The jocks hate the nerds, the nerds hate the burnouts and the rebels.

[firstofherusername]

Mostly because I'm surprised we've never had this kind of meme before. We love high school AUs. We love romance. Why not combine those into a glorious mix?

Your teen years are important, formatively speaking. You're trying to find out just where you belong and what kind of person you're going to be. This already daunting task is complicated by the soul-sucking demon known as high school. If you weren't having a hard time before coming here, you certainly are now.

Add into this mixture raging hormones, and baby, you've got a misery stew cooking. But it's not all bad! Sometimes high school crushes can be sweet, and the occasional high school relationship lasts.

So whether you're too cool or distracted for romance or always on to the next good looking stud, come on down and try to navigate the romantic labyrinth that is the halls of Bakerstreet High.

HOW TO PLAY

• Comment with your character and preferences. Needless to say, aging down and AUing is welcomed and probably necessary. Have fun with it! Feel free to include a short blurb about your character's Bakerstreet High self. Are they popular? The class clown? A drifter? A band geek?
• Comment to others.
• Use the RNG. Or not.

PROMPTS

1. childhood: You've known each other forever. Puberty has changed a couple of things, though.
2. friends to more: Best buds, right? Can you let a little crush get between you?
3. always there for you: You've seen the person you've liked for forever get hurt time and time again, always offering a shoulder to cry on. You should make your own move, unless you're content in the background forever.
4. bad boy/good girl: Or bad girl/good boy, or bad boy/good boy...there's a certain appeal.
5. the innocent: They're the delicate little pure flower of the school. Do you genuinely want to date them or is this a mission for corruption.
6. smitten puppy: You know the type. Always following the object of their adoration around. Don't you want to sweep them off their feet and show them there's other fish in the sea?
7. the ice queen/king: You have to defrost them.
8. 10 things: You were challenged to ask them out or bed them, but shit got real.
9. never noticed anyone before: You'll never be into all this love and sex stuff. Your classmates are crazy - wait, who's that? Your face is flushing. Why?
10. never noticed: This person's always been there for you. You feel silly that you've never noticed.
11. the unattainable: Is the school's hottest cheerleader or football player really all that high above you?
12. follow you until you love me: It's not stalking! You just happen to be in the same place as them...all the time.
13. hate at first sight: You hate their guts but you can't stay away.
14. sudden hottie: Were they always so bangin', or did taking off their glasses or pulling down their ponytail do that much?
15. too shy, too blind: you're too shy to tell them how you feel. you also don't see that they clearly feel the same.
16. kindness counts: They were kind to you, which is a pretty big deal in high school especially if you're an outcast, and you can't help nursing an even bigger crush.
17. sudden attraction: You're the kind who falls instantly and hard.
18. always on the move: You change crushes or dates like underwear. Maybe this one is the one, though.
19. nerd love: Both of you are social pariahs. At least you have each other.
20. into older people: He or she is the kind of teen who's so mature and always dating college students or even real adults. But you can change their mind about their peers, right?
21. differences in social classes: One of you is popular, the other so not. Can you make it work, or will the popular part be ashamed?
22. opposites attract: Sometimes, the weirdos get the hottest babes.
23. awkward confessions: You want to get your feelings out into the open - curse your voice cracking.
24. asking you out: You'll totally borrow your dad's car to take them to the movies. Or here, here's your letterman jacket. Go steady?
25. parents don't understand: Your parents want to keep you apart or are too tragically uncool.
26. dates: If you have to go dutch at McDonald's, it's sad. Maybe stay-at-home dates are better.
27. prom: Limos, tuxes, wasted money, oh my!
28. slow dance: The DJ popped in that best of the 90s love songs megamix CD. Now's your chance.
29. sadie hawkins: The Sadie Hawkins Dance. Get your khaki pants. Oh oh oh. Girls ask the guys. It's always a surprise.
30. sneaking out: The most romantic times are past curfew.
31. detention: As the Breakfast Club taught us, it's possible to find love in a hopeless place.
32. experimentation: It doesn't count if it's above the belt, right? And finger definitely don't count.
33. over the top: You're that couple that is always on the PDA or being schloopy and goopy romantic. Don't be that couple.
34. first kiss: Pucker up.
35. first time: Is it romantic and slow or in the back of someone's car?
36. drunk: Drunk confessions and attempts to make passes are ill-advised.
37. fight: High school couple fights can be deadly. Avoid at all costs
38. the volatile couple: Speaking of, there's always a couple that seems to be fighting 24/7? When they're hot, they're hot, when they're cold, they're glacial.
39. finally together: You're the will-they-won't-they of high school, and when you get together senior year, the whole class will give you a standing ovation because FINALLY.
40. long term couple: When did you guys get together? Probably like middle school or something. You've always been together.
41. hide who you are: Unfortunately, even these days some people make it necessary for those who don't conform to the "ideals" to hide their true selves.
42. break up: Statistically, it was bound to fail.
43. after graduation: Can you guys make it work after you lose the common ground of school? This can be challenging if you're going to be living in different places.
44. WILDCARD

Comments

[flashfirefist]

Fine...

[He sighs.]

You talk a lot. Too much. I'm serious here, too, so what's the difference? Talking to me there would still be better than following me.

[Enji looks at Keigo's hand.]

I already knew who you were, remember?

[Vaguely. Sort of. He'd noticed him before.]

[ah_bright_wings]

[His smile goes a little shy. Enji really know who he is? If only!
That’s almost too much— and it’s definitely too much to think of Enji knowing why Keigo follows/has been following/followed Enji in the first place.

Ugh, notice me. Right.
Well, there’s such a thing as not knowing what to do with something you’ve been desperate for once you have it—- like Enji’s attention.

He leaves his hand in place.]

I don’t know—- I think this is better. Now we know we have something in common.
And now it’s official, that you know who I am. So that’s why we should shake on it.

[flashfirefist]

[Enji, being stubborn, continues to regard Keigo's hand without shaking it. He's still frowning, but his frown is slightly less severe. This boy is really ridiculous.]

We do have something in common.

[It's odd. He had planned to keep his powers a secret while training, and to use them only in secret, when needed. Now suddenly there's this talkative person wanting to relate to him and shake his hand. He doesn't know how he's supposed to react to that.]

That doesn't mean we need to have anything to do with each other.

[ah_bright_wings]

[The hand stays! Keigo is an optimist. Somehow.
He cocks his head at Enji. The boy with the Fire in his eyes in the only stubborn one.]

It doesn't. But it might be-- nice, you know?
To not be alone. At least, I think so.

[He's tired of it, that's for sure. His parents have no use for him, except as a verbal or literal punching bag. He has friends he loves, and it's mutual.
But Enji's attention, to have that focus on him-- like the Sun on the first day of summer. All that life-giving warmth. Heat.
He can feel himself blushing.]

Would it be so bad?

[flashfirefist]

[Enji is still frowning at that outstretched hand. Is Keigo really going to keep holding it out like that?]

Nice...

[He says this skeptically. He doesn't need anyone else. He can take care of himself. He's fine on his own. He doesn't have to be friendly to someone just because they both have this one trait in common. Being close to someone else could be a liability. It's also someone else who can get hurt, someone you can lose.]

Would it be so good?

[He notices that Keigo looks flushed, but he's not sure why. Is he upset?]

[ah_bright_wings]

[He really is.

I think so. Maybe you don’t, but maybe you haven’t really tried it?

I mean I don’t know, maybe you have a lot of friends [He knows he doesn’t.], but you said yourself no one else knows about you.

It can be good to know you’re not facing the odds alone. I think it makes you stronger.
And yeah, it’s nice. Too.