#where Kevin and I will wind up cooking the meal anyway

[study-coffee-chicago]

Seasons of PD: Season 3: Jay’s Missing (A Halstead Brothers + Halstead Sister! Imagine)

As always, I don't own any quotes from the episode that happen to be in here!

Your age: 14

Jay's age: 28

Will's age: 30

"C'mon Jay," you muttered as you called him for the third time in an hour.

It was the one night a month where you and your brother would go out to dinner together and if there was a hockey game on, you'd finish watching it at his apartment. Then, he'd take you home. He was skeptical about doing it tonight since you had end-of-the-year exams next week, but you reassured him that you'd be fine; taking a break for a few hours never hurt anybody. And, you had all Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night after school to study since exams didn't start until Tuesday.

"You've reached Jay Halstead--" You quickly ended the call and began texting Ruzek. Hopefully, he'd cave and tell you what was going on.

But, when the read sign popped up seven minutes later, you knew something was up. If Jay was going to be late, he would've called you, or at least texted.

Since it was late May, the sun was out later than in the winter, which meant that it wouldn't be dark for another couple of hours. So, you grabbed a light sweatshirt and pulled it on, grabbed your phone and a few dollars and put them in your pocket, shouting a "bye Dad" on the way out...not that he cared what you did anyway.

You walked a few blocks to the El train stop, put your dollar in for your ticket, and hopped on. While you were on there, you were sure to have Ruzek's number pulled up on your phone and were ready to hit the call button in case something happened to you.

You looked at the map. The 21st District was just a few stops away. Soon, you'd know why Jay wasn't answering you. Hopefully, he was just out on a raid, handcuffing the bad guys.

***

"Kim," you said as you rushed into the district and saw the officer. "Do you know where my--"

You were cut off by the faint sound of a scream.

"Do I know where who is, Y/N?" she asked, completely ignoring what she had just heard.

"Jay, but that sounded like him screaming!"

You ran up the stairs to Intelligence, tugging on the gate even though you knew it wouldn't open without a member scanning their palm or Platt buzzing you up.

"Was that Jay? Is he there?" you yelled.

"Y/N, we can't let you up there right now," Kim explained.

"Why not? Jay told me we'd go out for dinner tonight and he always calls if he's gonna be late."

You looked up to see Ruzek coming towards the door.

"Would it kill you to answer a text?" you asked.

"Sorry, been busy."

"At least let me upstairs and then you can tell me where Jay is and I'll be out of your hair."

Ruzek sighed and allowed you to go up, Kim following you as well.

"Or Detective Halstead winds up as fertilizer in some cornfield in Indiana. We understand each other, Sergeant?"

"What'd he want?" Antonio asked, everyone totally unaware that you were now in the room.

"Halstead's life for all our CI files."

"H- His life?" you asked, frozen on the top step to the bullpen.

"Shit," Kevin muttered.

"Is he in trouble? Is he dead? Is that why he didn't answer my calls?" Your bottom lip started to tremble.

Antonio took a deep breath. He knew that if Gabby was in trouble that he'd want as much detail about what was happening as possible. "Something uh, something went wrong earlier," he supplied. "And then, because of that, some dealers took your brother."

"They took him? Took him where?"

"We don't know yet, kid," Al said. "But, that's what we're trying to find out."

When you heard that they didn't know where he was, you ran off towards the locker room. Ruzek tried to put his foot between the wall and the door to stop you from closing it and locking yourself in, but you were too fast for him.

You pulled out your phone and dialed a number you knew you probably should've called earlier when you first thought that Jay was in trouble.

"Erin? Jay's missing. You gotta find him. You're his partner."

***

Erin blearily reached for the phone, still trying to get over her hangover from last night--which lasted well into this morning--to go out for another night of non-stop partying, drinking, and drugs. She furrowed her eyebrows when she saw your name pop up.

"Hell--"

"Erin? Jay's missing. You gotta find him. You're his partner."

"He's--" She cleared her throat. "He's missing? What happened? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. I- I called him because we had a dinner and he didn't pick up, so eventually I just- I came down to the district and I heard someone on the phone say they're going to turn him into fertilizer, Erin."

"Do you know who it was?" she asked as she grabbed her service weapon and slid it into the waistband of her jeans...the same clothes she had been wearing since last night. A call that her boyfriend was missing was definitely curing her hangover fast.

"I don't know. It was- It was some dealer. But, you gotta come here and help them find him. You're his partner. Please." Your voice cracked on the last word.

"Okay, okay, I'll call Will to come pick you up and explain the situation. I'm leaving my apartment right now. I'll be there soon."

"Please don't call Will," you urged. "He's gonna be mad at me."

"Why's he gonna be mad at you?"

"Because I took the El and I'm not supposed to take the El by myself."

"Y/N, you taking the El by yourself is the least of his problems at the moment. Just sit tight and I should be there in about ten minutes."

***

"Y/N, c'mon open this door. Please?" you heard your oldest brother's voice on the other side of the door. "I know you're worried about Jay, but it's not gonna help at all if you just lock yourself in here all night."

You sniffled and then walked over to the door and unlocked it. "Will!" you cried, rushing into his arms. "He's gone, he's gone, he's gone."

"Hey, hey it's okay. You're okay. They're gonna find him and then you can have two dinners with him next month because you missed yours this month."

The number of times Jay had been shot or hurt on the job had caused Will to basically be immune to hearing bad news about his little brother. But, if Jay didn't come back or flatlined, then he'd be freaking out. And, despite Will wanting to scream at all of Intelligence to go find him, he knew he couldn't do that. He couldn't lash out right now because it'd only make it worse for you.

Your stomach growled, making Will go into even more protective brother mode. "When's the last time you ate?"

"Lunch," you answered.

"Y/N, it's 7:30. We gotta get some food in you."

"But, but what if he comes back? I wanna see him when he comes back."

"I'm gonna be honest with you. When he comes back, he's probably gonna need to go to the hospital just as a precaution. And, I know you have exams soon and your algebra one is stressing you out. I don't think Jay would want you to fail an exam just because you were worried about him."

"I hate math," you grumbled.

"I know. That's why you need to make sure you study."

"Doesn't mean I'm gonna end up liking it because I have to work on it."

Will didn't know what to say to that because he knew that you were right. So, he reiterated his previous point. "Let's go get you some food."

"Can-Can we just eat at home?" you asked. "I don't wanna not be home and hear bad news about Jay."

Will knew what you were getting at: you didn't want to break down in public.

"Yeah, we can do that. Still got a bunch of mac n cheese at home?"

"A few boxes," you answered, remembering how bare the cupboards were at your and your dad's house.

"We'll just grab something on the way home. C'mon."

"Can Erin come, too?" you asked.

"Go ask her. And, don't take the El by yourself. That's dangerous."

You rolled your eyes and followed him out of the locker room and into the bullpen.

"Erin," you started as you walked up to her desk. She had her head in her hands.

"Hmmm?" she asked looking up.

"Do you wanna come back to my house and eat dinner with me and Will?"

"I don't know if--"

"She'll come," Voight answered before she could finish.

"Hank!"

"Erin, we'll still be here working when you're done with dinner. Lord knows you could use some food in you."

"Fine." She stood up and grabbed her coat. "Not like you're letting me help with the case anyway," she muttered. But, no one heard that part.

Since she had quit Intelligence in Bunny's bar a few weeks ago, Voight was right in having her not work the case...not that she'd admit that. But this was her boyfriend, her partner, that was in trouble and she'd be damned if she didn't help get him out of this mess.

***

"Dad's not home?" Will asked as he let them into the house using the spare key that was hidden under a layer of dirt in the flower pot.

"He never is," you mumbled.

"What? What do you mean he's never home?"

"I mean, he's never home on Friday nights because he always goes out to the bar with some old friends," you told him. That was at least true. He did go out to the bar with some old friends...but it wasn't just Friday nights anymore, it was Friday, Saturday, and sometimes Thursday and Sunday, too. Because of this, he ate out a lot and didn't cook. Therefore, he had no reason to buy a lot of groceries, which was why there wasn't a lot of dinner food left in the cupboard...not that there was a lot of breakfast or lunch food here either, though. There was just enough for you to play it off that your dad just needed to go to the store. There was just enough for your brothers not to worry.

"Okay."  Will started to grab the Olive Garden you had ordered out of the bag. You said you weren't hungry--you didn't want to eat when you were this nervous-- and had only wanted to get some minestrone soup. But, Will insisted that you needed more than that so you compromised: minestrone soup and half an order of fettuccine alfredo...plus the breadsticks and the salad that came with the meal obviously.

A while later, Will was almost done with his food and was grabbing another breadstick and Erin was putting more salad onto her plate. You, on the other hand, had barely managed to finish your minestrone.

"Y/N, can you please eat a bit more? How about a breadstick? I know you love those," Will said.

"I'm not that hungry," you said quietly.

Will was about to say something when Erin stepped in. "How about you work on some of your homework? Maybe that'll make your appetite come back since you're using a lot of energy to focus. And, Jay mentioned that you have exams next week."

"He did?" you asked. You didn't think that Jay would mention stuff that you had going on in your life, like exams, to Erin.

"He always says how proud of you he is for working so hard in school...because he says that he was never as good in school as you."

"He really says he's proud of me?"

"He sure does."

"You guys mind if I do it out here? It's a lot easier to write stuff down when I'm writing in my notebook on the table instead of balancing it in my lap on my bed."

"Sure, kiddo," Will said.

You went to your room and grabbed your backpack and then started to work on your homework.

As you were working on it, your brain wandered back to the first time Jay had helped you with your math homework, all the way back in kindergarten, at this very kitchen table, when both of your parents had been working and Will was all the way in New York for his first year of med school.

You were sitting at the kitchen table, trying not to crumple up your math homework sheet and throw it across the room. It was only five subtraction problems, but subtraction was hard! You had only just started understanding addition!

You threw your pencil across the kitchen, where it narrowly missed the wall. It clattered to the floor, causing Jay to look up from where he was reading a book in the living room, the chair he had been sitting in was facing the kitchen, so he could keep an eye on you.

"Did you throw that?" he asked as he walked towards you.

"No," you lied.

He picked up the pencil. "If you lie, you get nine minutes in time out instead of six."

You didn't want to go in time out that long!

"I throwed it," you admitted, looking down at your math homework.

"It's threw, but thank you for being honest. Can you tell me why you threw the pencil?"

That was something his mom always did with him when he was younger: asked him why he did something and then, possibly put him in time out. Sometimes, he just needed to talk it out, and if that was the case, he didn't have to go into time out.

"I don't get sub-trac-shun!" you complained. "It's stupid!"

"Hey, we don't use that word."

"But it's hard."

"I know, but what if I help you? Would that help you to get it?"

"But Will said you not good at math," you pointed out, remembering something your oldest brother had said.

Jay chuckled. "I'm not good at big kid math. This stuff is easy for me."

"It's easy?"

"Oh, yeah. And, I think I might have something that can help you."

He walked over to the cupboard and reached up to the top shelf where he grabbed a bag of chocolate chips. He poured some into a small bowl and then walked back to the table and sat down next to you.

"We gonna eat chocolate?" you asked. "Even though I throwed-- I threw my pencil?"

"This is gonna help you learn subtraction."

"How?"

"Just watch." He paused and looked at the paper in front of you. "So, this one says five minus two."

"I know that," you told him proudly. "I know it says five minus two. I dunno what the an- the answer is though."

"Okay, well, take five chocolate chips out of here."

He held the bag out to you while you took five out, counting each one out loud. "What do I do now?"

"Now, if I eat two--" he popped two in his mouth. "--how many do you have now?"

You looked down at the chocolate chips. "One...Two...Three. I have three choc-chips!"

"That's right! So, five minus two is...?"

You scrunched up your face, trying to piece together what he had done. "I dunno."

"We had five chocolate chips. I ate two. How many did you say we have left?"

"Three!"

"Yeah. Five minus two is the same thing...just without me adding chocolate chips to the end."

"Huh?"

"Here." He took your paper from you and on the first three problems, he wrote chocolate chips after each number. "Five chocolate chips minus two chocolate chips is...?"

"Three!"

"Yeah! Good job! Now, write three down as your answer."

The next problem was three chocolate chips minus one chocolate chip and you did the same thing this time. Except, you got to eat the chocolate instead of Jay. You had two chocolate chips left this time.

Then, when you got to the last two problems that didn't say chocolate chips after the numbers, Jay showed you on your fingers how to figure out the answer.

Then, since you did such a good job, he let you watch Dora and eat some more chocolate chips.

"Y/N? Y/N? You good?" You were snapped out of your thoughts by Will saying your name.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine." You reached over the table to grab your pencil that had rolled towards Will. But, as you were reaching for it, your elbow knocked the two-liter of pop. "No!" you cried out as it spilled. It didn't just spill anywhere though...it spilled right on top of your algebra notebook. "Fuck this! I can't do this!"

You threw your pop-covered and sticky notebook on the ground and sprinted to the bathroom, ignoring Will and Erin's calls for you to come back.

You locked the door and slumped down against it. God, you needed that notebook. That had your entire exam review in it. And, if you didn't finish the exam review, you couldn't take the exam.

You only had 25 more problems left out of the 220 you had to do, hence why the review was given to you a month before you actually had to take the exam, so you had time to do it. And, some kids would wait until the last minute, but you figured you'd start early and do a certain number of problems a day so you didn't have to stress out and had time to ask your teacher questions if you had any.

But now, now you had a matter of days to do all 220 problems...and you had other exams to study for...and your big brother was missing...and...

Shit, here comes the Olive Garden.

You jumped up and lifted the lid of the toilet, quickly emptying the minestrone soup from your stomach.

"Y/N? Y/N! Open this door!" Will yelled as he banged on the door.

You leaned back against the bathtub and took a few deep breaths, willing yourself not to throw up again. You groaned as you felt the liquid rise in your throat and were back above the toilet in a matter of seconds.

You were panting at this point and trying to take a few breaths before more came out. Because you were so focused on making sure you didn't inhale your own vomit (ew) you didn't hear Will pick the lock and enter the bathroom.

When all that was left for you to throw up was bile and you were finished, you closed your eyes and leaned back against the bathtub once more, and took deep breaths.

"So that's why you didn't want to eat any more than you did," Will said.

"Will? How'd you get in here?"

"I picked the lock, Jay's not the only person in this family who knows how to do that, you know."

"I hate this," you mumbled, eyes still closed. "It happened last semester with exams too, but it wasn't this bad."

"Kid, you're stressing yourself out too much. You have to take a chill pill."

"I c-can't!"

"Okay," Will started as he crouched down next to you. "Why can't you relax?"

"I spilled pop all over my notebook!"

"So? You already practiced those problems. You know you don't need to practice them again, so just do the ones you need to practice."

"You don't get it!" You frantically rubbed the heels of your hands over your eyes as tears started to stream from them. "I needed that notebook! If I don't turn in the entire exam review I c-can't take the exam." You sighed and just put your head in your hands. This night seriously could not get any worse at this point. "And, Jay's miss- Jay's missing!"

"Y/N, I need you to take a deep breath for me, okay? Just take one."

"O-Okay." You took a deep, yet shaky breath.

"Now another."

You took another deep, yet shaky breath. And, you continued this cycle until Will deemed your breathing to be back to normal.

"How about you brush your teeth and then we'll figure out what to do for the homework once you do that. Sound good?" You nodded and stood up to go to the sink. "I'll be in the kitchen with Erin."

Then, Will exited the bathroom to go back into the kitchen like he told you.

"How is she?" Erin asked when she saw him come in. She had started cleaning up their take-out containers while Will had been busy trying to calm you down. "Sounded like she was puking."

"Because she was."

"Is she sick?"

"Not in the technical sense. But, she is what I like to call stress sick."

"Stress sick?"

"Exams are stressing her out, so add on top of the fact that Jay's missing, and she got so stressed out that she threw up."

"Poor kid," Erin sympathized. Then, her phone buzzed. "I gotta get back to the district. Tell her to feel better from me."

"Will do." He started to walk Erin towards the door, but stopped when they were almost to it. "And Erin? Bring my little brother back. Even though he's a pain in my ass half the time, I can't lose him. And, I know Y/N would take it really hard."

"Will, he's got the best unit in all of Chicago looking for him. We'll bring him back."

A few minutes after Erin had left, you walked into the kitchen, with clean teeth and the gross taste of vomit now out of your mouth, to see Will sitting at the table, staring at your notebook with a roll of paper towel next to him. "What are you doing?" you asked as you sat down.

"Trying to get the stain out," he replied.

"How? It's like the entire notebook, not just one page."

"You're talking to the king of spilled coffee on homework. And, lucky for you, pop and coffee are both water-based. So, I think I know how to get this out. You're gonna need to rewrite it in a new notebook, though."

"Okay. Need any help?"

"Can you just get me a bowl filled with water?"

"The paper's already wet. Why do you want to make it wetter?"

"Just trust me on this one." You yawned. "After you grab that for me, maybe you should go to bed. It's been a long day."

"Will you stay here?"

"Of course. I can just sleep in my old bedroom...unless Dad did something to it. Speaking of Dad, is he usually out this late? Does he usually leave you home alone this late at night?"

You were filling up a bowl with water and turned to look at Will. You shrugged. "Sometimes. It's okay, though." That was a lie. Most nights he didn't get home until two or three in the morning...but, Will didn't need to know that.

"I'm going to have a chat with Dad about that. He shouldn't be leaving you home alone this late at night."

"Will, it's not even that late. I'm fine." You placed the bowl of water on the table.

"Fine. But if it hits midnight and he's not home yet, then I will be talking with him about this."

You nodded. "Well, I'm gonna go to bed. 'Night Will. Sorry about getting sick."

"You don't have to apologize for that." He stood up and pulled you into a hug. "Goodnight."

You started to walk towards your bedroom when you remembered something and turned back to Will. "Will?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think Jay's okay? He's gotta be okay, right?"

"Y/N, he's got the best unit in the city looking for him."

"And Erin."

"And Erin," he confirmed. "He'll be okay." But, in that moment he didn't know who he was trying to reassure more: you or himself.

***

"You wanna go somewhere today?" Will asked as you were both sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal the next morning.

"I have homework to do...a lot more than I thought I'd have, too. Did Erin give you any updates on Jay?" you asked.

He shook his head. "But, he's gonna be okay. And, you don't have a ton of homework to do. You have a ton of homework to copy."

"What do you mean?"

At this, he placed the notebook on the table. "I told you I knew what I was doing."

You flipped open the notebook to see that Will was right: he did in fact know what he was doing. Even though the pages were all still tinted a light brown from the pop, the writing from you doing all the practice problems was still legible. "How did you...?" you trailed off as you continued to flip through your algebra notebook.

"Like I told you, I spilled coffee on one too many notebooks in college. Now all you need to do is copy the problems down into a clean notebook. Save you some brainpower."

"Thank you."

"Now, I suggest we got to CCU's library so you can get a change of scenery while doing that."

"CCU? Why? And, you're not a student there anymore. How are we gonna get in?"

Will scoffed. "They don't check student IDs when you go in. And, a change in my workspace always helped me to focus when I was studying, so maybe it'll help you."

"Workspace," you mocked. "So professional. But, yeah, let's do that. Can we keep our phones on though in case Erin calls?"

Will nodded. "Of course."

***

Getting into CCU wasn't actually that hard. All Will had to do was pay $10 for a day pass to park and then you walked into the library, no student ID necessary.

"Okay kiddo, where are we sitting?" he asked.

"I don't know. I've never been here before. Where did you normally sit?"

"Second floor. It's generally quieter up there and the tables are big, so I could throw my books all over it. But, I'd come back down here for coffee a lot, too."

"There's a coffee shop?" you asked as you widened your eyes. "In the library?"

"Well, tuition is out of this world. So, at least we get something out of it."

"Can we go? I think I have $5 somewhere in my backpack."

"If prices haven't gone up since I was here when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, then I can get a muffin and a large coffee for $5. I'll have the coffee and you can have the muffin. I'll pay," Will told you.

"Okay, thank you! And, you're not that old, Will."

You got your triple chocolate muffin and Will got his large coffee. Then, you found one of the big tables that he had mentioned and started copying your algebra review into another notebook.

"What are you going to do? Sit here and stare off into space?" you asked your brother. "Wait," you began as you started to rummage around in your backpack for an eraser, "What's this?"

You set a big book on the table. And it's definitely not something you'd read because it was called "How We Learn", which you assumed meant that the book was nonfiction and went into the science of learning.

"I found it in my room. Must've left it there from Christmas last year and I haven't had a chance to read it, so I figured I'd bring it to read now."

"Fair enough."

***

"Did Jay ever want to go to college?" you asked a few hours later. "Or, did he know it just wasn't right for him?"

"I think he always knew he wanted to do something involving being on the front lines and being in all the action," Will answered, dog-earing the page in his book and setting it down. "Why? You don't want to go to college either?"

"No, I do," you said quickly. "It's just- I just want to know things that I've never asked him if we...you know..."

Will nodded. "I know you're worried about him, but if Hank Voight's anything like Jay's told me, he won't let anything happen to one of his own."

"But he let it happen to Jules," you said. What if Jay was the next Jules?

"Jules? Who's Jules?"

"She was Antonio's partner. Antonio's the reason Jay got into Intelligence. And one day, he said we were going to go see a movie. Like, he just randomly picked me up from school and everything. I could tell he was sad after the movie, and it wasn't a sad movie, and he told me that someone he worked with died. A little later, we were walking by the memorial wall by the district and he showed me her name."

"I see," Will said, drawing on his talking-to-patient skills because what else was he going to say?

Luckily, he was saved by his phone ringing.

"Hello? Erin?" Pause. "He's at Med?" Pause. "Okay, yeah, we'll be there in ten minutes."

"He's okay?" you asked as soon as Will ended the call. "Jay's okay? They found him?"

Will nodded. "He's at Med. Erin said he's a little bruised, but he was conscious, so that's good."

You took Will's book and shoved it in your backpack along with your schoolwork. "Let's go."

***

"Nat, really, my ribs don't need to be wrapped. I'm fine," Jay protested as he sat in a treatment room at Chicago Med, Erin standing next to him in some clean clothes that Natalie had let her borrow.

"Jay, your ribs are badly bruised. They need to be wrapped. If you're more comfortable with a guy wrapping them, I can easily call in a male nurse for help," Natalie suggested.

"No, it's not that. I don't care who does it."

"My little brother just doesn't want to bruise his big ego, that's what's going on, Nat," Will said as he entered the treatment room with you by his side.

You jumped when Jay turned and you saw his face and his chest: a black eye that went from the inside corner of his right eye to his right temple, a gash on the top right of his forehead, another gash on the left side of his forehead which was diagonal and above the outside portion of his left eyebrow, a jagged cut that went down his left temple starting at eye level, a split lip, and purple, blue, and red bruises along with some cuts and welts that littered his ribs and chest.

"You're okay?" you asked as your lips pulled into a frown and tears stung your eyes.

"I'm okay. Just a little beat up right now. Nothing to worry about."

Without thinking, you ran to his bed and gave him a hug. He let out a groan as you squeezed a bit too tight, irritating his ribs.

You pulled away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay, my ribs are just gonna be a little sore for a few days."

"I thought you were going to be turned into fertilizer."

"Fertilizer?" Jay furrowed his eyebrows. "Who told you that?"

"When you didn't call me back about dinner, I tried calling Adam, but he didn't pick up either, so I went to the district. I heard some guy on the phone saying he was going to turn you into- into fertilizer. I was so scar- so scared."

Tears rolled down your cheeks faster than you could wipe them away.

Jay stood up with a grimace and walked the few paces over to you, wrapping you in a hug. "Hey, I'm okay now. That's all that matters. And, you did a really good job calling Erin."

"I did?"

"You sure did. She told me all about how you told her that I was gone and that she'd be able to get me out because we're partners." He paused. "She also told me that you took the El by yourself."

"Erin," you whined. "You weren't supposed to tell him that."

"It's okay," Jay said. "I won't tell Dad as long as you don't do it again."

"I won't," you replied. Not like Dad would do anything anyway, you thought to yourself.

"Jay," Will started, "You need to get back into bed."

"It's just bruised ribs, Will. I'm fine," Jay argued.

"It's just bruised ribs, Will. I'm fine," Will mocked. "Yeah, tell me that tomorrow when you can barely walk because of how sore they are. Bed. Now."

"Fine." Jay sat down with a huff and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I swear, you're such a child, Halstead," Erin said.

***

You walked out of school a few days later feeling free. Summer was here and you were no longer a middle-schooler. You were now a high schooler.

You started to walk out of campus, the way you took to walk home every day, when you heard the thundering of footsteps behind you, causing you to jump and turn around.

"Jay." You breathed a sigh of relief when you saw it was your brother.

"Hey, figured I'd pick you up. My text must not have gone through."

"Oh, I turned my phone off because of exams. Sorry."

"No problem. C'mon, we're going out to lunch and then we'll stop home to grab your swimsuit."

"Swimsuit? Why?"

"Mom would always take us to Navy Pier on the first day of summer to go swimming. And, since Will's shift ends at 1:00 and I'm on leave because of injury, it's the first year we can actually do this all together."

You nodded, trying to hold back tears at the mention of your mom.

"Hey, let me take your backpack. That thing looks like it's gonna make you topple over." You took it off and handed it to him. "Whoa! What's in here? Rocks?"

You laughed. "Nope, end of the year locker cleanout. Everything that was shoved in my locker is now in there."

"No rotten food I hope," Jay joked.

"No," you laughed. "Why? Did you or Will leave food in your locker?"

"No, we knew better than that. But the kid next to me left a milk carton in there over spring break and that smelled funky when we got back. I started bringing my backpack around with me just so I didn't have to go back to my locker because it smelled so bad."

"We can't do that. Teachers say it's for our safety because of bombs."

Jay opened the door to the backseat and put your backpack in there while you got into the passenger seat. Then, he got in the driver's seat all the while thinking how you knew that that was the reasoning behind that rule. He knew the reasoning because he was a detective. But he thought that most of the time, kids just thought it was some stupid rule.

"How do you know about that?" he asked once he started his truck.

"One of my teachers told us. She was mad at a kid who kept bringing his backpack to class even though she told him not to, so he went off on her and called it a stupid rule and asked why we even had the rule. She told him it was because if there's a bomb threat then she has to check every single backpack. That's why."

"Oh," was all Jay said. He really didn't want to be having this conversation with you, but here he was.

"Is it different?" you asked.

"Is what different?"

"Like, is high school different now than when you were in high school? And how different is middle school from high school?"

"Are you nervous for high school already, kiddo? You just finished eighth grade like fifteen minutes ago!"

You shrugged. "I'm just curious is all." Jay quirked an eyebrow at you while he took his eyes off the road for a split second and then returned them back to the road. "Okay, fine. I'm a little nervous."

"Let's talk about this over brunch, okay?"

"Okay."

***

Of course, Jay knew that you wanted to go to iHOP because breakfast was good at any time of the day. Jay thought differently though and ordered a sandwich instead of breakfast food like you. You had gotten their cinnamon roll pancakes with bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns on the side.

You were waiting for the comment about it being a lot of food, but that never came...which you were thankful for. You didn't know how you were supposed to explain to your very perceptive brother that the reason that you were eating a lot here was that you only had about 3/4 cups of dry cereal this morning before school because you were out of milk. You were out of milk and your dad didn't go grocery shopping. And, it's not like you had enough money to buy groceries or that you knew where your dad kept the money so you could take $20 just to buy food and hide it in your room so that you had something to eat.

"So, what do you want to know about high school?" Jay asked. "Did you get your schedule yet?"

If you were going to Central Chicago High School after going to their middle school, you had the option to schedule your classes the month prior and then you'd see if you'd get those classes. Of course, it might not be possible to get every class with every teacher you want, but it was cool that you got to know right when you finished eighth grade. And, in high school, it was the same thing: on the last day of ninth grade, if you were staying for tenth grade, then you'd get your schedule on the last day of ninth grade. It was sort of weird to you, but you got used to it.

"Is Eva going to be at the beach, too?" you asked. You knew it was her's and Diego's last day of school along with Jordan's and Vanessa's, so you wanted Jordan and Eva to be there when you told everyone your schedule so they could tell you everything they knew about the teachers you had next year.

"I can text Antonio. Why?" Jay asked.

"I just wanted to see if Eva and maybe Jordan would be there because they could tell me everything about the teachers I have."

"I can text Antonio and Kevin. You know what, I'll text Ruz and Burgess too."

"And Mouse."

"And Mouse. Can't forget about him now, can we?"

"What about Erin? Is she coming, too?"

"Uh, I don't know about that. She's had a rough couple of days."

You furrowed your eyebrows. "Why?"

"You know how Voight took her in?" You nodded. "Well, after Nadia died, she was backsliding. Badly. And now, she's detoxing and it's kinda hard on a person's body."

"Okay, but seeing you would make her feel better. She's always happy when she's around you. And you always have this big, dopey grin on your face whenever you're around her."

"I do not," Jay protested. You raised your eyebrows at him. "Okay fine, maybe I do that occasionally. I'll text some people and then we can talk about high school."

Jay sent the texts while you continued to eat. He took a few bites of his sandwich and then broached the topic of high school once more by saying, "So, what do you want to know about high school?"

"I dunno. How's it different from when you went to school like twenty years ago."

"Hey! It was not twenty years ago. I'll have you know it was ten years ago!"

"Same thing."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Well, shootings happened, but not as much as they do now." You opened your mouth to ask if Jay had ever responded to one, when he stopped you. "And I know what you're going to ask. No, I didn't respond to one and I wouldn't tell you if I did. What do I always tell you?"

"I'm trying to keep you innocent and sheltered from all the bad stuff in the world," you said verbatim of what he had told you dozens of times when you asked for details of what he was doing at work.

"Word for word. So, we got to carry our backpacks around and it was an open campus."

"It used to be an open campus?" you asked, shocked.

"Yup, we rarely even had to sign out."

"Lucky! I wanna leave school and go to Mcdonald's for lunch!"

"Too bad you weren't born like fifteen years earlier and that could've happened."

"Oh, and we could eat lunch on the roof. There was a way to climb through the ceiling above the indoor track. It's closed now, though."

"Why'd they close it?"

"Yeah, you might want to wait until we're at the beach for me to tell that story since I'm sure everybody else would find it funny."

"Okay..." you trailed off, drawing out the "y". You didn't know why everyone would find a story of a hole in the ceiling being closed funny, but you figured it was best to let Jay have his way...with this one at least. "What's the difference between middle school and high school?"

"Now, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: nobody cares in high school."

"What do you mean?"

"Just ask Eva when we get to the beach."

"She's coming?"

"Her, Diego, Antonio, Kev, Adam, Kim, Jordan, Vanessa, Mouse, Erin, and of course Will are all coming."

***

Luckily, Jay decided to stay in the car while you ran inside your house and changed into a swimsuit, slipping your clothes over top of it so it would be easier when you got to the pier.

"Dawson!" Jay yelled as he walked up the beach, bag in hand filled with his swim trunks, water bottles, and a few bags of chips. Typically, he would've brought beer to the beach, but he had to drive home, with you in the car no less, so no drinking for him.

"Halstead!" Antonio yelled back.

Once you got up close enough, you saw that Gabby was there, too.

"Bring Gabby to be your DD, Antonio?" Jay jokingly asked.

"I mean, I'm sure Ruzek's bringing beer, so I might be able to get away with one."

"Uh uh," Gabby said. "If Kim brings some fruity drinks, you're driving home."

"So, if she brings regular drinks I can have a few beers?"

"Your cap is two, Antonio. You've got these two to take care of." She gestured to Eva and Diego. Diego was already jumping the waves and Eva was laying down on a beach towel starting to get a tan.

"Eva!" Antonio yelled. "Y/N's here!"

"Oh thank God," she said and walked up to you. "Girl, come sit your towel down next to mine and then we can look at your schedule."

"Yeah, I wanna see that, too!" Jay exclaimed.

"Should we wait for Will? And Jordan? Maybe Jordan has some input about the teachers. And, Jay said he has a story to tell about a hole in the ceiling of the high school and he wants to be sure everyone is around to hear it."

Ten minutes later, everyone had arrived and was in their swimming gear. "Okay, what's this story about the ceiling, Jay?" you asked.

"Oh, that story," Will joked.

"Yeah, that one. What other one would there be?"

Will rolled his eyes.

"Okay, before I start, I am going to preface this by saying that I was young and I was very stupid."

"He's stupid every day," Will dramatically leaned over Jay and whispered to Erin.

"Man, would you shut up and let me tell the story?" Will sat in silence for a few seconds. "Thank you.

"We all know about senior pranks. Well, it was my senior year and a few of us from the soccer team decided to pool our money together and buy some live chickens--"

"Did you say chickens? As in chickens with feathers? That squawk?" Kevin asked.

"Yes, real chickens. What other ones would there be?"

"Maybe they were chicken nuggets," Adam suggested.

Jay dramatically sighed. "Antonio, did you miss having me in the unit this week? You and Erin had to put up with these two bozos all by yourself."

"Hey!" Adam and Kevin yelled in unison.

"Anyway, as I was saying, some of us from the soccer team pooled our money together to buy chickens. Real live chickens, not chicken nuggets, Ruz. Then, we chose a Sunday night to get into the school--they always left this one back door unlocked--and we climbed onto the roof from the stairs/hole thingy in the ceiling right above the indoor track.

"Once we got to the roof, we dropped the chickens off of it. But, our stupid lookout got caught and then the cops came."

"You got arrested?" Adam laughed. "This is priceless."

"Didn't get arrested. Just had to do community service to be able to walk at graduation. But, nowadays, yeah, I'd have probably gotten arrested."

"So, that's why they closed it? Because you and your friends decided to drop chickens from the roof?" you asked.

"Exactly."

"Were Mom and Dad mad?" you asked. "I was little. I don't remember."

"They weren't thrilled, I'll tell you that much. I think if I would've gotten arrested it would've been a lot worse."

"He's downplaying it," Will said. "Mom grounded him from everything. Car keys, those crappy Motorola phones we had back then, GameBoy, dates with Allie. He couldn't do anything."

"Does not sound fun. I won't be trying that." You pulled your schedule out of the bag Jay had brought and passed it to your brother first.

"Aw, man, you got Cunningham for history," Jay groaned. "Or should I say Cuntingham."

"Jay!" you yelled.

"That old hag is still teaching? Damn," Will added.

"Okay, what's the issue with her? Eva? Jordan? Anything about this Cunningham lady?"

"She just hates freshman," Eva supplied. "When you become a sophomore it gets better."

"And she hates when you tip back in your chair," Jordan added. "She'll make you pay her 25 cents if she sees you do it in her class."

"Okay, no tipping in chairs, and I have to deal with her for a year, noted." You turned to your brothers. "How do you know of her?"

"I didn't have a problem with her other than the fact that she's a crappy teacher," Will said. "But  Jay, on the other hand, he's a different story."

"What'd you do?"

"So, I was a freshman when you were born and Mom went into labor the night before I had a test. And, because everyone hates tests, I went to the hospital with Will that morning and we waited for Mom to you know, be done giving birth to you.

"And, I went to school the next day and this old hag said that because there wasn't a doctor's note that I couldn't take the test--"

"He was this close--" Will pinched his pointer finger and thumb together so that they were almost touching. "--to taking you to school one day just to show you to Cunningham and saying is this a good enough doctor's note for you?"

"But Mom wouldn't let me do that...for obvious reasons. And then, because I couldn't take that one stupid test, I did not do well in that class."

"Just say you're related to me," Will said. "Don't mention Jay's name at all and you'll be fine."

"Got it. I'm gonna go in the water now."

You started to go in the water when you heard Erin and Will trying to convince Jay to go in.

"Dude, I can't roughhouse because of my ribs, you know this!" Jay told Will. "And, I am not going in the water with you again, not after what happened last time."

"Jay, that was twelve years ago, give it rest."

At this, your ears perked up. "What'd Will do?" you asked, walking back up to your brothers and Erin.

"He tried to drown me."

"Did not! I just wanted to see how long you could hold your breath."

"Yeah, see how long it would take me to drown!"

"He tried to drown you?" Erin asked.

"Yeah," Jay answered. "Me and Will were playing in the water. I was like 16 and Will was like 18. Y/N was a little toddler and was playing with her shovel on the beach. Then, Mom had to go to the bathroom, so she left me and Will in charge."

"Bad idea number one," Will said.

"There's more bad ideas. So, Y/N's playing in the sand, me and Will are playing in the water, and then next thing I know, Will's practically on top of me and holding my head underwater."

"And the minute I let you up was the minute Mom came back."

"Yup, perfect timing."

"And then you have Y/N who's sitting on the beach and decided to watch us and was just clapping her hands and chanting again, again!"

"Really?" you asked, as you tried to hold back your laughter. "I did that?" Will nodded and you shrugged. "Sounds pretty accurate to me."

"And then I didn't get ice cream after."

"Yeah, you didn't get ice cream after." Jay took a deep breath. "You almost killed me!"

You rolled your eyes. "I'm going in the water to cool off. Maybe it is best that you guys stay here. But, I mean, Gabby's here and I hope to God Will knows CPR because he's a doctor and that you cops do, too."

Once Will saw that you weren't focused on him and Jay anymore, he turned to his little brother. "Hey, how old was dad when he kinda, you know, clocked out on parenting us?"

"Early high school," Jay answered. "Why are you...oh shit, Y/N."

"Yeah, Y/N," Will reiterated. "And, we had Mom, so it wasn't that bad. But, she doesn't have that."

"She's got us," Jay said. "That's gotta count for something."

A/N: I was going to post this last night, but I almost fell asleep while editing, so it's coming out now. Anyway, not sure how I feel about this one, but I got it done, so that's all that matters. Thank you for reading! Please vlike/reblog and comment and tell me what you think! As always, if you want to be added to the taglist, just comment that you want to be added down below. PS: That story about chickens being dropped into the courtyard at school, yeah my older cousin did that for his senior prank and the lookout got caught and they had to do community service to walk at graduation.

taglist: @theambracer88 @virtualreader @kelelas-life @celyndavies @brookerz122493 @musicismyescape27 @anotherfan07 @thexplosivegirl @dreamingwithlens @xoxmariaxox @onechicago18 @iamasimpingh0e 

#jay halstead #will halstead #chicago pd #chicago med #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead fanfiction #will halstead imagine #will halstead fanfiction #imagine #fanfiction #halstead sister #halstead sister imagine #halstead brothers #halstead bros #writing #my writing #writer #fanfic #chicago pd imagine #chicago pd fanfic #chicago pd fanfiction #chicago med imagine #chicago med fanfic #chicago med fanfiction

[anyshapebutsquare]

I’ve said it before but why must my parents make seeing them an all day affair?!?!

#no I don’t want to have a bbq at your house after the activity I suggested we do #because I’ll be stuck there for 4 additional hours #where Kevin and I will wind up cooking the meal anyway #because my dad doesn’t cook and they both suck at grilling

[qorillas]

even more gorillaz headcanons

they tried to get noodle to eat brussels sprouts when she was little and they went on a health kick. she didn’t understand what they were called and thought they were called russel sprouts. to this day brussels sprouts are referred to as russel sprouts by everyone in the band and this is just an accepted phrase now. whenever they pass the produce aisle someone inevitably yells “hey russel!” and holds up a brussels sprout when he looks over (at least, 2d and noodle do. murdoc tends to just chuck a brussels sprout at russ’s head from all the way across the aisle and then pretend it wasn’t him.) 

they all love the beatles so much. they tend to play beatles songs to warm up before practice; can’t buy me love was a favorite of noodle’s when she was little because 2d would dance with her and swing her around during the instrumental part while they sang. i want to hold your hand is also a popular one because during the bridge — “and when i touch you i feel happy inside” — 2d and noodle go all fake-sentimental and dramatically sigh and swoon all over the room. usually they sing to russ and get him to clasp their hands during this part or stroke murdoc’s face dramatically (he always pushes them away but he’s laughing.) one of the first songs murdoc learned was blackbird and he tends to play it to himself in his room when he’s alone, singing quietly. he taught it to noodle when she was really young and caught him singing it and even now, sometimes they’ll sit in the studio with their guitars singing blackbird together — it’s their thing. 

more under the cut!

2d is autistic and has adhd. he experiences sensory overload a lot and finds it hard to keep the thread of a conversation; the bright lights and constant barrage of questions during an interview are really overwhelming for him, which is why he so frequently spaces out, trails off or loses track of a topic in the middle of a sentence. this is also part of the reason why he tends to struggle with sarcasm and sayings (half the time he doesn’t get them, the other half of the time he gets them but just wants to mess with the interviewer because he’s a bit of a prankster.) murdoc talks so much in interviews because he knows they’re tough for 2d to sit through and he’s covering for him (and also, of course, because he loves the sound of his own voice.) because of his 8-ball fractures obscuring his irises, 2d doesn’t generally make eye contact with people either; they don’t realize it because they can’t see where his eyes are pointing anyway, which 2d appreciates. 2d also stims a lot! he likes to hum under his breath because it feels nice on his throat and vocal cords. he finds the bloopy noises that keyboards make really comforting, and part of the reason he has so many keyboards is because each keyboard has its own unique sound and he likes to collect the sounds that feel the best to him. he has a whole slew of stim toys in his desk and all over the house; a lot of his flick knives and flickcombs are actually things he uses to stim with because he likes the noises they make. he always forgets to bring them with him when he goes out, though, so he has a habit of rubbing the loose ends of his friendship bracelets between his fingers to stim instead, which is nice because since there’s always one around his wrist, he’s never without something to stim with. he plays with his fingers and winds them around microphone stands during concerts to stim as well. his special interests are zombie movies, machinery and keyboards, and he tends to infodump about the latter during rehearsals. he also has mild dyspraxia because of his autism, which is why he’s a bit clumsy and tends to struggle with balance. he flaps so much, especially when he gets excited! he has the best wiggles. [thanks to @happy2d for looking through this hc and offering some great suggestions!!!] 

the reason noodle has so much traditional japanese paraphernalia decorating her room goes beyond the fact that she’s immensely proud of her cultural background. since she was essentially raised in the uk, and wasn’t able to remember her childhood in japan for a long while, she’s always felt a bit estranged from her japanese identity. even after being able to remember her early life, the fact that she was brought up in an isolated military program, and then raised in the public eye as a british celebrity means that sometimes she feels like she’s not “really” japanese. at times she feels really cut off from her japanese roots, like she doesn’t deserve to claim an identity as a japanese person, or like she doesn’t really belong in england or in japan, or anywhere at all. she surrounds herself with things from japan and decorates her room with them because it helps her compensate for these feelings and reminds her to assert her identity. if it gets really bad, she remembers something murdoc told her once when he caught her crying during an identity crisis she had at 14: “you’re not half-british and half-japanese; you’re british, full stop, and japanese, full stop. the two things don’t cancel each other out. this is coming from a guy who identifies as mexican and whose only real experiences with it are a stint in prison and a long-gone mum. anyway, it doesn’t matter what you are since you’ll always be part of gorillaz, which is more than most people in the world can say. and if they do say anything, tell ‘em to fuck off, and then kick their teeth in.” 

when del was alive, he and russel had plans to get married after college and adopt a baby girl. after del died, russ was absolutely gutted; the constant ache of del’s absence and the survivor’s guilt contributed heavily to his depression and anxiety, and he was in a really low place for a long time. noodle’s arrival probably saved his life. from day one, he and del regarded her as the adoptive daughter they always planned to have, but which just came to them in an really unexpected way. del, of course, was the cool dad and russ was the rule dad, considering that del was pretty much incorporeal and couldn’t actually enforce any rules they set beyond threatening to leave a note for russel detailing exactly how bad noodle had been. noodle loved conveying messages between the two of them, actually, and would force russel to go to bed early so that she could tell del that he said hi, or wake him up from naps to tell him that del said hi back. noodle still goes with russ to visit del’s grave between phases and whenever they’re in the united states. 

murdoc is actually the best at cooking out of all of them. he was left alone so often as a kid, he had to learn how to feed himself somehow. he rarely cooks anything nowadays, though; he’s too lazy to do it when he could easily use an app to deliver something right to him or just order pizza, and he doesn’t care enough about what he’s eating to expend the effort of getting all the ingredients out and cleaning up afterwards for a specific meal. he only cooks at the most random times; for example, they’ll be in the middle of a songwriting session and murdoc will have a flash of inspiration and become manic, scribbling lyrics on the nearest flat surface, grabbing his bass and suddenly dashing off to the kitchen, and return three hours later with five quiches, one of which has a lyric sheet baked into it. “it’s a bit wordy,” 2d says, “but good.” he makes better tamales than your abuelita, but only when he’s worried about someone, and he has a bad habit of passive-aggressively shoving a full plate in front of whoever he’s upset with and watching them eat with a reproving glare until he’s convinced that they’re okay. a birthday means that the special person will find a scone on a plate, sitting in their room with no explanation. 2d’s is always vaguely swan-shaped. murdoc’s laughed at them so many times for asking if it was him. “is that a fucking joke?” he says. “you don’t think i have better things to do? it’s most likely poisoned, and even worse, it was probably sitting stale in a display case all day.” actually, when they woke up, the scone was still warm.

2d’s voice is different this phase because he recently had surgery to remove some vocal nodules. he’s fine and cleared to perform in the band’s upcoming tours, but his voice is still going to be a bit raspy for a while. russel says he sounds kind of like kevin bishop. 2d says he doesn’t know who that is but as long as he doesn’t sound like damon albarn he’s fine with it.

#it's been a while lmao but i kept meaning to edit the one about 2d and couldn't find time #plus i had finals but!!! it's finally done #i might expand on the beatles one lmao i love it so much and i've been on a beatles kick recently #anyway hope y'all enjoy #mine #a happy family

[opepin]

september: week two

04: we got out of bed pretty late. we were exhausted from traveling so late yesterday. i did a bit of cleaning up and doing some household errands  / internet errands for myself. we ate chicken nuggets and potstickers for brunch and then went straight into playing overcooked. we beat the main game! the last level was pretty hard because you were only given a certain amount of time for different foods to make. then we played a bit of battleblock theater before meal planning and getting groceries from kam man; it was a quick trip. kevin played some overwatch after putting away the food and i continued doing things on my to-do list haha. then i did a hiit workout with my old mizunos i brought back -- they’re not cutting it LOL so i think i’ll bring them back home during thanksgiving for my mom to donate with the other shoes. i think for now, i am leaning towards working out in the yoga studio with my adidas. i’m still thinking about getting the white ones but when they’re on sale mayhaps. anyway, after exercising, i made rice and made the pico de gallo part of our makeshift chipotle burrito bowls. kevin made the chicken.

we ate our pretty healthy dinner while watching an episode of agents of shield and then we went into playing another co-op game. i think it’s called something force? i forget, but it’s more fighting-based. it took some time to hook it up so i talked with vivian for a bit and then once kevin figured it out, we got into the groove of the game. i actually did an abs workout as well today after. i put on the rest of ‘the break up’ on netflix and worked out while finishing the movie. it was too late for me to wash my hair so i just took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, and headed into bed. i was struck with sleepiness during my shower haha. i think kevin showered soon after and went to sleep too. zzzz. it was 1 am though and we felt like it was 12 am (it would be the case if we were back in chicago).

05: i was so dehydrated when i woke up x_x i did 30 minutes of cardio and then kevin left for work and i ran some errands before working. i washed my hair today and i felt so cleeeaaan. then i went downstairs to drop off a package mistakenly put into the concierge locker under my name and also pick up my package from eggie!!! it was just a normal box but when i opened it, my black blazer was covered in an eggie bag, it was on a hanger, and there was a cute eggie zip bag in there that i can use to hold skincare or make up for flights! i can’t really tell what it looks like because i don’t have a full body mirror, but it looks and feels amazing! then i started doing laundry and used the new mesh bags i got on amazon to wash my sports bras, bras, and delicate shirts. after all of that, i hopped on a client call and then cleaned out my email and ordered another sports bra from aerie just in case i run out again...haha. i ate lunch while catching up on youtube videos and then went to work a bit on wireframes.

after stand up, i talked with phil about my wireframing and i basically have to make new ones, which frustrates me a bit because dave and phil didn’t really communicate what they wanted from me? or at least, when they decided to switch gears, i wasn’t involved in that conversation so all my wireframes are ‘not attached to real life situations’ right now. ugh. the good thing is that these wireframes are probably going to be easier to mock up. after the call, i folded laundry and then finished some errands and then did a bit of work on the wireframes. i want to double-check with dave as well before diving in so we’re all on the same page... i did some of the beginnings of the wireframes and then i took a break and worked out. i did thighs today and they burned like crazy. then i showered while the chicken and rice cooked. kevin got back later than i expected so i ended up nomming on my chicken and then ended up just eating dinner before he came back. we watched agents of shield and then i became pretty obsessed with finding what shoes kelsey wells, an instagram fitness star, wore. LOL. she had three pairs that i was super curious about and they were all adidas so that was a start. i ended up pinpointing that she has the black adidas adipure 360.3s, black ultra boosts, and black/turquoise pure boost x’s,

this gives me a lead on what shoes to get for training again. i also noticed she wears the shit out of her white edge lux shoes ;D this was what i was going to get if all else fails but i didn’t want to get the same shoe in a different color because i own the black/white ones. anyway, i really like the shock yellow pure boost x runners and the black / dark grey / sunglow pure boost x trainers. the adipure 360.3s would make more sense for me to get but i don’t just want a plain black sneaker ;( anyway, kevin and i also spent some time figuring out flights for holidays. i might get my family to come over for thanksgiving and then for christmas, fly out dec 18th to st. louis to hang with the chen fam and then fly back to chicago for christmas and new years. tickets for thanksgiving are so expensive thoooo. i’ll figure it out. with all the shoe research i did at night, i went to sleep later than i wanted to (12 am) but i still ko’d real quick.

06: i woke up at 7:15 am and then felt really awake but then slept for like 10 more minutes lol. i did a cardio kickboxing workout in the morning, showered, and then ate breakfast. i decided to wear my new eggie tuxedo blazer today; it blew in the wind like crazy but i felt so cool ahahha. there were severe delays on the red line coming from both ways -- cole messaged me in the morning and said he was basically stuck for like an hour on the train x_x; so i took my time in the morning but i still ended up taking an hour to get to work. i got to work before 10 am though :P i found out where the ups drop box is inside the building -- there’s a fedex one here too! then i did a bit more adidas shoe research and got to work. it felt like a pretty short day because we had a 1.5 hour meeting for all-hands. i finished up my wireframes for the day and did some internet errands before the meeting. it was an in person meeting so we all had to go upstairs to a conference room. we all hopped in an elevator and then met some people in the conference room. i didn’t know what was happening. i got to snack on some sweets before the meeting started. so by the time i post this, the news will be out, but my company, t7, has been acquired by genpact.

nothing is changing culture-wise and work-wise yet so i’m not sure what the effects are going to be on the company, but it seems like a symbiotic relationship and i hope this goes well! lol, it’s funny because i said i would probably never want to work under a huge corporation and now i am. x_x we’ll see how i’ll feel about this. the meeting went a bit over 5:30 but i stayed a bit and mingled until kevin got to south station. he waited for me so we would go home together <3 i told him the news and then we went back home. we chilled a bit too long before he cooked and i exercised. i did pretty intense oblique exercises because i feel like i haven’t been at my best recently and i feel blech all around -- eating and working out. i think it’s more of my stomach troubles though because my stomach has been hurting nonstop for a few weeks. anyway, i made sure i worked out my obliques real good but i was super hungry after and i ate a bigger portion of noodles than i should have...

needless to say, i went to sleep bloated ): ugh. i need to eat earlier too. man, i should take my own advice. lol. we ate at like 9:30 pm so that’s pretty late. we watched an episode of agents of shield and because we slacked off when we came back home, we couldn’t game together. i was exhausted and went to sleep at 12 am...because i was on my phone before sleeping lol. gg me.

07: man, i need to sleep earlier with at least 30 minutes of no electronics before sleeping... i woke up tired again x( i did a cardio sculpt routine in the morning and then showered and took forever to figure out what i was going to wear in the rainy/humid weather :/ then i ate breakfast and waited for the train for like 10 minutes :/ womp womp. my train slowly moved and then stopped and told everyone to get off at jfk/umass so we waited for the next train. i got to work an hour late again but when i got in, no one was in the product office...lol. i talked to cole for a bit before going to the new members brunch for wework. we got free french toast <3 we ate and talked for a bit and then headed downstairs to get back to work. i made a few changes to the wireframes and then decided that i would leave work probably after the 2 hour training session phil and i had at 1 pm. my stomach was not feeling ok though. i decided to leave during lunch time because my stomach was feeling pretty bad. i got home and just had calls for the rest of the afternoon. after work, i did a weighted booty workout and then i showered and relaxed. kevin got back home from climbing and we ate leftovers while watching an episode of agents of shield and we got to play a bit of battleblock theater before kevin washed the dishes and cooked lunch for tomorrow. lol i ko’d on the bed while waiting for 12 am to arrive so i could wish vivian a happy birthday <3 i woke up at like 11:50 pm and then brushed and got into bed, typed up a message, sent it, and then stayed up on my phone until 1 am LOLLLL. -__-” i was so close to sleeping early and healthily T_T

08: i slept in today and got up when kevin did. then i ate breakfast before i did a strength workout in the morning. i’m going to focus on strength stuff moving forward and cut down my cardio. i need to change up my schedule a bit. after, i showered, and then got on a call with phil and a client. i picked up my aerie package and saw that they sent me the wrong shirt :( so i live chatted customer service and they were pretty much useless... so then i decided to call. i also found out that my zappos returns was just sent to me as store credit -_- so i had to email customer service on that. blech. today i feel a bit unfulfilled. i got on stand up after eating lunch. i recorded a video tutorial before the end of the work day and then went straight into another strength workout. i think i worked on back and arms. kevin came back early and we played some coop games before eating dinner and watching agents of shield. i was expecting us to sleep early but we didn’t lololol. we gamed after dinner as well and yeah, it didn’t feel like we were going to be moving tomorrow. i think we slept somewhat late but planned to get up early tomorrow... well, at least i did LOL. oh, the ae rep i called was super helpful and let me keep the wrong shirt, gave me a refund, and ordered the correct one at the price i bought it for previously! he was great. i also got my zappos return back on my credit card. woot! yup, lots of things happening.

09: kevin got out of bed at like 11 am. i thought we were supposed to wake up early today :P haha. we ate breakfast and then signed our lease and then we got a cart and started moving. it was sort of a moving blur today. lol i kept thinking about when i was going to eat next haahah. we moved all the entryway stuff, then clothes, and then to actual furniture. we didn’t want to deal with the bed in the morning so we left that for last. we used all of our suitcases in storage to move everything and some plastic bins as well. you’d think it’d be easy to move down a couple hallways but it was still a struggle. the cart we had kept veering off to the left too. ahha. well, we moved from 12 pm or so until 6 or 7 pm. we left the cart outside of our apartment just because it didn’t seem right to keep it inside. we ordered takeout fro kkatie’s burgers and i got a veggie black bean burger again because i need that fiber. i also got green fries, which turned out to be green beans ahah. kevin got the hawaiian burger with curly fries. we put away things that we could. while we moved, kevin and i noticed things that might be a problem. for example, there is no built-in spice rack anymore and i realized that our kitchen cabinet space was cut by about half because the kitchen only takes up one wall...

so little things here and there were noticed but the windows and light coming into the apartment soothed my worries haha. we drove to get the food and then kevin popped in oh my tea to get us some boba too. we ate at home while watching agents of shield and then once we digested and everything, we opened the door only to find that the cart was gone. .___. kevin looked on all the floors to check if there were any anywhere. there are 3 carts in the building for use: two smaller, shorter ones and one tall one where you can hang stuff on. we had the tall one. this meant that we couldn’t move our mattress and bed frame. this meant we would have to carry all the cups and pantry stuff in boxes. by this time, our arms and backs were tired. so then we did some organization in the new apartment. then we both went to look for a cart a couple more times. we even reached on out the facebook group -- we had a lead but nadda. this means that someone in the apartment flippin’ took it inside their apartment and didn’t bother to put it back in an common area. -__-”

kevin was tired so he relaxed on his computer for a bit after he set it up. we set up the den area with our computers and stuff, which was nice :) we also picked out a kitchen shelf for our pots and pans and pantry items / stuff we couldn’t fit into our cabinets. then i went back to the old apartment and started cleaning the crap out of the kitchen and bathroom. kevin came by to help vacuum and swiffer later. after that, we just chilled on the sofa in the new apartment. we checked one last time to see if any of the three carts were returned but nope. so we went and got our sleeping clothes from the old apartment, showered in the new apartment, and then went back to the old apartment to sleep. yup. great. lol. we did ko super quickly though. i think we went to sleep at 1 or 2 am. moving is tiring even if you’re in the same apartment complex x__x;

10: kevin actually woke up at 9:30 am :O we had to walk over to the new apartment from the old one (where we slept) and then get ready for the day. we pretty much skipped breakfast and then drove to target to pick up the kitchen shelf. i got benefiber and kevin got glazed apple fritters because he got hungry. we waited a bit for them to bring the shelf up and we also looked at other furniture and found a nice ottomon we liked :) it was cheaper online so we decided to get it there. we got everything and then went back to the apartment. the office didn’t open until 12 pm so kevin built the shelf while i went back to the old apartment and brought all the fridge stuff and leftover pantry stuff over. i was cleaning like crazy and walking back and forth a lot and my body kind of freaked out. my hands were red and started shaking so i ate some food and rested a bit. then we finally got a cart and i went back to the old apartment to clean the fridge -- it was dirty af. kevin helped me and then i finished cleaning the apartment in its entirety after that. :D

we also moved the dresser and all the artwork. moving the mattress tested my frustrations LOL. -__-’ it was a floppy queen sized mess but we made it! kevin had to take the head board of the bed frame off and then we moved the light headboard and then moved the big af bed frame. it was so heavy x_O we got it and then celebrated a bit. we fixed up our room and then went to vacuum the old apartment once more and said goodbye to it :( then we dropped off our keys and laid on the bed for a bit to rest. then we drove to ikea! ikea is only a 10 - 15 min drive from us! it looked like an amusement park when we drove in. there were a lot of flags. i noticed that kevin was just overwhelmed by everything and asked if it was his first time in a physical ikea LOL. it was his first time as an adult in an ikea :OOOOO we went straight to the restaurant and i got the vegetable meatballs and an almond brittle cake and apple pie slice, kevin got the swedish meatballs and cheese pie, and we split a plate of chicken and waffles. all of this was only $26!!! i got the lingonberry fountain drink and it was so refreshing. the vegetable meatballs were kinda meh because of the artichokes in the sauce x( i’m always going to get the swedish meatballs from now on.

after eating, i guided kevin through the showroom and taught him how everything worked. we actually got everything we needed...and more... kevin was addicted to getting stuff and we had to kind of run through the last sections of ikea because he was scared he was going to buy more things LOL. we got a dining table, 6-drawer chest, and a large mirror and sent that for home delivery because those things were loooonggg. we also got 2 really pretty serving dishes, jars, drawer organizers for the kitchen and clothes, baskets for the kitchen shelf, and some orange marmalade. after shopping, i got us an ice cream cone, hot dog, and cinnamon roll for only $2.75. i love ikea. we’ll be back! we still need dining room chairs so yeah... we got home, cleaned the apartment and put things away the best we could. there was a foul fishy stench coming from where we stored the potatoes and the dish washer so i thought the former tenants didn’t clean the dish washer properly because there was gunk on the sides... we cloroxed it and then ran a cycle with vinegar but even after, it still stank. we pulled out the potatoes and found a rotten black ass potato and i asked kevin to sniff it and he’s basically traumatized now LOOOL. it was the rotten potato... i didn’t know that potatoes could smell like that???

well, i watched youtube videos for a while, kevin gamed, and then i showered and noticed that the water kept draining slowly... ugh. then i watched more videos until kevin showered and we called it a night. it was like 2 something am when we went to sleep. i was definitely going to wfh. both of us are exhausted from moving this weekend... we are ded. our apartment is looking really nice though <333

[elizatellsthestory]

30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 3

Prompt: Faces in the Street

The arrangement with the Kwans stuck, and Caleb’s father would have his son go home with Max for dinner often when he was caught up at work. Caleb was quickly becoming familiar with Mr. Kwan’s home cooking. Other times, he’d wake to find a note from his father about taking a dish of leftovers as a thank you for allowing Caleb into their home. At first Caleb was thrilled to have somewhere to go. He felt like part of a family again. It only took a few weeks for the novelty to wear off.

This wasn’t his family.

They couldn’t fill the void, no matter how warm and inviting they were.

It didn’t help that his father seemed to be taking the new arrangement as an excuse to pick up some more shifts. He knew that it wasn’t wrong of his dad to pick up more work. He was trying to support the both of them alone now, but he couldn’t help that he resented his dad for the fact that he barely got to see him anymore. His dad would pick him up from the Kwan’s late at night and send him off to bed. By the time Caleb woke up, his dad would already be gone. Sometimes Caleb would fall asleep waiting for him and not get to see him at all.

One morning he woke up to find another note and another tin of leftovers to take to the Kwans, and something in him snapped. With a frustrated shout, he crumpled the note and tossed it at the wall before turning on the innocent tin and stuffing it in the trash.

“It’s not fair!” His complaint dissipated in the silence of the house.

Another strangled noise of frustration and he was out the door, slamming it behind him. He didn’t know where he was going, but it definitely wasn’t school. Who cared about fifth grade anyway? It wasn’t like they’d use anything they learned later. It was a waste of time. Everything was just a waste of time.

What was even more annoying was that there was nowhere for him to go. Nowhere he could walk at least. Just the school in one direction and a small shopping center in the other, but if he was caught either place, he'd only be sent straight to class. With no good options left, he resigned himself to walking the winding streets of the neighborhood. He’d walked these streets so many times, he didn’t need to think about where he was going. He wouldn’t get lost.

It was a mistake. Walking this way.

The only reason he knew the streets so well was because his mother used to walk them with him. Every weekend in the summer and spring, they’d go down to the pond a couple streets down and feed the ducks. They’d watch the babies grow until they could no longer distinguish them from their parents. In the fall, they’d stroll and collect especially colorful leaves, and in the winter they’d run around leaving snow angels in people’s yards in between their all out snowball fight. It was impossible for him to walk through the neighborhood and not be reminded of her, no matter how hard he tried to forget her.

He grit his teeth and clenched his fists, trying to do anything to stop his lower lip from trembling. The next thing he knew, he was running. It didn’t matter where. He just needed to get away. He needed to find somewhere that he could breathe. He only focused on the ground in front of him and the inhale and exhale of his breath. He only stopped when the street gave way to grass and wood chips.

The world began to come into focus again. The sounds of children’s yells and laughter began to register. He looked up to find that somehow his feet had taken him to the school playground and scowled. Of course he’d end up here. He turned to leave when he felt a hand reach out and grab the fabric of his shirt to get attention.

“Caleb! What are you doing out here?” Kevin Kwan looked up at Caleb with big inquisitive, searching eyes that reminded him of Max’s, and the boy was entirely too cheerful for how Caleb was feeling right now. He’d grown used to the faux cheer Max sometimes used around him to try to cheer him up, but Kevin’s was so genuine and innocent.

Right now it rubbed him the wrong way.

“Because. Do I need a reason to be?” he jerked his arm away to put some space between himself and the first grader. Kevin’s brows furrowed in confusion. Something was clearly wrong with the older boy, but he couldn’t imagine what it might be.

“Fifth graders are never out for recess when we are…” The boy’s lips pulled into a frown as he tried to puzzle. Caleb huffed in reply and was about to give a smart retort when the younger boy dropped the subject entirely. “Dad’s making me mac ’n’ cheese with little hot dogs in it for dinner. He even promised to make them look like little octopuses. You can have some if you want. It’s reeeeally good. Sometimes I use the ketchup to give them little faces,” Kevin talked animatedly with his hands as he described his favorite meal to the boy he’d quickly taken in as his friend.

At the moment, Caleb did not reciprocate the feeling. “Look. I don’t care about your stupid octopi or their stupid faces okay? I don’t want any of your food. I don’t want any of your family’s food. I just wish you people would leave me alone! You’re not my family so stop acting like it!” As his frustration grew, his volume increased until he was practically yelling at the poor kid.

The second he was able to step back and take in the boy’s quivering lip and hurt eyes, e felt a pang of regret for his words, but it was too late. One of the teachers had taken notice and had come over to see what was going on. In nearly no time at all, he found himself in the principal’s office for skipping class and harassing a younger student.

He didn’t show up to go home with the Kwan’s that night or any night for the rest of the week.

#my writing #original #30 day challenge

[opepin]

june: week two

05: i wasn’t too tired when i woke up. i felt good. i wasn’t 100% when it came to doing cardio kickboxing but i got through it. i think the workouts yesterday made me sore too? LOL. i wasn’t expecting that. then i showered, ate my healthy banana and peanut butter whole grain english muffin, packed my lunch, and put the doughnuts in a plastic bag to cover them from the rain. i said goodbye to kevin and then went on my way to work. i dozed off during the ride and then walked over to the office. i wore my rothy’s today to test them again and they seem fine. i’m a bit closer to keeping them ahha. i wished cole a happy birthday with one of the doughnuts (he chose the one i thought he would choose haha). then i worked the rest of the morning and it felt good being productive. i walked to subways with the devs and then had lunch with them. i don’t think i’ve had lunch with them in a while. then i went back to work and did some internet errands until stand up. i finished working on video stuff and then hopped right into working on axure. mathew helped me get acclimated with layers and then i brainstormed on paper until the end of the day. i was surprised that all the doughnuts were gone by the end of the day :P they were good doughnuts. i waited for cole to finish his call and then we walked to the train station together. apparently, he read ready player one and loved it! huhuhuhu.

the train was packed and my neck was sandwiched between two people’s arms -__-” it didn’t last long so it was a meh train ride. then i snacked a bit and went right into exercise. then i watched the season finale of jane the virgin and the ending is wut. i don’t like where this is going. x__x; anyway, i showered when kevin got back and then i watched videos until kevin finished cooking dinner. it was a really late dinner LOL. we ate at like 10:15 pm? i stayed up digesting and reading my book of the month, ‘chemistry.’ i don’t think i like the short sentences...but i kept reading until 12 am and then i brushed my teeth and slept at like 12:30 am. zzz. i need to fix my sleep schedule.

06: my alarm didn’t ring...so i woke up at 7:45 am on my own and if i wanted to get my morning routine in, i would get into the office late so i wfh today even though i did want to go in. it was raining the entire day and we don’t have any umbrellas (the northwestern one got demolished by the wind last week) so i guess it was for the best? i exercised, showered, ate breakfast with kevin, and then read a bit before starting my work day. ‘chemistry’ is an interesting book. i do wish i got the other one for the month though. the writing is very choppy but the book is really insightful. anyway, i did some work, ate during all-hands, and then hopped on to stand up after. i did a bit of work but i felt so tired and unmotivated. i legit fell asleep at some point without realizing it. x__x it was so bad. then kevin got home early and we spent some time cuddling :3 we both ended up napping because this time, traveling kicked our asses. i think last week, i averaged 4-5 hours of sleep. we woke up, kevin started making dinner, i did my back workouts and some cardio, i showered, and then we ate dinner. kevin cleaned up and showered while i did some planning for his birthday. i was supposed to do more work because i didn’t do much today but i got super sidetracked and i was on a roll. i got to plan everything though! i hope it works out :) i let him know a bit but i’m excited for the rest of it, hehe. i did this until 11:30 pm, brushed my teeth, and then went to sleep.

07: i woke up feeling really sad and unmotivated. my vo2 max score on my fitbit dropped down by 1 :/ i haven’t been feeling really good ever since my trip back to chicago. sigh. i made it through my workout and then showered and left to go to work. it was gloomy in the morning but it got sunny during the day. i was really productive today at work though. i just put on some jack johnson and did a ton of design work. we had a quick meeting with frank and then i went back to wireframing and i also managed to talk my mid-day walk. i got a text from kevin saying that he has a fever and he took a sick day. so i left work at around 3 pm and got us dinner from hale & hearty. i got him chicken and rice soup and i got a spicy miso salad ;D i got back at around 3:45 pm and then made him eat the soup and drink ginger tea. kevin managed to pick up the rotofugi package -- i am in love with the shrine artwork we got. we are planning to order another one~ then i went back to work (because i left early) and then kevin napped. i finished working (was super productive) and then exercised. kevin slept through the entire day. i finished my salad for dinner and then i snacked on the asian snacks and felt terrible after. i got on the phone with hillary for the rest of the night while drawing poorly on the ipad LOL. i went to sleep at around 11:45 pm after washing the dishes, putting away the clean dishes, and then brushing my teeth and stuff.

08: lol kevin woke me up at 6 am because he wasn’t tired anymore and he wanted to make himself congee. i got up at my regular time after and did my workout, showered, and hopped on the train to work. i met with mathew and dave to talk about my project and then went to baja taco truck to get fish tacos with the dev team for lunch. after eating, i let dave and mathew know kevin got the stomach flu and i had to head back home to get him some food. i walked to the roche bros in downtown crossing and got bananas and apple sauce. did you know that they sell apple sauce in large containers now? haha. then i took the train home, got on stand up, and then got on a meeting with phil about moving me to a different project for now, which irked me for a bit. then i did some internet errands. kevin and i also purchased another piece of artwork from rotofugi’s current show :) i got myself back into the work grind and worked until 6:30 pm? then i snacked on life cereal with kevin. we chilled on the couch. i watched youtube videos while he read fanfic. then we ate congee and a bit after that, i did my leg workout. it was pretty intense and i loved it. kevin fell asleep at some point while i was working out and then i showered. he woke up and then went to bed to sleep at like 9 pm. i stayed up, watched the newest episode of reign, washed the dishes, and then brushed up and went to sleep at 11:30 pm. YES, SLEEP! :)

09: mmm it was nice getting 8 hours of sleep today. kevin woke up earlier than me and made himself congee. i did a new exercise video in the morning, showered, and then had some breakfast. then i went straight to work and was really productive for the day :) i’m so proud of myself. i was in a total slump in the beginning of the week :/ i got on stand up and then i stopped working for a bit to bake chicken with lemon pepper and garlic salt mmm.  i also put in some red peppers to bake at the halfway mark and washed the dishes. then i ate a late lunch at around 2:30 pm. kevin and i headed to roche bros at some point during the day to get kevin some bread to soak up all that stomach juice LOL. we got a multigrain baguette. mmm. we got rained on coming back home but it got sunny again when we got back...wth... i finished up my work day after coming back and doing another project. then i cleaned up a bit, watched youtube videos, ate dinner with kevin, and then i worked out. i washed up and we relaxed for the rest of the evening. lol i think kevin ticked me off at night for taking so long in the bathroom so i went to sleep kinda angry but forgave him when he got into bed.

10: i woke up at around 8:30 am and then did my 60 minute cardio kickboxing workout at 9 am. my feet started hurting a lot so i had to take it easy. x_x; then i showered, ate breakfast, and i had kind of a melt down. idk, i just feel so unhappy sometimes ever since my trip to chicago. i feel so unfulfilled in a way but i don’t know what way exactly. :/ kevin comforted me and then we got ready to go to our massage at 1 pm. the massage was definitely relaxing and what we both needed after the crazy amount of family time we had in these past few weeks. after our massage, we ate at kkatie’s burgers because it would be kevin’s first real meal other than bland foods LOL. he got a horseradish mushroom ... jalapeno? burger with truffle fries and i got the veggie black bean burger with curly fries. omg, their fries are so good. we also got their deep fried potstickers and those were nice too. my burger was delicious. i should get black bean patties more often! i finished half of my burger and all of my fries <3

we drove back home and then kevin gamed while i started reading ‘into the water.’ i’ve been holding it off but now i feel like i have to finish this book and also let’s not forget bravely default. kevin made dan dan noodles for dinner and they tasted odd at first bite but omg, they’re sooo good. the noodles we got are delicious and chewy. we both read for the rest of the evening. my feet were in pain at this point. my joints were swollen :/ so i didn’t walk much except when i really wanted to. i fell asleep reading in bed at about 12 am and kevin fell asleep at around 2 am?

11: i woke up at 9 am and then brushed and got back in bed to finish reading ‘into the water.’ kevin eventually woke up in that time and i ate breakfast and finished the book. he read fanfic and then i watched some videos while he got ready to go. we meal planned and then headed out to the mall so i could get my free sephora birthday gift -- i got he caudalie one. then kevin went to get us auntie anne’s pretzels and i went to dsw and tried on some dr. scholl’s shoes and happened upon a pair of adidas on sale?! lol i went in there initially to use my $5 birthday coupon for arch insoles. i took a good amount of time to think about whether or not to get them but i did anyway! with my coupon, they were only $47. they also didn’t have the arch support insoles i wanted so.. haha. we went to target and then we got butter, milk, yogurt, and some buns. then we went grocery shopping and ate lunch when we got back at like 2 pm. well, i ate lunch. kevin ate the new noosa yogurt flavors he got. i went straight to cleaning the kitchen and bathroom after that. man, acrylic tubs are so hard to maintain @_@; 

there was a fire evacuation thingy! we thought kevin set off the fire alarm but then we opened the door and realized it was ringing through the entire apartment complex. so we went out and then waited and walked to lowes and then walked back and everything was fine. then kevin and i ate dan dan noodles for dinner while watching ‘lucid dreams.’ it’s a korean thriller on netflix. then kevin cooked for the rest of the night (literally) and i tried getting in 30 minutes of walking on my painful feet. i think i overdid it because my calves were burning by the time i was done walking. i brushed up, kevin showered, and then we made the bed and i ko’d at like 11:45 pm.