The video played over and over again.
"Can we please stop watching this" Tori pleaded Quinni, not wanting to have to relive Malakai's pain. Over the weekend the video Amerie had posted from the slayball had been copied and posted by other students. Tori had been able to avoid it, most of her energy going to try and comfort Amerie, so when Quinni showed it to her as soon as she walked into the school gates she was heartbroken.
The girl put her phone away. "It started circulating over the weekend." "Who made it?" Amerie asked, looking just as devastated as Tori felt.
"We don't know."
"Do you think he's seen it?" Quinni just shrugged at Amerie's question. Darren seemed to be scanning the crowd for someone "He's already in the hall." Tori told Darren, knowing that they would be looking for Cash. That seemed to make Darren smile slightly.
"Oh, yeah, how's that going? Getting matching mullets soon?" Amerie teased. "Amerie," Quinni told her off while Darren pretended to laugh. "Sorry. I just have feelings about Darren dating the most probbo person in our school."
Amerie explained. "Oh, okay, he's not probbo. Sure, he deals drugs, but who doesn't?" Darren defended, and Tori slowly began to raise her hand.
"It was rhetorical!"
---
Tori stood at her locker, trying to search for a pack of gum she knew she had been hiding in there.
"Hey," She turned to see Ant smiling at her. "Hey," she spoke quickly, expecting him to keep walking. Instead, he moved up closer. Tori let out a sound of recognition. "Oh, you want benefits, cause I actually-"
"No actually" Ant spoke, before thinking over his words "Well I mean now you mention it I would love to, but I just saw you and thought maybe you would want to walk to assembly together."
"Oh," Tori spoke surprised, though Ant's smile didn't waver. He was always good at giving the girl time to think over information, not getting offended by the lack of an initial reaction. "Just give me a sec I'm looking for some gum"
"Oh here" Ant spat the piece of gum he was chewing and held it out for Tori to take. "It's still got some flavour left" Tori gave him an unimpressed look "You're joking right?" Ant looked confused. "That's disgusting"
"I mean it's not like we haven't shared spit before" Ant lowered his voice for that part and Tori shoved him lightly. "I'll pass, I'd rather have bad breath" Tori closed her locker, turning to start walking. "Suit yourself" Ant shrugged, throwing the gum back into his mouth.
"So how was the rest of your weekend?" Ant asked as he fell into step with Tori. "It was fine" she shrugged "Spent most of the time hanging out with my brother."
"You have a brother?" Ant questioned and Tori nodded. "Yeah, a younger one. His name's Neil"
"Sick man, I always wished I had siblings" Ant spoke almost dreamily. "You being an only child weirdly makes sense to me," Tori thought. "I feel like I should be offended by that" Ant teased and Tori just shrugged.
As the pair walked, Tori realised it was the first real conversation she had ever had with the boy. Not just about benefits, or whatever drama was going on. Just some time to get to know each other.
The two entered from the back of the hall, meaning luckily none of their friends saw them enter together. "Well, I'll see you around then" Ant gave her one last smile.
"Yep," Tori spoke almost awkwardly. She quickly moved to take a seat next to Darren. "There you are girl, I thought you were ditching" Darren complained while Quinni gave Tori a small wave. "Yeah sorry, I just got distracted".
"Good morning, everybody." Woodsy spoke through the microphone, standing up at the front "So I have an announcement. It's really very thrilling. Hartley High has been selected to kick off the city of Sydney Interschool Basketball Semifinals." This was met by clapping from students and a few cheers. "Which will garner some much-needed positive attention after the map debacle-" "- Map bitch!-" "Put a sock in it, Spencer. It's actually a very big honour and we would like all of you to do your bit and help us clean up our school."
"Don't actual cleaners do that, Miss?" Ant asked, getting a few giggles from the crowd. "Great contribution, Anthony. Anything else?" Woodsy spoke sarcastically "As a little incentive, the student who picks up the most bags of rubbish will receive a PlayStation-" students began gasping getting excited. "-gift voucher. Valued at $50." There were several groans of disappointment "It's still a lot."
"I want that gift voucher," Quinni spoke determined. "And, yes, the cleanup is compulsory. You will be handed out schedules in the first period. Thank you." Once the assembly ended, Missy approached Darren, Quinni, and Sasha. "You know what? I would rather eat a balding bus tire than clean the girls' toilets."
"Weird flex, but okay." Darren sighed and Tori laughed. "They haven't cleaned the sanitary bins in ages, Darren. Shit's a horror show." "Period." Tori spoke, very proud of the 'joke' she was making. Darren rolled their eyes.
"Let me guess, you're going to be the trash queen of Hartley High," Sasha asked Quinni endearingly. "Don't encourage her." Darren rolled their eyes. "No do it" Tori pleaded "I want to see Quinni at her full power."
"Yes exactly" Sasha spoke pointing at Tori. "You're just jealous she's going to beat you." "Yeah, you're jealous," Quinni repeated but Darren shook their head. "No, you sweet, stupid lesbians. I won't be partaking because I don't clean up rubbish after white people." Darren placed a hand on Quinni and Tori's shoulders "Sorry"
"Nah it's our bad" Tori spoke up.
"I could get the Environmental Club to come pitch in and win you that gift voucher. " Sasha spoke smirking and Quinni looked ecstatic. "You'd do that for me?"
"Of course, I would. You. Are. My. Trash. Queen." Sasha placed a kiss on Quinni's face for every word. The couple looked all lovey-dovey, while Missy just rolled her eyes mimicking the unimpressed look Darren held. Tori was distracted, quietly looking at the window.
"Hey Tori"
Tori turned, surprised to see Missy talking to her directly. "Um, sorry if I said some shit in the line at Slayball, I was pretty fucked up"
"Oh," Tori stated in surprise "Um.. yeah nah it's chill, I get it"
"So we good?" Missy asked. Tori was even more surprised by this. Missy Becket cared enough to check if they were 'good'. She didn't think Missy even knew her other than the stoner chick. Darren nudged Tori slightly, as she was yet to answer the question. "Yeah of course we're good" Missy smiled happily, before turning to break up the couple making out.
As the other yelled and laughed at each other, Tori couldn't help but feel sick. This should be a good thing, she had two people she thought hated her both apologised and helped her in the span of a few days. She should be ecstatic, this was a good situation.
But for some reason, she just couldn't appreciate it. Was she really that selfish she couldn't take a good thing. She had to just-
"You ready to go?"
Tori looked up to see Quinni smiling down at her. Tori gave her a lazy smile back "Of course I am my jellyfish"
---
"So we all agree that porn has given us unrealistic ideas of what sex should look like. But is it all bad?" Jojo stood at the front of another S.L.T.S class. "When you watch as much as Ant does." Dusty joked, causing a few laughs.
"Very funny." Jojo spoke sarcastically before seeing Quinni's raised hand, "Yeah?"
"I mean it can be helpful if you don't know what you like."
"Or who you like." Sasha added, "I one-hundy percent figured out I was into girls by watching lesbian porn." "Oh, my God. Me too." Spider spoke with false excitement. "I thought I learned everything I needed to know about gay sex from porn, but it's not real," Darren added.
"Okay, go on," Jojo spoke with intrigue. "Well, since you can't just jump on a dick without warning. You have to douche first, it takes time- "Darren stopped talking, turning to face Spider who couldn't stop snickering. "Sorry. Is there something you want to say?" "No." The blonde shook his head, trying to hide his laughter. "It must be hard, hey? Being jammed so far in the closet you're practically in Narnia?" Darren spoke with fake sympathy, causing people to laugh. "You wish, yeah." Spider scoffed.
"All right, come on. Come on." Jojo tried to get the room to calm down. "Miss. I find porn a bit hectic." Missy spoke up " If that's what sex is supposed to look like, I don't want it." Tori nodded her head "I would hate to live in a world where it's sexy to just be grabbed out of nowhere and made to bend" Tori shuddered. "Yeah. It's all about getting a guy off." Amerie added.
"Isn't it?" Spider joked
"And not at all about what girls actually want." Amerie continued speaking. "That's why I want to talk to you about pleasure. Specifically, your pleasure."
"Isn't that illegal, Miss?" Ant spoke up, looking almost scared of Jojo at that moment. This caused several people to laugh, including Tori. "Yeah. I get why you think that Ant, because it feels scary. Right? You know, teenagers actually knowing what they want."
"I want that PlayStation gift voucher." Quinni sighed.
"I want a good almond milk," Sasha added.
"I want my dad to be proud of me." Ant spoke in a serious way, causing many students to 'awww'. Tori turned, looking at him with a concerned face. He gave her a small smile back, assuring that he was alright.
"Learning to communicate with your sexual partners about what you want and desire is important. I know you might think it's embarrassing or even silly, but sex doesn't have to be painful, physically or emotionally. So let's try something this week, yeah? I want you to put in this box things you like. Things you derive pleasure from. It can be whatever you want, just make sure it's honest, yeah?" The class nodded at Jojo's words. "Then next class, we'll go through them and start to normalise expressing our wants and desires." The school bell rang, causing everyone to begin packing up their stuff. "Thank you, everyone. Good luck with the voucher." Quinni smiled.
"Thanks, Jojo."