(Author's Note: About half of this was written by The Guest in another branch.)
Thea Duncan still stood on the landing, looking down at the Spiked Pit. The moment she'd slipped into her dress, she felt more settled than she had all day. Sure, she wore more casual, but still dark, clothes sometimes ... and she did have some outfits more suited to when she wanted to go for a bank loan, but ... this was her. Literally, because as soon as she donned the dress, her male parts had retreated inside her body, never to be seen again.
The 26-year old looked rather satisfied at what she saw. She'd had to make some compromises, which had pissed off her friends ... but they were usually pissed off anyway. She wanted this to be a place where the marginalized could be accepted. That was mostly Goths, of course, which were her primary demographic, but she wasn't going to turn anyone away. That's why she'd read Grave the riot act about that teen who had shown up earlier. What if she was looking to break out of whatever conformity prison was trapping her? And her friends had scared her back into the proverbial closet?
Thea was tied into the local community in a way that Agatha never had been. She had family in town, she'd gone to the local high school and somehow, despite not always attending class, been named salutatorian at graduation. She was half convinced Principal Smith had ensured she didn't get Valedictorian just so she wouldn't have to make a speech, but Thea had said a few words anyway when she came up. She still had an awkward relationship with the school administration, as she had shown up after some of her teenage patrons had told her about how they were being treated.
As she glided down the stairs, she could see Grave in the DJ booth setting up the playlist for the night. She wondered if she'd had any luck on booking some bands. She really wanted to have live entertainment at least once a week. Grave had excellent taste in music and had found some great acts, but many of them needed to be talked into coming out to the burbs.
Simon was across the room behind the bar getting things in the small kitchen ready (the Spiked Pit only served simple bar type food). Thea had found the 24-year old when Simon was a freshman, still experimenting with the Goth lifestyle, and she and Grave had taken Simon under their wing.
Pleased that she didn't need to tell anyone to do anything, she turned her attention back to the mystery of the day - the unexpected blackouts the three of them had had. Grave's had gotten her arrested, not that she needed much help doing that. She had a long history of mouthing off to the police. If it had just been her, Thea would have shrugged it off. But Simon on the other hand ...
She decided she needed to talk to her customers ... see if any of them had heard of any such thing happening to anyone else.
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Meanwhile, one of those teenage patrons that Thea was referring to (Zara McMillan) was finally arriving at her friend Gena's house, after being invited there by her, via text. The moment school let out, she headed straight there.
Moments later, she found herself in Gena's bedroom, which was a lot smaller than her own (as Zara's family was much more well off than the Gibsons), but she couldn't really complain. She loved Gena's very black, very gothic room.
"So what happened again? Your text was a little vague," Zara said, plopping down on Gena's black-quilted bed.
"Apparently, Myka was abused by her boyfriend, or something," Gena said. "But she's not taking it seriously. Even a cop showed up to take her statement, but I'm not even sure she even gave one. I just don't get her. She's a star athlete and one of the most popular girls in school. She could literally have any guy. Why she settled for a prick like him, I have no idea." In the new reality, Myka no longer had the reputation of being a slut, but she was still sexy and liked to flirt a lot and show off. Her heart, though, would always belong to Steve.
"Yeah, me neither," Zara said. "But maybe it's a popular crowd thing, not that I would know anything about that," she said, no longer remembering her old life as the most popular girl in school.
Gena shrugged. "Whatever. Apparently, it's now a non-issue. At least I got to leave school early, even if it was just one class."
"So ... are you still free to head to the Pit tonight?" Zara asked, referring to the Spiked Pit, a Goth club that Zara and Gena frequently went to, even on school nights.
"Are you kidding me? Of course!" She didn't really want to be here anyway.
Before Zendaya's wish that made Steve Farber the steady and apparently devoted boyfriend of Myka, Gena was way more supportive of her sister, thinking that she was the victim of a possible rape by some boy she just hooked up with for a quickie, but in this new reality, Myka's relationship with Steve was different, as was Gena's. After all, if Myka and Steve had been dating for a while now and they weren't keeping it a secret, then Gena would have seen Steve coming over to their house many times, as much as she hated it. Sure, the guy was handsome, for a non-Goth, but the guy was also a total asshole. Why her sister thought he was perfect, she'd never know.
