Part 3: Road to Nowhere
Most kids get punished with expulsion from school.
Valeriya got punished with expulsion to school.
Two enormous 'security consultants' escorted Valeriya to school, making sure she got in before they left. Even then, Val suspected they might be surveilling some perimeter to ensure she didn't skip school. That hadn't been a problem before because Val had been privately tutored at home, but now her parents decided making her go to school was a better way to piss her off.
Mum had been in tears, a surprising development. Father had yelled his lungs out, not surprising at all. Between the two of them it was a cacophony of sound and feelings, threats and fear, suplications and disguised guilt, and Val had been barely able to stand there and mutter something. It was a good thing that they really didn't want the whole story, just the bits they cared about: had she signed anything or been recorded anywhere, had she done drugs or sex? As long as the answer was No To All Of The Above, they could skip to the punishment and fast-track her to the marketing guy.
The marketing guy had been pleased, of all things.
"Do not pull this shit on me ever again, you hear me? But, all things considered - we are exactly were we wanted, branding-positioning-wise. This is how we pivot from Vallie to valKer1a - the whole 'illegal party-police raid-lowkey homoerotic thingie' with Kat? Just what we needed to give you that bad girl cred, I told them we were being waaay too tame with your psychographic positioning. And now? Now we're frontpage news, we have a decent shot at the lace and leather Eiji collection, not to mention the music collab. I've been on the phone with Kat's marketing rep all morning, she was gushing. I don't care if you two release two hours of meowling cats or whatever, you gotta record something with that chick. But also - you pull this shit on me again, you kiss your allowance goodbye, capish?"
Val was back to school, Val was pissed off. Val was wearing the school uniform in the worst possible way that still didn't get her kicked out, because she knew they'd just send her back in with a new one: knee-highs mismatched, plaid skirt a bit too short, button-up shirt not quite buttoned-up. She went through the corridor with eyes almost closed, ignoring frothers left and right, until she found some of the others yoboys.
"What's up, losers?" she greeteed them casually.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:29, Thu 27 Jan 2022.