Work Text:
Under the buzzing, unforgiving hum of high-voltage overhead lights, the classroom felt less like a place of learning and more like a stark stage. Deep, pitch-black shadows pooled in the corners and stretched long across the tiled floor, carving harsh lines across everyone’s faces.
The classroom was a flurry of discarded posters—rally points Caroline had insisted they start. Thick sheets of yellow and red cartridge paper lay scattered everywhere, their jagged, hand-cut trims trailing across desk edges like scraps of shed skin. Fat black markers were left uncapped, bleeding dark ink onto desk surfaces, while fine specks of crimson glitter clung to hands, clothes, and floorboards, catching the glare of the overhead lights in aggressive, tiny flashes. They already knew what they were going to do with their future; it was agreed upon. Elena and Matt were going to get married. They're going to be the same insufferable couple that they've always been—that's how it's supposed to be. Matt is going to do something really great with his life, and Elena is going to be a doctor. Jeremy gets the house, and Katherine lives with Elena.
"You need to figure out something better than that. Everybody wants to be an athlete, but most people don't, and what happens when you get injured? It's just not sustainable," Elena tries to explain, her shadow thrown sharp and long across a half-finished poster framed in stark black border tape.
"Okay, smart-ass. If you're going to be on my tail, how about you start with your boyfriend over there?" Tyler cuts in, aiming a finger sharply at Matt. The movement casts a quick, blade-like shadow across a pile of red paper scraps.
Elena turns to look at Matt. Katherine slips into the room, conveniently arriving after the work is over, stepping right over a streak of spilled black marker ink. Katherine stops in her tracks, looking between Matt and Elena. She turns, folding her arms to glare down at Matt, the harsh overhead glare washing out her features into sharp angles against the dark hallway behind her.
"A police officer is a good job," Matt explains, his eyes shifting from Elena as the doorknob clicks open again.
Jeremy comes in, dragging his busted backpack strap behind him across the tiled floors, kicking up a small cloud of stray red and yellow glitter that sparkles briefly in the stark light before settling into the dark grout lines.
"That's not fair. When will we even get to move out?" Katherine complains, leaning against a desk strewn with discarded cartridge paper trims.
"That means managing the household expenses for three people by myself," Elena cuts in, standing over a poster heavily smeared with black marker text.
"Katherine can't cook. I will be cooking for three people, and she's always insulting Anna for how much she eats!" Jeremy complains, dropping the busted strap of his bag to throw his hands up as though the world had finally broken him with the final straw. He stomps over to grab one of the empty chairs, his boots crushing a piece of bright yellow cartridge paper into the floor.
"What happens when I need money?" Katherine demands.
"That's gold digging," Tyler scoffs in defense, leaning back into the dense black shadow cast by the bookshelf behind him.
"That's just asset management," Gavin insists, turning on his heel to kick Jeremy's chair back roughly into the corner, sending a flutter of red paper scraps swirling through the air.
"Look at us," Katherine insists, gesturing at Elena before turning to stomp over, intentionally bumping Matt's chair roughly as she moves to stand next to Elena. She leans down over Elena's chair to press their faces together, the harsh down-lighting accentuating the sharp lines of their cheekbones. "We can't survive in the wild."
"What does me marrying Elena have to do with you?" Matt questions, folding his arms across his chest.
"That's the agreement—the twins stay together, and I get to keep the house. I'm not going to do anything good with my life. Look at me!" Jeremy insists, spreading his arms under the unforgiving yellow-white glow of the fluorescent tube directly above him.
"You insulted damn near my entire family if you're not living with us," Matt reprimands.
"Oh, I see how it is. So your family's family, but mine isn't?" Elena complains.
Matt opens his mouth to retort.
Elena raises a hand to cut him off. "If you see a future with me, you have to see it with both of us," she insists, pointing between herself and Katherine, her fingers dusted with faint traces of red glitter.
"Exactly, Matty-boo," Katherine agrees, kicking at his chair.
"All right, that's it. I've had just about enough of you," Matt declares, picking up his pencil and aiming it at Katherine. "On guard."
Katherine raises her pencil, swinging it in quick motions between her fingers to rap at his knuckles—causing him to drop his own pencil into a pile of black marker caps—before tapping the top of his head. With a joyful chuckle, she throws her head back, catching the stark, direct light full in the face.
Tyler, his mouth open, pushes his chair back with a loud, grating scrape against the tiles. Katherine meets his eyes, a moment passing between them in the sharp contrast of the room's high-glare lighting and pitch-black corners, before Tyler lunges—Katherine pivoting from her chair to sprint for the back of the classroom, her shoes scattering a mess of red and yellow cartridge paper.
Elena is on her feet in seconds—actual seconds. Taking a running start, she launches herself at Tyler's back, wrapping him in a headlock with her teeth gritted, their entwined shadows slamming dramatically against the stark yellow poster taped to the back wall.
"Let me go! She's insulted our families all her life, and you heard what she said to my mom!" Tyler complains, his teeth gritted as he continues to reach for Katherine.
"It's not like she was lying," Elena insists.
"Stop taking her side, Elena!" Matt complains, rubbing at his knuckles under the harsh light.
"Don't talk to my sisters like that!" Jeremy complains, folding his arms over his chest, blocking the light and casting a broad black shadow across the floor.
"She called my mother an insufferable, uneducated strain on the honor of women that died before her!" Tyler grits, trying to wrestle his way to Katherine, his thrashing feet smearing black marker ink across the floorboards.
"She keeps trying to set up punch lines introducing my mom and sister as paper towels!" Matt jumps in.
"She didn't mean it like that," Jeremy tries to defend.
Elena swipes her hands over Tyler's eyes, trying to block him as he continues to reach for Katherine, the tiny red glitter specks on her palms catching the unforgiving light as they struggle.