"Ah, no, it is fine," He looked at the obvious excitement and visible desire on the faces of his foster kids, and knew he was utterly powerless in that moment, "I will go get it."
"Are you sure, Goose?" Daizi asked, touching his arm.
He shrugged his shoulders, "I am bringing you down with me, so I might as well. But, you vex me, you know."
She grinned again, realizing he was, truly, okay with this turn of events, "Then divorce me, you coward."
"I will have to, after this." He stooped down to kiss her cheek, and then left the room. A little while later he returned with a small black book, which he set down in the center of the table for whoever to pick up.
The cover seemed to have originally read, in golden embossed letters, My Time at South Warren Preparatory Academy but "my time at" had been painted over, and in red letters beneath the name of the school were painted the words, "is a mind prison." Up close, it was clear the cover was originally white, but it, too, had been painted over, and the white beneath could only be seen where the acrylic paint had chipped off in the 20 years since it had been applied. Decorating the cover was not a small number of pentagons, blood splatters, and skulls, all painted in the same red colour.
Inside, the first page was a Q&A sheet, clearly provided by the school. The questions, and Dark's responses, read: What are your plans for after high school? To leave this place and get as far away as I possibly can from all these preps and phonies. Where do you see yourself in five years? In jail. In ten? Back in jail. The system is broken. In 20? Dead. What is your favourite memory from high school? Getting my ass kicked and being sent to detention for fighting back. What advice would you give to the incoming Freshman? Run like hell.
The next page was just a photograph. Dark and Daizi sat beside each other on the grass. His arm was around her shoulders, and she clearly didn't know the picture was being taken, because her face was tilted up, away from the camera. Her hair was cut like Hayley Williams circa Riot, but she just had black streaks in her blonde hair, rather than having her whole head dyed. Just like now, she wore big sunglasses. Dark, meanwhile, was fully aware of the photograph, and was flipping off the camera. His nails were painted black, and he had sharpie drawings all over the back of his hands, and down his forearms, and he wore studded leather cuffs. His knuckles were bruised and scabbed, and his hair was straightened to hell, and stuck out slightly at the sides. He didn't have a beard, then, so his cleft chin and the faint scar on his cheek were suddenly revealed. He glared at the camera, but his eyes, despite the eyeliner, and despite the way his bangs obscured them, still had the same intense, piercing eyes he had now. They were a bit angrier, and a bit sadder, but even in 2007 (if the date in the corner of the image was accurate), he had the same penetrating look. He also was remarkably skinny. Even now, of course, he was a thin man, at least in that, despite his muscles and broad shoulders nobody would call him 'wide', but back then he had what could only be described as the "Jack Skellington Physique." They both wore school uniforms, but wore them incorrectly. Daizi had unbuttoned the top three buttons and her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and Dark had his top two buttons undone, and wore his tie loose. His sleeves weren't rolled up, but he was too tall for the provided shirt, so the sleeves were too short. Daizi's tie, if the girls had to wear them, was nowhere to be seen.
The scrapbook was full of photographs like that. Daizi never seemed to be aware the camera was on her, and anytime Dark (who always had bruised knuckles, and often had a black eye or some other minor injury) noticed, he flipped off the camera and glared, and he only wore his school uniform and one of two sweaters in all pictures, except for Halloween and Prom. And, besides one particular prom photo, he only smiled in one: he was at a concert, with Daizi hanging on him, wearing his sweater, and beside the picture was a concert ticket dated to May 9th, 2008: the final date of the My Chemical Romance Welcome to the Black Parade Tour at Madison Square Garden. There were quite a few artifacts stuck into the pages, other concert tickets (notably, one for March 28, 2008: Avril Lavigne's Best Damn Thing Tour in Atlantic City) for cassette tapes (which, even in the early 2000s, were already outdated), a hospital wristband (also dated to 2008), poetry in English and Arabic, and five whole pages of detention slips. The reasons written on them varied from vandalism, to fighting, to insubordination, to skipping class, to being caught with a girl in his dorm room, to being caught in a girl's dorm room, and everything in between.
The prom pictures where the first ones where Dark wore clothing which actually reached to his wrists and ankles. He wore his tie properly, and looked the most like he did in the current day. His hair was combed back, his bruises were mostly healed, and he wore a well fitting suit, although the cut was different than any he wore now, because he was so much thinner. His suit was all black, except for the tie, which was red. His corsage, however, was a dark purple. Daizi had her hair up in a french twist, and wore a black and violet corset dress, which reached the ground in the back, but only to her knees in the front. Underneath, she wore ripped up tights and heeled combat boots. The corsage on her wrist matched Dark's tie. It was the only picture where Daizi was not wearing sunglasses, and her eyes were focused on nothing, but she and Dark both looked thrilled to be there. Their red-headed friend was in many of the pictures, but only wore a button down shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The trio looked rather bored at prom itself, but the final picture in the set was them back in a dorm room, with fairy lights hung haphazardly on the wall. In the photograph, Dark and Daizi were slow dancing, and it was the other picture where Dark was smiling.
