lituplikeaghost | The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight. [Open]

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The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight. [Open]

June understands the importance of charity and giving back to others, especially those less fortunate than herself. Really, she does. She just prefers charities that involve the beach, somehow, or a fancy gathering involving beautiful dinners and equally beautiful people in attendance.

Volunteering for the Girl Scouts at a summer camp out in the boonies of southern Maine is the absolute last item on the bottom of June's list of preferred charity ideas. So when her father surprised her by volunteering her for the job, all she could do was gape, pout, and reluctantly go along when he made clear that her only other option was to spend the weekend with one of his recently widowed good friends. She still blanches at the thought.

So now, one June Grace Thornton, darling daughter of one of the oldest families in town, waits on a bench at the bus station, swatting desperately at the numerous bug bites littering the skin of her neck and arms, on top of the sun burn already forming there. Her hair is matted, thrown loosely up in a bun to disguise the poor work of the terrible camp showers. She's wearing shorts and an old t-shirt of her mothers, and she's about seconds away from stamping her foot and/or kicking something at someone.

As it stands, she currently sits with her arms across her chest, waiting for some dumbass man lead by the pull of his libido more than his actual mind to pass her and buy her a drink so she can at least get buzzed on top of her lack of dignity.

[Poor pampered princess had a rough weekend in the woods, feel free to find on her the bus looking and acting ridiculous. Open to all, though I'll be slow to tag until after work today. I just wanted to get this post up, first.]

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Daniel knew June was due back today. He'd laughed himself sick when his fathers housekeeper had told him where she was. This he had to see for himself.

He pulled up at the bus station and spotted her. It was tempting to just watch her getting more and more stroppy but he knew she'd find a way to make him pay later.

"Bug!" He called out the window. "Need a ride or should I call the fire department to come hose you down?"

June can feel Daniel's smugness radiating from him, she's pretty certain. It must be a Thornton men thing, the satisfaction they take in delighting at her discomfort. She scowls when he calls out to her, and considers not even bothering with a reply. Still, her frosty silence will only amuse him more, and she really can't have that.

"You could tell the firemen that, or I could come and steal your favorite paints again," she replies, tossing her head with an added hmph for emphasis.

That was a dire threat. She'd done it before and it'd taken him months to get them all back after she'd hidden them all over town. Some of them were really rare, too.

He pushed the passenger door open. "Come on. You can take a shower at mine. And stop disgracing the family name."

She smiles, still recalling the look on his face when she told him that she'd hid his favorite shade of cyan blue somewhere almost impossible to reach.

"Please, this is hardly disgraceful," she drawls, even as she gets up and slides into his car. "I demand cuddles with your rabbit, at least."

"He'll be thrilled." He said dryly. It was true though. The damn rabbit barely tolerated him but went nuts whenever June was around. Treacherous animal.

He glanced at his sister as he drove back to his apartment. "You didn't take sunblock with you, did you." It wasn't a question. She was crimson on the top of her nose and forehead, shoulders looking raw and angry. "You're aware you're ginger, right? Not known for loving the sun?"

"He ought to be, I'm the best thing to happen to him," she preens, settling into the seat and propping her legs up on the dashboard.

"I didn't expect to be out in the sun at all," she responds, flicking stray bits of hair out of her face. "And it's not my fault I inherited everything from mom's side of the family."

"Violet told me our father had packed you off to the wilderness." He said. "I didn't think she meant it literally. Then she mentioned girl-scouts and I had to come see for myself. What did you do to piss him off?"

"What don't I do that doesn't piss him off?" She scoffs, staring out the window. "I refused to meet his bachelor friend with the kid. You know, the forty year old who's 'just so lonely,' without someone to keep him company at home."

Daniel scowled. His father had taken to trying to pimp both him and June out lately. Something about Demetri and James not being available to settle down just yet. 'Their work is too important right now.'

As they pulled into the garage under his building, he realised he was luckier. Daniel skated past by being away from home, but June wasn't as able. That she'd managed to trade out for this was a small mercy.

"A little sunburn's a small price then." He said, locking the car and leading them up to his place.

She sees him scowl, knowing he, too, has felt the brunt of their father's supposed 'desire for grandkids,' but really is just his need to control every aspect of his children's lives. Someday, June thinks, her and Daniel ought to just outright find random strangers to marry and just be done with it.

"It is," she has to admit as she follows him to his apartment. "He could have pulled me out of college."

He snorted a laugh. The fuss June would have made would have been seen from the moon if their father had tried that.

"He's not brave enough to try. Not if he wants to keep his precious reputation intact."

As soon as he unlocked the door there was a frantic thumping. Fred had heard Junes voice from the hallway and was bouncing around his pen. In the corner Greg croaked a hello to Daniel. At least one of his pets loved him.

"Also, I probably would murder him in his sleep," she says, bitterness in her tone. Completing her education and getting her foot in the door of the fashion industry is all she wants, her education part of the only aspects of her life she has any influence over.

"Aw, darling Freddy! Has my brother been neglecting you again?" June coos, rushing over and picking up the rabbit to cradle him close to her chest.

"I have not. He's just an asshole." Daniel grumbled, filling a couple of glasses with iced tea, he came back over and handed one to her. Fred gave him an evil look. How a rabbit could look evil, he didn't know, but Fred had mastered it.

Greg on the other hand, was sitting on his shoulder, nuzzling him affectionately. Thank fuck for Greg.

"You're just mad he likes me better than you," she teases him, gratefully accepting the iced tea she loves so much that Daniel always keeps in stock. She continues cooing over her favorite furry friend.

"And you have Greg, anyway," she says.

"He's a traitor." Daniel says firmly.

He ducked into his spare room and grabs a towel and shoves it at June. "Go take a shower. You look like you've been dragged through the bushes backwards."

Bonnie had gone to the bus station out of curiosity, her Mum had been talking about visiting and whilst nothing concrete was determined, she decided to find out where exactly the bus would drop her Mum off. It was purely a coincidence that she saw the girl sat with an unimpressed scowl on her face. Looking at the mess her clothes were in, Bonnie felt her pain. Living in a small Scottish village meant everyone got volunteered to help at a farm at some point in their life or another. Her sister Flossie also was a complete tomboy so mud had slowly become Bonnie’s worse enemy, especially because Drew would always laughed at her. Dick.

“Hey, rough time?” She asked with a sympathetic smile, “I’ve got some anti-bacterial gel and some hand wipes if you have any use for them?”

"Volunteered at a Girl Scout's camp out in the boonies," June nods as the young girl, seemingly her own age, approached, and she wonders why she doesn't know her. "Oh thank you, that would be wonderful. I'm certain I have all sorts of bites in all sorts of uncomfortable places."

She observes the girl before her, fascinated by her accent.

"Pardon, but are you new in town?"

“Ahh,” Bonnie responds in understanding. She takes her bag off her shoulder, pulling out the gel and hand wipes, along with a packet of tissues. Her Mum would be so proud if she could see how prepared she was, truly, it is a miracle of some sort. “I went camping once, it was awful.” Caravanning, Bonnie enjoyed that, because you had a proper shelter over your head, but there was something about tents she’d always disliked.

“Oh, yeah, well, I’ve been here a couple of weeks, but I guess on the grand scheme of things that’s pretty new,” she waffled, before stopping herself. “I’m Bonnie.”

"Truly, an experience I never want to repeat," June agrees, gratefully accepting the proffered tissues and gel. She wishes she could have had more time to at least consider packing beyond the half hour her father had given her before shipping her off.

"Nice to meet you Bonnie," June says, trying to keep her gaze away from her protruding belly and failing. "I'm June Thornton."

“I can imagine not. My little sisters are a handful and they’re still little enough for me to pick up and carry if they’re misbehaving.” She smiled, noting how thoroughly horrified by the whole thing the other appeared to be. Then again, Bonnie had never had to handle more than about 5 young children at once and that was thoroughly exhausting.

Bonnie paused for a second at hearing Thornton, the Tanners weren’t the most enamoured by the family, but then they had said it was probably an unfair judgement as they hadn’t interacted with the family in a long time. Plus Bonnie had hardly met anyone her own age, so it seemed fair that she could ignore other people’s prejudice and be friendly. “Pleasure to meet you too June.”

There were a lot of people that Levi would have expected to see at a bus stop. June Thornton was definitely not one of them. For a moment he thought that maybe she was running, except even if she was running away she never would do it via bus. Certainly not a public bus at that.

"You look terrible," he told her. "Still gorgeous for a normal person, of course, but kind of terrible for you. You look like you have nature on you."

Well, of course Levi would find her hunched over on a bench at a bus stop, dirt in her hair and bug bites all across her skin. Of course he would.

"I know," she groans, trying not to itch at a patch of red on her elbow and failing. "It's terrible. I actually had to spend time in nature."

"You poor, poor thing," Levi sympathized. If it wasn't the ocean, then Levi didn't have a lot of interest in nature. Apparently June hated it even more, which wasn't that much of a surprise.

"I do have a hot tub that's really good at cleaning all the nature off of you."

Maybe not the wisest suggestion for him but it might prevent June from making a worse one.

"And with eleven year old girl scouts, my own personal version of hell," she grumbles, still unmoved from her spot on the bench.

"Really?" She brightens immediately. "Oh, that sounds wonderful."

"Come on, June," he said, reaching out to offer her a hand up. After spending that much time with a bunch of Girl Scouts she may not have the energy to stand up.

"Let's go get you cleaned up and relaxed before you murder someone."

"You are a goddamn saint Levi, and I am going to personally make sure you get a raise," she tells him, only half-joking as she takes his hand and lets him pull her up. She wants to soak away the dirt and grime from the hellish weekend as soon as she can.

Levi offered her his arm, because if he was going to drive a teenage girl to a secluded beach house so she could use his hot tub, well he was going to be a gentleman about it. Besides, she was so grateful for the offer he realized she must really need the relaxation.

"I am pretty saintly. Do you have any bags we need to grab?"

"No, I just have this knapsack here," she says, shrugging it more firmly in place on her shoulder. "I didn't have time for anything more," she says, taking his arm with a smile.

"So it was a rush job to get you out of town, was it?" he asked, leading her to his car before opening the door for her. He could only imagine what reasons the Thorntons might have to rush her out of town.

Isaiah had planned to spend the day seeing the sights, getting to know this town and all its intricacies, which had inevitably brought him to the bus stop. He'd been told there was a kind of information post here with a town map, but he can't for the life of him find it.

What he does find, is a young girl looking incredibly stroppy and pissed off, slouched over at the bus stop looking like it's the first time she's ever slouched in her life. He holds back a grin at the sight. It's obvious she's not used to being in the clothes or the position she's in, and he's reminded again that fuck, this town has a lot of old, rich families.

"Hi," he says by way of greeting, and sits down next to her on the bench, half because he thinks he won't be welcome and it will be interesting, and half because she looks like she could use a distraction. "Hard day?"

June brightens immediately when the handsome man seats himself next to her on the bench, smoothing down her wrinkled shorts and conjuring her frown into something almost resembling a smile; she still aches from the sunburn and bug bites, after all, and even a gorgeous man couldn't make those disappear with his lovely blue eyes.

"Well, yes, I suppose," she grins, folding her arms over her lap as she studies him. "It certainly doesn't seem so now, though."

A lame line, perhaps. But he was pretty enough she could excuse herself as being too distracted to come up with anything more clever.

He can see her getting a little flustered and he can't help but laugh as she smooths her clothes and smiles.

"You look like this isn't your normal scene." He notes the mosquito bites all over her and smiles. "More of an I door type, I'm guessing."

"Definitely more of an indoor type," she agrees with a grin. "Are you new in town? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Yeah," he agrees with a nod. "Been here about a week. Still scouting about for a place to live, really."

Aoife can hardly believe what her eyes are telling her. June Thornton at the bus station? Dressed like that?

June stiffens when she catches sight of one Aoife Coombs staring at her like she's a circus act. Great. Of all the people to find her at the bus station, dressed like a rat.

"Don't you have like, demons to summon or something like that?" She asks, casually inspecting her nails. She still remembers the rumors Aoife spread about her at summer camp. She suspects she'll never forget.

"Classy reply, Thornton. As classy as that outfit. Did you drop on your head or something?"Aoife purses her lips. "I remember you doing better."

"Well, it was for charity, which is more than I can say about what you're wearing," she says, eyeing her with obvious distaste. "Did you borrow one of Lady Macbeth's rejected outfits for fun, or?"

"Did you finally get Shakespeare in school? How sweet. Enjoy, but don't think you're the first one to ever discover the 'real' meaning of Hamlet. He was just a whiner in a shitty family." She hums. "Maybe you'll recognize yourself."

"If that's supposed to be a dig at my family, you're one to talk," June practically hisses. "I don't deny my family has its problems, but at least ours are out in the open and not festering like whatever it is you put in your hair."

Aoife covers her giggle behind her hand. "Is it a dig if it's true, sweetheart? Bless the Thorntons inability to keep something behind closed doors."

"Call me sweetheart again and my fist will be in your face," June snarls. She doesn't have the patience for Aoife's condescension, not after the weekend from hell and everything else in her life currently.

"Good thing your brother isn't back to working full time on the force than, I guess."
Aoife still takes a step back, knows that June is a sweet lil' firecracker. Something is itching for attention in the back of her head, about nicknames and June, but she ignores it. This girl is disappointing trash in every which way.

"No but I still have a brother in the mayor's office," she reminds her, her tone sickly sweet. "And I'm sure he'd have no trouble digging dirt up on you and yours, dearie."

"Demetri Thornton, making his hands dirty? Hmhm, and you'll ride Olympic next year." She waves her away. "Just go get a shower and stop being an environmental disaster, Junebug."

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The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight. [Open]

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