removing colleges since I honestly want as least as possible. Here I'll share my stats and current list. I love Boston so I want to go to school around there, and I'm planning to major in health sciences or another track to become a physician's assistant. Thank you!
Demographics: Asian, female, not first-gen, not low-income, Northeastern University legacy
GPA: about 3.8, top 4% of class (hoping it gets better)
APs: 11 by the end of high school, awaiting 4 AP scores right now (APUSH-4 and AP Seminar-5 during sophomore year)
SAT: score hasn't come yet (good luck to everyone expecting theirs this week!!) but expecting 1400+ (not the best so definitely need to lock in this summer)
ECs (simplified):

• President of a nonprofit-based mental health club outside of school since July 2023: we meet w/ 30+ kids at an afterschool program 1x a week to host games and activities and engage in mental health discussions that reduce their cell phone use and try to improve mental health! We also have the kids answer a survey after each session about their experience and if the activities improved their mental health and will present the data to the school committee
• Co-pres of an ambassadorship program at school for 2 years: we have 20+ members who we teach to give tours to new students, make resources like brochures detailing school resources for them, host the 9th grade summer orientations, and we're working with the city's youth ambassador later this year
• Mental health youth ambassador summer program: work with fellow youth ambassadors from across Greater Boston to plan initiatives to reduce stigma against mental health, raise awareness of common mental health issues, and ensure access to treatment and support
• Summer intern to conduct + publish medical research on the role of AI in healthcare
• Very recently started a TikTok about skincare + mental health, two of my passions! (gained about 600+ followers so far and hoping to expand during summer)
• Published my AP Research paper about designing a skincare health curriculum for hs students
• Volunteer at local hospital (wayfinder at front desk, clinical positions to help + shadow doctors, 50+ hrs so far)
• Summer job freshman + sophomore summer (teacher’s assistant at daycare)
• Editor-in-chief of school newspaper
• Two years of varsity tennis
• Lead tutor of school library's peer tutoring program in the fall (four core subjects)
• NHS (project was a massive drive to donate school supplies to all schools in my district)

Awards (would appreciate tips on how to earn more):

• CPAED certified
• Immigration essay contest honorable mention w/ senator citation (2 years)
• Likely an AP Scholar w/ some kind of honor
• Poetry recitation finalist at my school

Current list (not sure if everything's categorized right):
High reaches: Harvard University, Yale University, Amherst College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Boston University (I like to dream about them)
Reaches: Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Boston College, College of the HolyCross
Targets: UMass Amherst, Brandeis University, Emmanuel College, Clark University
Likely/Safety: Simmons University, UMass Lowell, UMass Boston

P.S please seek out help to me, or call your loved ones if you notice these early signs.
Marriage with you was my happiness but prison was already the big red flag that I ignored the moment I knew you 8 months ago. I had it wrapped around my finger, mistakes were bound to happen on our journey but going out to go do cheating was never & ever will be on my list. An 18 year old girl and a 22 year old man. I pushed you to do the best but even the ‘your happiness is my happiness’ did not want to align in your mind. For nearly 8 months your inner hidden subconscious led you to believe I was jealous of you. Jealous of your trading currencies, jealous of your looks, jealous of your job, jealous of your successes & passes, jealous of your money. I made mistakes most of these people were my old friends who i left without a word for you but I am not a try to impress girl, i never was & i never will be. All i wanted & asked for were flowers not a daily bags of expenses from you. I only wanted you to be kind and have a nice tone. When you love, you do love hard but your hatred and want to hurt me surpasses your love for me Murad, you never ever wanted to forgive me Murad but I have and I still do. Since i met you i’ve been on fight or flight mode, I fear you but im not scared of you anymore, but this is still your nature from a little baby to a grown man entering his prime years. You will not change or learn Murad. Changing does not mean praying 5 times and reading Quran. You still managed to fit another woman from another country in our marriage, forget the relationship it was haraam. I never done that Murad. I didnt keep a man on my iMessage or WhatsApp in our marriage. You love money, sex & drugs. It’s what you worshipped since young. That is your qismat. The difference is I had my reason not excuses for my mistakes but you had no reason or excuse Mo because that is in your blood it is how you were born and grew up. You became the waste end product of this emerging environment. I was never the way I was last year Murad, when I was 8, I was taking my shoes & clothes off on roads in my country to give to the poor children, I stole biscuits from my grandmother’s corner shop and was smacked just so I could to give to the orphans whereas at 9 you were smoking weed, having intercourse with women & carrying zombie knives in your pants, leaving a gun in higham hills park or St james park. And if i met men before you and wanted to conceal it you rip my throat off and attempt to take my life? Your story does not deserve to be told in schools Murad, your story is not a life lesson but a facade because you have not learned your lesson, you just become more & more proud about your old ways. You know why? Because I know you don’t regret it Murad, a person who regrets their deed does not boast or feels proud, the man who is regretful of his past actions asks for forgiveness, conceals the sin and moves on. The real reason why you boast about your case is because you were controlling the city’s drug supply. You love control & you love power. Do you know what happens to the elite above when they have so much money, do you know what is above money and below Dajjal? Power. You love power & being in control of your family, friends & wife. That’s how you’ve created your trust issues as well as your own fake army. People can’t be honest around you because you’ve pre built a foundation of fear Murad through your tone, words & agression. Control yourself before you control those around you. That’s the dynamics of it. Stop instilling fear in people to get your stomach full. I have the right to diagnose you with this, you have borderline personality with narcissistic personality and a lack of empathy; a result of your traumatic past experiences so Murad prove my point you don’t trust anyone else to handle my mistakes and forgive me or try to understand me unless you handle my mistake the way your revengeful gut wants to hurt and deal with me. I’ve made mistakes but my love was stronger than me hurting you, we always found each other when we needed each other the most. But that fell off when we got married, you chose friends over your wife waiting for you for 5 hours at home, and coming home to find out you have a secret girlfriend from a week in our nikkah. I forgive you Murad. How do I go to my class with other 18 year old girls knowing I married the lover of my life who nearly ended my life nights previously? How do I deal with this ? Im very mature and I don’t feel my age but somewhere in me is still 18.
You moulded me into a liar because of fear & you moulded me into a broken girl because of your past experience and mistakes i did and you did. Murad I didn’t care that you had no money. My vision is slowly settling into my system and I think the women, family and friends around you is okay with you making & spending haraam money but not me Murad. Just like how you did not like some of my ways and I changed even if i stumbled and made silly mistakes half way or when we ended but i did not like some of your ways and you didn’t change. I didn’t meet anyone. In fact Murad you are my worst nightmare. i ignored all your mistakes every one but little i knew, one day shut me down as if i was your biggest mistake. I put you in your place and you have never had that and neither have I been forced in that position, but yet i still cared if i had money just like when you were at work all day I begged my mother to send me money so my husband can have food in his belly from my bed. I went miles for you but then so did you. You crossed the line on 08/06/2024. You suffocated me with a pillow, grabbed my throat so hard I could not breathe, held a knife at my throat and bruised me, smacked me right on my entire left face and nose, attempted to throw me across the balcony in a tightening grip. I tried to hide the bruises from you, but my arm were in so much pain that when you threw me around I had to let the pain escape my mouth. Murad you ruined an 18 year old girl’s life, Murad I didn’t deserve it at all Murad you tainted and left a big stain by destroying me. Murad you are my biggest mistake but was not your biggest mistake & if thats what you believe then one day you will face the consequence of how big of a mistake I was to you like you said because i never physically, intentionally hurt you behind or in front of you. Its okay, I won’t let your mother or your family know what you done to me because God is the one who delivers justice, not me Murad. I bit you and slapped you so hard because you deserved it at that time, but did I deserve what you physically, mentally and intellectually put me through? Murad i was reading my Shahadah that night in your arms. I was really scared, I’ve never felt that scared. I was shaking. My body was shaken. My mind was shaken. My heart was shaken. Murad you gave me PTSD & trauma, you left me neglected and abused many times but I accepted you for you. I now have to go therapy and take medication Murad just because I hid talking to men in my past and you punished me in a way Allah’s mercy wouldn’t do. I did not cheat on you & I payed my truth in blood when I slit my wrist to prove to you that I did not cheat & or sleep with any men, I was a virgin Murad, but you accused me of the worst Murad in front of everybody Murad. You should have shot me in my heart there because thats where I hurt the most, it’s not fair. Murad If you’re reading this and think you are still a good kind man after what you done to me then prove me wrong, find that goodness seed inside of your heart and hold on to it and believe me for once Murad you know that man was lying to destroy us & it worked.
The night that traumatic night occured, my father previously mentioned to my mother ‘ this girl will die in his hands’ my dad predicted this action.
But that was not enough, your end goal was to murder me & you have. I died that night Murad, you broke me into pieces before and tried to kill me but the night on the 08/06/2024 you murdered me & I did not deserve a pinch of it. I constantly pleaded with you softly, I begged you to stop and stop hurting me that night. Murad do you know what hurts me ? Is if my father witnessed with his eyes how much you mashed my body so much with my face into the bed and wall with your hands & weight, you suffocated and tried to kill me with your hands Murad, I would die before i let my father witness you choking his daughter, history has repeated in your family and someone will do this to your daughter Murad and this time i promise you will see it happen in the moment and that is when your world will end. I didn’t meet anyone when we were together. Murad i promised you my time will come one day when i’ll make you face & understand the consequences of your abusive actions forget words. I won’t punish you, what is gone before is long gone & all you have now is the result of your actions. And that will be my last remembrance of you, you won’t see my face anywhere, you wont hear my name anywhere & you won’t find my anywhere. Murad you are not a man, you are not a stay.busy17 man either and you are definitely not a money motivated man. You sit down on your bed more than you get to work. I do not stand for revenge Murad so destiny and god will restore justice for my silence & sufferings that I faced all alone in your house. I had nobody. Nobody Murad. It was just me And God in your house. That night you nearly ended my life, i repeatedly said to myself ‘Papa please help me God please help me Papa please help me God please save me’ Murad when someone is in so much pain God takes away the pain not by ending their life but by taking their soul out of their body for a few seconds to relieve the pain. I did not meet anyone. My ‘revenge’ is not violence nor revenge itself, my revenge is God, only a taste of your medicine Murad, I will disappear out of your life so quietly without notice because you hurt me more than you love me. Life is not a game, but you are the one who chose this game to play so you’ll play it nicely now. The evilness inside of your eyes that night is something I will never forget. All I wanted was for you not to do drugs in our marriage. In the UK, 75% of ex-inmates reoffend within nine years of release, and 39.3% within the first twelve months, If you are reading this and wondered why I have written this there then you have guessed right,
because you a 22 year old man attempted homicide on an 18 year old girl through grievous bodily harm (GBH), strangulation in form of abuse, with evident body bruises on arm, face, inner thigh and chest/neck. Men like you Murad, they call you strangles. You are most likely to become killers in almost every situation & It is scientifically proven that if you strangle me and if i stay you WILL eventually kill me. My parents were right on their conscious prediction. My life never has and can not be trusted in your hands.
This is only 30% of everything. The rest I will keep to myself.

Can't believe it was ten years ago now, but here is a writeup about my time at KICL on the Kyoto University of Art campus in 2014/15. This is from an old comment that I posted a few years back, but it's just to get things started off here.
Feel free to add your own thoughts on the school. I'm certain it's changed since then, so it would be nice to hear from other recent students.
TLDR: Overall, it was fine. Heavy emphasis on JLPT. Heavy course load. Nice students and capable teachers.
I went to KICL from 2014-2015 for three semesters. Overall, it was a good experience and I learned much more than I could have in a more traditional, slow language class. By the end, I passed N3 and my written Japanese was quite good for my level. Of course, I forgot all the writing now and can't handwrite anything since all I do is type or text now. I also work in English and my home life is in English, so my speaking is still weak after all these years. However, I have a solid grammatical and mechanical foundation from my time at KICL that I am thankful for. If I expanded my vocab and actually spoke more, I know that I could still excel based on what I learned there.
KICL focuses on reading, kanji, technical listening, and some writing (in the context of memorizing kanji usage) at the expense of speaking, realistic listening, and everyday skills. This is simply the reality of focusing too heavily on the JLPT. Regardless, you will learn a fuckton of Japanese if you apply yourself.
Everyone (except for one gruff teacher with a beard - you'll know him immediately) was very nice. I had a few great teachers and some just good ones. Although it is essentially a JLPT mill like most language schools here, I learned enough Japanese for daily life, and I still feel like I learned some technical grammar points and vocab that most students studying in other places never got around to.
That being said, there were a few problems. They move you through class levels very fast if you have even a hint of competency. They wanted me to jump from 1A to 2A when there is a 2B class in between that introduces new grammar and kanji and stuff. I asked why I can't proceed to that one and how I'll learn that stuff otherwise, and their answer was "you'll just absorb it later." I ended up doing 1A, 2A, and then 2A again instead of moving on. That was my choice because I wanted to really learn the material. Looking back, perhaps it was a mistake, but I think it was best for my study style. They thought I was nuts to do that.
There is a ton of kanji and the material moves very fast. I wasn't a fan of the intermediate book they use, especially since the consensus is to use another popular one in all other school. The one KICL used (New Approach) is super technical and not practical.
You will need to spend a few hours nightly on homework and extra study. 80% of the students there are Taiwanese and they take the coursework extremely seriously. It was a shock for the American and European students to see how hardcore they were. I always thought I was a good student but they blew me out of the water.
A big downside to the Taiwanese presence in KICL is that they can understand most of the kanji already and have a familiarity of how to study and learn kanji effectively. The rest of us struggled to keep up. The Taiwanese can easily pass a reading test by skimming the kanji for basic understanding. Be prepared to step up your kanji game.
KICL exists to get those Taiwanese students to N2 JLPT in two years. Many of them make it in 1.5 years if they already had some basic Japanese knowledge from high school or college. KICL knows how to teach to the JLPT very well, but for someone like me who simply wanted to learn Japanese for everyday life here, it wasn't the best match. I still learned a ton - and forgot most of it by now - and it was an excellent foundation that was more rigorous than other schools. I got a bit burned out in the final semester and was busy with work, so my study time shrank and I got more lax with things. I wish I hadn't done this, but I was a good 10 years older than most students there and I was living in a different reality than when I used to be a student.
There are "clubs" in the afternoon a few days a week at KICL (maybe they've changed it since then). Kanji calligraphy was "required" for western students first semester, but I dropped it after a month because it was just too frustrating for me to try to get my kanji perfect. I'm not an artist and it was killing me. They understood. The other clubs were like business Japanese and stuff for higher level students.
A few times a semester they do "cultural" stuff like going to a craft workshop. It was fun, but a bit touristy and felt like a kids' field trip. I didn't mind that stuff, but the sports day thing in fall was just totally not my scene. THAT felt like we were elementary kids. I know they were trying to give us an authentic school experience, but I would have rather been studying. The group film projects and mandatory assemblies were similarly childish, and extremely Japanese in their structure and requirements. No changing that. I constantly was saying "I'd rather be studying."
There are plenty of opportunities to socialize with the Japanese art school students, but don't expect that to go exactly as you expect. They are doing their own stuff and most of them don't want to be there anyway.
Overall, it's going to be a great experience for most people. Just know your goals when you start and - once you've settled in and are comfortable - let your teachers know what your personal targets are. If you're not there to grind out JLPT, they will understand. I was able to skip some afternoon classes in my last semester when I explained that I had to work (I was starting my own business here at the time) and that advanced JLPT prep class just wasn't for me. They begrudgingly let me skip.
The teachers and students were wonderful, and it was nice to mix with so many international students in the classes. It was well worth the money - and I imagine even more so if I had actually gone full focus and really applied myself 110%!

I’m going to go in order, but for starters, I’m F21, and I’ll go by Evie.
When I was 11, I had a friend, we’ll call her Katherine. One day, we got into a huge fight and stopped talking. Me, being immature, I decided to make burnefake social media accounts to try and talk to her as different people. As I portrayed these “different people,” I would text her and ask her “Oh yeah, I went to that school a few years before you did. Do you know this girl named Evie by any chance? We were good friends, I didn’t get a chance to make friends with other people. She was so nice.” Eventually, Katherine found out about all these fake accounts I made, didn’t say anything and just blocked me. On New Year’s Eve 2022, I rejoined Instagram after deleting my account for a personal break, and I saw her account on my explore page. I reached out to her and told her that I was so sorry for all the hell I put her through, that the “I was 12 and stupid” excuse is no excuse at all, and I will hold myself accountable for my wrongdoings. I wanted to talk to her, deeply, one-on-one. We didn’t have to become friends or anything, I just wanted to clear the air and make amends. To my surprise, she blocked me. Happy New Year’s to me, I guess.
When I was 13, I met this girl online, we’ll call her Nichole. We met randomly through a One Direction group chat on Kik and became best friends, we talked every single day for 2 years. Just like Katherine, I wanted to make another account and text Nichole, ask her about me since “I talk about her all the time,” and see what she would say about me in return. Like Katherine, Nichole found out eventually, sent me a super long message on Kik. She was so angry, and blocked me on every single social media. I’ve tried to reach out to her about a year or two later, and she never answered. But last year, her Facebook popped up. I took this as a chance, and sent her a really long, remorseful text. I told her how deeply sorry I was, how I should have never hurt her and betrayed her trust the way I did, that she meant the absolute world to me. I wanted to be the bigger person, an adult if you will, and handle things the right way. I felt a deeper sorrow for Nichole than I did with Katherine for some reason, and I was truly trying to make things right. The text was so long that I had to break it into three paragraphs. I waited and waited, and I saw that her profile disappeared. I thought maybe she deleted her account, but it turns out she blocked me. I took this incredibly hard.
Then, when I was 15, I met this guy, we’ll call him Luke. We met randomly through Omegle, and moved things to Kik and Snapchat. I deeply felt connected to him, we both really, really liked each other. But I knew that having such a big crush on each other would be impossible because he lives in another country. We both went through a lot together, I was there when he attempted to commit suicide himself, and he told me about how he was sexually assaulted twice in his life. But he told me that I was helping him to stay and make it through another day. One day as I was doing one of those “ask me anything” things on Snapchat, someone asked me if I had a boyfriend. I mean, I knew I liked Luke so much, but like I said, it’s not like we physically could’ve been together, so I said I didn’t have a boyfriend. Before I knew it, Luke blocked me, which I’m presuming because I said I don’t have a boyfriend. He blocked me on Snapchat, Instagram, and he deactivated his Kik. But as I said before, I made a new Instagram. I finally remembered his Instagram and tried to reach out to him. I wanted to get back in touch, I wanted to know why he blocked me. I want to know why we stopped talking all of a sudden. All of the memories we made, digitally, were somehow gone. Like I was nothing. I sent him a message, I told him how I think about him more than I should, and I just wanted an explanation. I don’t care what happened between us, all I wanted was to have Luke back in my life. I waited and waited all day to see if he would answer, while occasionally looking at his Instagram story. It was so good to see a picture of him on his story, smiling. I missed him so much and was just relieved to know he was alive. The next day that evening, which was last night, I checked to see if he would answer. But knowing my luck, he blocked me.
I feel so stupid and pathetic, man. I want to make things right, I want to apologize for those I done wrong. It wasn’t easy to admit my careless idiotic mistakes. It wasn’t easy to reach out to these people. It wasn’t easy to hold myself accountable for catfishing Katherine and Nichole. It wasn’t easy to think I’ve done something wrong to Luke for him to block me completely out of nowhere. This guilt, even though I am 21 now, eats me up. I’ve ruined and damaged friendships and relationships that meant so much to me.
And I’ll never be able to get them back. But then again, it’s nobody’s fault but my own.

Mystery Movie - Ghost World (2001)

picked by darkchiefy

High school graduate Enid is a non-conformist who rejects the superficial world she sees around her in L.A. but is a lost soul. With the support of her best friend Rebecca, Enid answers a newspaper classified, pretending to be the woman sought by eccentric record collector Seymour and an unexpected friendship between the two blossoms.

Bonus Movie - The Cable Guy (1996)

Steven Kovak has been kicked out of his apartment by his girlfriend. Steven has a new apartment, and decides to slip the cable guy (Chip) $50 for free cable. Steven then fakes an interest in Chip's line of work. However Chip takes this to heart trying to become Steven's best bud. When Steven no longer wants to be Chips friend the man who can do it all goes on an all out assault to ruin Steven's life

Hello , this is so long but please bear with me , also ignore any spelling or grammar mistakes because English isn’t my first language.
I [18 F] just graduated high school. And looking back on my high school years I remembered many instances where classmates and friends have told me that I’m not fun to be around or just condescending , i tried to talk to them about what i do that makes them think I’m condescending ?, of course this is a conversation i had with many of my friends throughout the years and the general conclusion was that i act “grown up” , one of my friends mentioned once that during our sophomore years i was quick to “abandon” them whenever i get a chance. Well that was confusing because at that time the class was arranged so two students were next to each other , my two friends sat together behind me while i sat in the front alone , what’s also important to mention is they are best friends since 1st grade , so often they would talk together and whisper or write on a notebook, obviously not wanting me to hear so i just mind my business whenever the topic isn’t something i know the whole context of and read a book until they change the subject , well sometimes my eyes hurt from reading so much so i would go chat with other girls im friends with in the class , a lot of them started asking me to join and not ask the other two , at first they DID ask but they refused saying “we are only a second thought to them” although it didn’t sound passive aggressive to me , so i often tell them “well i wanna play can i go?” And they say yes , but later blocked me on everything for “abandoning them”
Another example is at the end of every year the class brings string sprays and confetti and water guns , they all spray each other after the last final of every semester. I always tell them i do not want to participate because I’m sleep deprived from exams and just wanna go home and crash and i don’t wanna have to wash the sticky residue those things leave in my hair , i never said it was bad or anything or told them but apparently I’m “trying to act mature” and i come off as trying to be superior to everyone , i genuinely did not know how to answer that because what i said every time is “i will pass i don’t wanna get my hair wet/sticky” and go home , although some semesters a few of them cornered me to spray me…0/10 experience.
Also passive aggressive comments from friends like “i honestly thought you’d be a lesbian tomboy” because i don’t put makeup to school or curl/iron my hair every morning , well i sleep 4 hours a day so im not in the mood to do that at 5am , another comment was “you’re literally such a teacher’s pet” because i said i won’t take my phone to school (it’s not allowed and they can and will confiscate it) and i don’t wanna loose my phone (also it affects out gpa) and being a “showoff” because i solve homework durning free periods instead of playing card games with the class (i sometimes do but not always) although i only say “no i will pass , i wanna finish hw” (this on my senior year after the incident with my two ex-friends)
There’s many more examples to all this but you get the idea , i wanna actually make friends in college so i need advice on what to change if im in the wrong , im open to suggestions.

It's truly baffling how much teachers in Ontario complain given their reasonable salary and time off. With their 6 hour workdays, and summers off, it's hard to justify the high salaries and extensive benefits packages they receive. The argument is often made that teachers are underappreciated and overworked, but is that really the case?
Consider the extensive vacation time. Most professions require full-time commitment throughout the year, but teachers get summers off plus winter and spring breaks. They have more time off than any other profession, and yet they claim to be overburdened. They also get extensive sick days, “no questions asked” off days and a prep period per day.
Moreover, the demand for pay raises and better benefits seems unending. Ontario teachers already earn well above the national average, yet every contract negotiation sees them striking or threatening to strike for even more. This puts a massive strain on taxpayers who are funding these ever-increasing salaries. I won’t even touch how the students are affected when they miss all of this class time. It's especially frustrating when there are countless other public sector workers, like nurses and social workers, who arguably face much harsher working conditions for less pay. I myself have been a supply teacher in the school system and found it to be the easiest job that I’ve ever encountered. Most students are engaged in doing their work. While there is the odd troublemaker, you can usually work with them to get them engaged. Worst case scenario—which I’ve never needed to do—would be to contact the office. Any special needs students have an educational assistant with them who addresses their every need. Maybe I would cut teachers some slack if they didn’t act so noble and that everything they do “is for the kids”. This is the time of year when students need their teachers the most to review and do well on their final exams. Yet teachers are taking time off to use their sick days that expire at the end of the year. Of course people should be able to take time off while sick, but teachers are treating sick days as vacation days during the time period when students need them the most.
Then there's the issue of job security. In the private sector, employees live with the constant reality that underperformance can lead to job loss. Teachers, however, enjoy a near-untouchable status once they've passed their probationary period. This security can lead to complacency, with little incentive to innovate or improve in the classroom.
To top it all off, the results often don’t justify the cost. Despite the high pay, Ontario's education system doesn't consistently outperform other regions where teachers are paid less. If we're going to pour this much money into our educators, shouldn't we expect to see superior results?
In conclusion, the notion that teachers in Ontario are underpaid is simply unfounded. They enjoy extensive time off, robust job security, and salaries that outpace many other professions. It’s high time we re-evaluated the glorification of teachers relative to the immense perks of their job.

I need help and you know you’re desperate when you take your problems to Reddit. To sum up my situation, my parents got divorced when I was in high school back in 2015, separated in 2014. My dad always had a drug addiction that only got worse over the years, and to put it simply, he is a monster who hides behind the computer. He bullied my mom for years telling her she was fat & disgusting, told his coworkers my mom died from cancer, told her friends that were in a diff state we previously lived in that she had died in a car wreck, and those are only a few examples.
2014 is when he got out of control and completely lost it at work and emailed my mom from his work email how disgusting she was (among other words). We got an order of protection, they got divorced, and since then he’s been living homeless in Las Vegas. We know this because he updates his Instagram and Facebook with regular posts talking about hookers, casinos, and drugs and is registered to vote at a homeless shelter (atleast that’s what Google suggests)
It’s been 10 years and he still reaches out sending incredibly inappropriate messages that we don’t respond to however now he has retaliated and is beginning to reach out to our jobs, and I’ve had it. I want it to stop.
Is it even worth reaching out to our police station to file a report against someone who is homeless all the way in Las Vegas when we’re in Tennessee?

One of my earliest memories as a kid was of my mother and birth father arguing in the kitchen. It didn't take long before they got a divorce when I was 4, with split custody over me. My mother always hid the truth of why she actually left him; and because of this, it caused me to believe the lies my birth father told me about "how much of a horrible woman she was" and he told me she had slept with multiple men before the divorce.
When I met met Chris, my soon to be step-father, there was always something odd about him. He would drink whole 8-pack beer containers a day, and smoke multiple packs of cigarettes a day. And when I turned 8, I was introduced to his three biological children; two girls and a boy- only one of them is truly of importance, her name is 'Caiden'. The 3 were always inseparable with me, but didn't seem to like my mother. Within two years, my step brother had run away, and my other sister (not Caiden) had taken her life due to stubstance abuse.
Back to my birth father, he was homophobic and a narcissist. He was a wildly devoted Christian, and he would call out every minor "sin" (I.E: lying) and call me an "evil person"- and he would stop talking to me for days on end. And he continued to lie about my mother, and make me WANT to hate her and her side of the family. My father had depression- and watched political videos all the time. He was also very homophobic, which made it even harder to come out as bisexual and ace. And due to my mother never telling me why she didn't leave my father, I DID believe the lies- which made my mother feel like she was a bad mother.
Despite the personality flaws, he did shape me into the person I am today- he's the reason for my love a retro games. (yes, he forced me to play retro games because he didn't understand I was a kid of today) without him, I would have never had the good grades I have today.
Anyway, 13 now. And I finally understood the kind of person my father was.
One morning, when he was driving me to school, he just started yapping about politics or something. And I HAD stayed up that night, so I was very tired. I accidentally fell asleep in that car ride- the rest of my life would be influenced by this mistake.
The second I got into the car after school, I apologized for the morning and that I was just really tired. He scoffed and started lecturing me on how "Evil" I am. I don't quite remember what he said by the time I'm writing this, but I remember something along the lines of "You don't love me, and you're just like your mother". This broke me. I told him I wanted to go back to my mother's house, and didn't want to see him for a while.
I'm currently staying with my mother, Chris and Caiden. I will update soon.

I have a little dorothea deep dive I was thinking about sharing, and with today’s surprise songs now feels like a good moment.
Title:
Hear me out…this is the thing that got me revisiting dorothea in detail in the first place. I may have found an interesting Dorothea-Matty connection.
Both names - Dorothea and Matthew - mean “Gift of God” (Matthew originally from “Gift of Yahweh” in Hebrew, but it’s also translated as “Gift of God”).
Is this a stretch?! They’re not the only names with that similar meaning, but they are strikingly close.
IF you were trying to concoct a fictional name for a real-life former flame you wanted to write a “do you ever stop and think about me?/it’s never too late to come back to my side” song about, it’s a poetic way to go about it, right? I can’t stop thinking about this, but maybe it’s just a pretty name? Would love to hear the sub's thoughts.
Although I will say there are times in the song that Dorothea as a character seems like Matty, to whom Taylor is singing, and there are times when Dorothea seems closer to Taylor (esp in tis the damn season) and/or purely fictional. I guess that's the beauty of folkmore - Taylor can be all of the characters, and use all of their different perspectives, to convey a whole range of emotions.
Song background:
Taylor said in a Youtube Q&A that this was the first song recorded for evermore (although I think this and closure were going to be for Big Red Machine originally).
I saw a clip of the Swiftologist on Youtube saying the central theme on evermore (along with the central theme on a lot of songs we know are about Matty) is “can I ask you a question...?” and it’s interesting to know that, for evermore at least, that questioning started right out of the gate with dorothea’s opening “Hey Dorothea / Do you ever stop and think about me?”
Some other details directly from Taylor: "There's not a direct continuation of the Betty/James/August storyline, but in my mind Dorothea went to the same school as Betty, James and Inez" and “Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams - and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame.”
Numbers:
I go back and forth on the numbers but the 8s and 13s do seem to carry meaning at least sometimes. This is a track 8, dorothea has 8 letters. (Sidenote: folklore and evermore and their codenames woodvale and november are all also 8 letters.)
dorothea's sister song tis the damn season is track 4. 4 & 8 could be a Matty birthday thing, maybe?
Taylor previously played dorothea on July 8 last year, along with Last Kiss which is a track 13. It’s Nice to Have a Friend is track 17 and 1+7 is 8. I do think both of these combinations could have been more for messaging/theme than numbers, but who knows.
Some key lyrics:
Hey Dorothea Do you ever stop and think about me?
I can’t help but see a callback to “Hey Stephen”. There’s something irresistible about the idea of Taylor specifically revisiting Matty’s fave, which included the line “All those other girls, well, they're beautiful / But would they write a song for you?” and tying it into a new song that she wrote about/to him.
I also see a possible thread from “But do you remember?” from august (folklore’s track 8) and “Do you ever stop and think about me?” - maybe even through to “Do you think I have forgotten / About you?”
When we were younger Down in the park Honey, making a lark of the misery
Youth and childhood places (parks/swings) often show up in Matty songs, and seem like a way to talk about 2014 when they were first together. Mashing dorothea with It’s Nice to Have a Friend amplifies this theme further. I’d also put skipping the prom and are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? in this category for the school references.
You got shiny friends since you left town A tiny screen's the only place I see you now
Seeing someone only on a tiny screen calls to mind “I Look in People’s Windows”, and suggests they aren’t in direct contact or at least aren’t as close as they once were, which would've been the case in 2020.
The stars in your eyes Shined brighter in Tupelo
Cosmic imagery is often Matty coded. I love the specificity of Tupelo but I can’t fathom if there’s any meaning to it as their hometown. There are some "tree" references that could link to it, since a tupelo is also a tree, but that really is a stretch.
Ooh I guess I'll never know Ooh And you'll go on with the show
Show could be read as concert. Or maybe a TV show or similar, since Taylor says Dorothea was chasing down Hollywood dreams. "Show" also points to Dorothea having a public facade. This is more explicitly picked up in tis the damn season with the only soul who can tell which smiles I'm fakin’.
All of this to say! Even if my interpretation is way off, I really love this song. Aaand it’s never too late to come back to her side. 🥰

Hi ! This is one more post of a series whose aim is to share the Monogatari short stories that hadn't been translated into English yet. Except that one already was. Whatever.
Short stories masterpost here, updated regularly to show our progress with the translations.
 
 
Today is a re-translation of Hitagi Throwing (by Tigoris), a rather long short story, published in the Heroine Book #5: Senjougahara Hitagi. This one is among the most interesting short stories : it is about Suruga remembering her first meeting with Hitagi at the age of 12.
Once again, the previous translation was very old, and I wanted to make sure we had a better version for the short stories book.
 
 
As someone who has been devoted to Senjougahara Hitagi for some years now, it feels like a betrayal of some kind to say something like this, but when I first met her as a first-year in middle school, the impression that I had of her was not exactly a positive one.
 
To be more specific, one might say that it was a negative impression.
 
I thought, “Just who is this girl?”
 
If it’s okay to be a bit more informal, then my more exact thought was, “This girl’s bad news.” Now, I’d like you to cut me some slack here, because at the time I had only just graduated from elementary school, and I was, in appearance, personality, ability, and intellect, a brat of a meager 12 years of age.
 
However, I will also firmly say that Senjougahara-senpai was not entirely without fault of her own; in fact, let me emphasize that she was not without fault. After all, when she—the track-and-field club’s very own ace—came storming into the gym during basketball practice, it seemed like the start of a raid, and all of the basketball club members flinched. And she didn’t come alone. She brought along a large group of her followers, which was not limited to other track-and-field members and included students from not only the second- and third-year students, but there were even some first-year students mixed in. To an observer, it looked as if a feudal lord had descended upon the gymnasium along with his full retinue of retainers.
 
To put it another way, it’s like when Mitchi showed up in Slam Dunk.
 
She was smiling softly and had a gentle manner, but that only made her all the more intimidating, in part because her cronies had an unusual air about them.
 
“You’re Kanbaru-san, then? I’ve heard rumors that you’re quick on your feet—if it’s no bother, may I observe you?”
 
What is she, a noble lady?
 
That was what I wanted to say, but back then Senjougahara-senpai was like that—she was like a character taken straight from a shoujo novel.
 
It put a shiver down my spine to discover that this person really existed. And allow me to clarify that when I say “a shiver down my spine,” I don’t mean it in the good way—looking back on it now, it might be more accurate to say that I recoiled with shock.
 
I had an instinctive feeling that her request was strange.
 
And so was she.
 
To put it simply, that just about sums up my first impression of her—of course, Senjougahara-senpai was famous, so after I had enrolled in the school and even before I joined the basketball club, I had already heard her name a number of times.
 
She and Hanekawa-senpai were the two poster children for my school—to the point that we were told (by a teacher during the entrance ceremony) not to cross “those two” if we wanted to make it in the school (at the time I didn’t know which two the teacher was talking about, but, in retrospect, the warning was largely accurate).
 
However, as you know, I was a twelve-year-old who had, for various reasons, a rather extraordinary obsession with running fast—but because of those same reasons, I was unable to join the track and field club. Nevertheless, I took an interest in the ace of the track and field club, Senjougahara-senpai, and went to observe her running during that April, even though I had not become a trial member of the team.
 
I didn’t realize that it was possible for a person to run so beautifully.
 
It took my breath away.
 
My running form was not something that I had received coaching for—even now, I have not received any education in sprinting, so my running form is self-taught. Being self-taught is not a bad thing; it’s a perfectly acceptable running style, and I never had a complex about how I ran, but when I saw Senjougahara-senpai run on that day, the beauty of her form stood in stark contrast to the frantic flailing of my own form.
 
She displayed the final form of human running.
 
She was the idealized runner.
 
But I could not attempt to copy her—she was not like me, and I was not like her.
 
I was painfully aware of our differences.
 
I also remember thinking that the track uniforms were erotic, but that’s neither here nor there. I’d had no intention of joining the track club, as I said before, but after seeing her run, whatever lingering regrets I had were gone.
 
It blew me away.
 
To look at it another way, it was seeing Senjougahara-senpai run that day that made me into the basketball player that I am today—it was easy to forget what had caused me to become so passionately devoted to basketball, but I’ll save that discussion of “you never know what event will become a turning point in your life” for another time.
 
You could say that I’m not really a shy person, but when it came to Senjougahara-senpai, I made it my policy to actively avoid coming in contact with her, so for her to seek me out on her own was so surprising as to strike me dumb. Add in her whole “storybook princess” demeanor, and I turned into a stuttering, stumbling idiot—so, suffice to say, on the day that Senjougahara-senpai (and her retinue) observed my basketball practice, I was not exactly doing my best.
 
“May we speak, Kanbaru-san?”
 
After practice, Senjougahara-senpai approached me—and while I didn’t exactly feel enticed by her invitation, my heart skipped a beat regardless.
 
Looking at her up close, it was hard to believe that a girl with such mature features was only a year older than myself.
 
“You’re as fast as the rumors say—so how about it? Do you have any interest in transferring to the track club? Why not spend your youth in friendly competition with me?”
 
… She was an impressively bold headhunter. By the way, the basketball team captain (a third-year) was also there at the time as Senjougahara-senpai (a second-year) tried to steal me from the team, but the captain acted as if it were none of her business and didn’t interrupt.
 
Just what were you hoping to find by examining the ball that closely, captain?
 
You can turn it over as many times as you want; you’re not going to find a hole.
 
I was disappointed in the team captain, but setting that aside, I was happy to receive the invitation—no matter the situation or the way that it was said, I would always be happy to receive praise for the legs that I was so proud of. It made my heart dance to be acknowledged.
 
That simplicity still has not changed.
 
I’ve always been an idiot when it came to this.
 
That said, it still didn’t mean that I was so stupid as to blindly be scouted just because someone praised me. I’m an idiot who can think. So I politely, but firmly, declined her invitation while trying to hint that she had been a bit rude, but without being so blatant as to damage her reputation or be rude myself.
 
“Better luck next time.”
 
Huh?
 
What is this memory?
 
Who is this cheeky little brat? Oh, it’s me.
 
Was I at the age where I reacted to authority with petulance? Or was I afraid that if I didn’t reject her firmly, she would wear away my resolve and convince me to join the track club? Either way, maybe that wasn’t the exact phrasing that I used (I would like to think so), but, even if so, I still rejected Senjougahara-senpai in a rude way.
 
“Oh my. You’re quite spirited, aren’t you? I’m becoming even more interested in you.”
 
Senjougahara-senpai replied in a cool and composed tone (looking back on it now, I can’t help but think, “Who the hell are you?”), but the retinue of club members assembled behind her looked to be trying to use their eyes to stab me through.
 
Oh man, I’m so dead.
 
The crowd of cronies looked ready to get physical with me, but Senjougahara-senpai smiled and held a hand out to stop them without looking, then said, “It’s okay. I like nothing more than to tame cute girls like this.”
 
Seriously, who the hell are you?
 
Perhaps my imagination is adding to the memory a bit, so maybe my memory of middle school second-year Senjougahara-senpai isn’t perfectly accurate, but the big picture of us having a stressful, if brief, interview as our first contact is certainly true.
 
“Have a pleasant day.”
 
And with those parting words, Senjougahara-senpai left.
 
Even in the face of my unfavorable and downright rude response, she remained elegant. She carried on that noble air from start to finish, and while those events did hurt me, I thought that it was for the best.
 
Even if I had to be rude to do it, it would be better to firmly reject her than to reply so mildly that she continued to hold out hopes for me—of course, having rejected one of the famous girls of the school, I suspected that I may have set myself up to have a difficult life as a middle school girl, but, well, even if I had tried to stay in her good favor, I would likely have bungled that too.
 
Come if you’re going to come; I’ll take you on.
 
That was the stance that I mentally took, and I was not disappointed.
 
But the one who came to find me in the gym the next day was not one or more of Senjougahara-senpai’s retinue come to put me in my place, but instead it was Senjougahara-senpai herself—without anyone else, just herself.
 
“Hello everyone. We are blessed with lovely weather today, aren’t we? May I observe your practice once again?”
 
The older girls in the basketball club began to murmur to each other—it sounded different from the reaction from the previous day, and I later learned that it was because Senjougahara-senpai very rarely went anywhere unaccompanied.
 
She didn’t choose to have people follow her around, but instead, it was more that she was the kind of person that people naturally gravitated to and followed—which meant that the only way she could arrive in the gym without at least a small group of followers was for her to have told them to leave her alone.
 
Why?
 
I told her “better luck next time,” so did she actually think that she should try again and hopefully have better luck on the second attempt? And she decided that coming on her own might be the factor that would convince me?
 
Several of the basketball team members volunteered to make Senjougahara-senpai more comfortable, and so she sat off to the side in a comfortable chair, partaking in the snacks she had been provided while watching us practice with a smile. Or rather, she watched me practice. I couldn’t read anything from her body language.
 
I had been welcomed into the basketball club with a good bit of fanfare because of my speed, so it wasn’t as if I had never been observed while playing before, but there was something about being watched so intensely that made it difficult to play. On that day, I missed an unusually high percentage of shots and even made a lot of simple mistakes with dribbling—the only thing that kept me from outright failing was the speed of my legs. But seeing as Senjougahara-senpai was there to see how fast I could be, she must have been happy with the display.
 
“Kanbaru-san. Have you reconsidered your response to my invitation?”
 
“No, I’m not having second thoughts…”
 
I didn’t go so far as to say I hadn’t thought about it at all.
 
It was difficult to be rude to someone who showed up two days in a row to express interest in you.
 
“Hm. Then how about this? You and I shall have a 100-meter race, and if I win, then you will transfer into the track club. Don’t you think it’s a wonderful idea?”
 
“… So if you lose, then you’ll join the basketball team?”
 
“Eh?”
 
She tilted her head in confusion.
 
No, don’t you “Eh?” me.
 
There’s no way that you don’t understand.
 
“No, I will not be doing that.”
 
She firmly rejected the idea.
 
“But it would mean that I will no longer come to the gym every day without fail.”
 
“You intend to come every day…”
 
I told her no.
 
I’m pretty sure that I tried to be less rude than the day before.
 
“Oh.”
 
Senjougahara-senpai seemed genuinely surprised by the response.
 
“How strange. Was I wrong about you?”
 
“About what?”
 
“Someone like you would be unable to back down when presented with a challenge.”
 
“…”
 
That assumption of hers—was correct.
 
But, even if that were the case, I couldn’t allow myself to race against anyone. Of course, if I accepted the challenge and won, then the whole issue would be settled. But if I were to lose… I didn’t want to think about what would happen.
 
Also, there was the question of whether Senjougahara-senpai would actually back down if I won against her in the race—so it would be all risk with no reward.
 
“No thanks.”
 
She simply said that she understood.
 
I fell silent, and Senjougahara-senpai left—but before she departed the gym, she cleaned up the snack wrappers and put away the chair that she had used while observing our practice. She did seem to have had a good upbringing.
 
I was happy if she understood that she wouldn’t be able to convince me to join her club, but, thinking about it more, Senjougahara-senpai hadn’t said what it was that she understood. The true meaning of her words was a mystery.
 
And the next day, that mystery was solved.
 
For the third time, Senjougahara Hitagi arrived in the gymnasium during the basketball team’s practice. But unlike the first and second visits, she was not wearing her school uniform, nor was she wearing the erotic—that is to say, stylish—uniform of the track club, but she instead wore one of our own basketball uniforms.
 
Her back bore the number 4.
 
Well, actually, the number was also on the front of her jersey, so I don’t suppose I needed to specify that it was on her back. Anyway, the point is that the #4 jersey belonged to the captain.
 
I looked back to confirm and found that, sure enough, our team captain was in the back of the gym wearing her P.E. uniform and polishing a basketball. I just polished that one. Why are you polishing it again? Just how shiny do you want that ball to be? It’ll slip out of our hands if you give it any more polish than that.
 
Apparently our team captain rented out her uniform, what you might call the symbol that our team followed, to Senjougahara-senpai when she asked for it. You could say that this was the instant when all of our captain’s authority vanished.
 
Once this whole thing was settled, there would be a coup d'état.
 
“If you will not compete with me on the track, then I will come to your field and compete with this basketball. Does this work for you?”
 
“Uh… huh…?”
 
To be entirely honest, I was mostly just feeling uneasy at that point in time, and I definitely didn’t want to accept her challenge. I didn’t want to, but what choice did I have when she had shown up a third time to try and convince me to join the track club?
 
She did, technically, ask for the “captain’s” permission before doing this (it pains me that I had to put quotation marks around captain, but that reflects the sad state of affairs at the time), and so half of the gym’s court was reserved for myself and Senjougahara-senpai to have our competition.
 
Our showdown.
 
Bout. Duel.
 
What actually followed was not as dramatic as the words used to describe it might suggest. It wasn’t instantly resolved, and there was definitely some tension during the competition, but it’s a bit difficult to have much drama when the competition is just a free throw contest. Our “captain,” or, I guess I should say, our captain, insisted that we have a competition where there was no risk of us coming into physical contact with each other. I was a new member on the team, and while Senjougahara-senpai was a veteran athlete, she was not a basketball player. So, to be on the safe side, it was decided that we could not have a true 1-on-1 match on the off chance that either of us should get injured.
 
Whoever made ten baskets first would win.
 
There were no handicaps, and the competition proceeded in a simple and straightforward manner—we took turns taking our shots, and after thirty minutes, it was all over.
 
The final score was ten to nine.
 
It was a close match—which Senjougahara-senpai won.
 
We both missed a number of shots, but we remained neck-and-neck throughout, until, in the end, Senjougahara-senpai managed to get the final basket.
 
“It was a good competition.” Senjougahara spoke, brushing aside her long, elegant hair. “Kanbaru-san, it seems that you are more suited for the basketball court than the track—I hope that you will continue to give it your best.”
 
She turned on her heel and left the gym.
 
I had already been thinking of some way to avoid taking part in races (such as by focusing on long jump or high jump) and had resigned myself to having to join the track club, so when Senjougahara-senpai simply departed, I was left dumbfounded for a moment.
 
But it was only a moment.
 
I hurriedly chased after Senjougahara-senpai—and I full-out sprinted, so I quickly caught up to her elegant walk, and I grabbed her wrist.
 
Grabbing someone by the wrist is a forceful way to stop them. One might say that it’s wild and violent, which is to say, it’s very me. Senjougahara-senpai turned to look at me with obvious suspicion, and perhaps she was letting her real self show through because her gaze was sharp.
 
Under that sharp gaze, I asked, “Was this your goal from the start?”
 
It was almost more like an interrogation than a simple question, which was also very like me.
 
“You wanted to compete with me, beat me, and then drop me?”
 
“… What do you mean? For what reason would I do such a thing?”
 
Senjougahara-senpai asked back seriously without any hint of evasion.
 
“To protect me,” I replied.
 
The outline was simple enough—there was no mistake that the original reason that she had come to the gym was to scout me for the track team after hearing rumors about me.
 
And she would surely have anticipated that there was a chance that I would say no to her invitation.
 
But what she did not anticipate was the super strength of my refusal—that is, my more-than-necessary, full-on rejection. And I had rejected her so rudely in front of all of her followers.
 
Senjougahara-senpai managed to keep things peaceful at that time, but, as they say, bad news travels fast. A newly enrolled first-year who dared to bare her teeth at the elegant and skilled Senjougahara Hitagi would be a rumor that reached every ear in record time, and when it did… my school life would have a very bleak outlook.
 
I had planned—which is to say, foolishly assumed—to deal with that problem when the time came, but Senjougahara-senpai had a way to prevent it from happening in the first place.
 
She was able to rein in the people who followed her directly, but she had no way of anticipating what others might do upon hearing the rumor—people are good on their own, but there’s plenty of bad to be found in a group. That was why Senjougahara-senpai needed to get ahead of the rumors and put an end to the story—and in a way that would let her be in the winning position. But it wasn’t just about her winning—she needed to win in such a way that it would be a close battle so as not to tarnish the reputation of the first-year rising star of the basketball team.
 
And so we had a free-throw contest.
 
… Thinking about it more, it had been strange for the team captain to just go along with whatever Senjougahara-senpai said, but then also be the one to decide on the rules for the contest in the way that she did… In other words, by having us take turns to do our free throws, they would be able to control the scores, and the two of them must have arranged the entire circumstance of our contest from the start, back whenever Senjougahara-senpai had gone to ask to borrow the uniform (which means I was completely wrong about the captain).
 
If I had accepted her challenge on the second day—which would have been the best for Senjougahara-senpai—she could have controlled her speed so as to put on a show of it being a close race between the two of us.
 
She must have a lot of confidence to have been so sure that she could “barely win in a neck-and-neck competition” in not only running on the track but also a free throw competition. That she was able to pull it off so cleanly, however, meant that I could not fault her for that confidence.
 
By clearly and definitively beating me and then, just as clearly and definitively, acknowledging my ability in a public space—which is to say, giving me permission to continue playing basketball—she would knock down the perceived conflict and defuse the situation with her fans who might have wished me harm.
 
“… Supposing that I had been thinking along those lines…”
 
Senjougahara-senpai spoke now in a flat, sober voice that was entirely unlike how she had been talking up until that point.
 
“Wouldn’t you be throwing away my consideration by confronting me and voicing your thoughts to me? Are you not undoing what I’ve just done?”
 
She was trying to tell me that I should follow her lead and subtly accept what she did for me. I let go of her wrist.
 
And then I took hold of her hand instead.
 
I did so gently.
 
I copied Senjougahara-senpai’s mannerisms of softness and kindness—she no doubt thought that I was trying to have a friendly parting handshake to show that there were no hard feelings, but instead I did something that was completely unexpected and kissed the back of her hand.
 
“W… What?!”
 
She practically screamed the word with surprise, and I straightened.
 
“No, I don’t think so.” I declared. “Because I have decided to accept your kindness and go far beyond what is necessary to repay it—Senjougahara-senpai.”
 
From now on, I am your dog.
 
That’s what I told her.
 
Senjougahara Hitagi and Kanbaru Suruga. The pair that would go on to be called the Valhalla Duo began here.
 
“Are you an idiot?”
 
I still think that those words and the cold smile that came with them were probably Senjougahara-senpai’s genuine, impartial reaction to what I had said.
 
 
As usual, thank you spr-o-ckt for contributing to this commission.
A cute little story. I wish we could see more of those that actually feels important rather than yet another pun-filled discussion about a random topic.
See you next time for another story !