anywhere but here, *

[nina dalisay malaqui]

- - - - -

to be perfectly honest, this whole sage still felt completely surreal to nina suresh malaqui. an earthquake in valkyrie? it couldn't possibly be true. this was probably all some ruse to bring nina home surely. home. as in valkyrie. it was funny, after almost four years of living in the philippines where she had spent most of her childhood, she still considered valkyrie to be her true home. maybe it was because valkyrie was where most of her strongest memories had occurred. her closest friendships had been formed and her most memorable relationship had happened. but most importantly, as much as nina hated to admit it, it was where her parents were. nina had never gotten along with her mother, especially after the whole arranged marriage announcement but now that she was living in a completely different country to her parents, she did realise how much she missed them. in fact, nina had for a small moment hoped that her mother would decide she'd missed her home country so much that she would stay. but alas melissa suresh flew back on that plane a few weeks after the wedding with her husband. nina understood though. her dad couldn't just up and leave the hospital and her mother couldn't just up and leave her husband. so nina was left in the philippines with a husband she barely knew and relatives she barely remembered.

at first it hadn't been too bad. she remembered a few of her cousins and carlito was there whom she had kept in touch ever since he headed back to the philippines from his short stay in america. but then nina also had to deal with her new relatives. the in-laws. they were kind to her, but they all spoke in filipino and she had long since forgotten that language so it took her a while to pick it up again. she was determined though and her determination was perhaps one of the factors that helped her and her soon-to-be husband at the time bond as he attempted to re-teach her. it was that and the fact that neither of them wanted to go ahead with the marriage. what an odd couple they were. only nineteen and twenty-one and neither actually too thrilled about the idea of spending forever together. but time was a funny thing. in the two weeks before the marriage commenced, nina and marco were forced to spend quite a lot of time with each other and by the time nina was zipping up into that white dress, she and marco got along quite fine. no where near in love or any of that but marco managed to make nina laugh, and he was nice and understood her frustration towards everything going on. but he also understood that there was nothing they could do to change their parent's minds and somehow he found a way to convince nina that it wouldn't be so bad.

so they got married. nina was now a wife. maybe that was why she felt so weird coming back to valkyrie. so much had changed since she had left the small californian town. not to mention she'd basically lost touch with all of her old friends since the idea of explaining an arranged marriage to them seemed just a little too humiliating. they would have all given her a funny look and gone on to mock her behind her back. or at least that's how nina imagined it would go down. her paranoid mind went into overdrive so instead she just told all of her friends that she and her parents were going back to her home country the philippines for a while. hopefully no one would notice that her parents had arrived back to valkyrie minus a daughter. and when they did her parents had a ready-made excuse. 'she's decided to stay in the philippines for a while.' no mention of the husband however badly her mother wanted to brag to everyone. nina forbade it. she couldn't help wondering if anyone had even questioned that answer. she had no idea of course since apart from her parents, she'd pretty much lost contact with anyone else. even her closest friends hadn't heard much from nina. she supposed she should feel a little guilty but once she had wed marco, nina decided the best thing to do was a fresh start. so she stopped speaking english unless necessary and left her designer wardrobe behind since it didn't quite fit in with the suburban lifestyle she lived in now.

maybe that was why it felt so awkward and a little terrifying climbing off the airplane and onto the tarmac. first of all there was already signs of the earthquake and suddenly nina realised that her mother hadn't been lying. but the airport looked fairly alright. maybe the earthquake reports were just exaggerating slightly. the airport was filled with people today. most likely other people rushing to check on and help family and friends, like nina. glancing down at her outfit, she suddenly felt out of place even though no one else was much more dressed up than she was. but still, in her daggy clothes, she barely recognised herself and considering the last time she'd been in valkyrie she would have rather died than be seen in her current outfit, it was no wonder. nina shuffled over towards the luggage carousel and stood there awkwardly as she waited for her suitcases to appear. as she waited she felt a vibration in her pocket and pulled out her phone. it was marco of course. he'd told her to ring when she arrived but she had a feeling he'd ring first. "hey Marco. sheesh i lamang got off ang eroplano! yes i had hindi nakalimutan. akala ko ang gusto ko maghintay hanggang ako tunay na kaliwa sa paliparan." hey marco. sheesh i just got off the plane! yes i hadn't forgotten. i thought i'd wait until i actually left the airport. nina ran a hand through her already slightly unkempt hair as she rattled off in filipino, barely even having to think about it anymore. three years of marco refusing to speak english and forcing her to speak filipino had definitely helped. even her american accent had faded now. oh if only the old nina could see the new nina now. she'd barely recognise herself.

- - - - -

TAGGED TO; paisley !
TIME/PLACE; afternoon / valkyrie airport
CREDITS; lyrics by onerepublic.
OUTFIT; far from glamorous.
WORDS; 1,060
NOTES; augh a bit late but yay first nina post xD

- - - - -

[/size]

[paiselyparker]

- - - - - -

…the past few months had been hell for her. literally. it was like some demonic creature crawled into her head, sought out her deepest fears, and dragged them out into the light so the world could make them a reality. paisely tallulah parker had been to hell and back, and not a damn person on the planet understood how she felt, at least nobody she knew, nobody she could talk to. sometimes she couldn't believe any of it had ever happened. it was just too surreal. why her? why had fate designed for her in particular to be broken at such a young age? it was like she was a mirror, a perfect, elegant mirror that had been thrown onto the floor and shattered, and then stepped down upon until the shards were nothing more than dust, nothing more than a memory of what they used to be. that was how paisely felt. she was bent, bruised, and broken. she was never going to be the paisely she was five years ago when she'd been a senior at valkyrie academy with not a care in the world except her social life, her grades, and her volleyball career. everything was so different then, so simple, so perfect. that paisely had been fiery and funloving, bubbly and brilliant. she'd been a girl guys wanted and girls wanted to be. she'd been the badass bitch with a sweet side. she had friends, she had a future. now she was nothing more than a shell of a girl, numb and cold. lifeless. she knew she would never be the same again. she didn't think she would ever heal, but if she was going to heal, ever, well valkyrie was the place to do it. as soon as she'd woken up in that hospital in miami, florida, paisely had known she'd needed to come home, to see the place she grew up and to let it heal her if it could. valkyrie was her home, her one true home. it was where she'd met her greatest friends, where she'd reconnected with bailey, where she'd loved and lost, where she'd been a part of a loving yet sometimes dysfunctional family. valkyrie was paisely's childhood, her golden years. people could say their worst about the small city in southern california, but the people who grew up in valkyrie knew the good as well as the bad. sure, it seemed to be full of self-centered whores and all the most beautiful bitches on the planet, but there was good people there too, people with kind hearts hiding behind thick skin. paisely woudln't have been able to think of a better place to grow up, a better family to grow up with, and better friends to help her keep growing through all the hardest parts of her life. except now, of course. she wouldn't have changed anything about her past, about the days when she considered herself happy and whole. actually, there was one thing she would change... and that would be volleyball.

…volleyball was the whole fucking reason her life had hit rock bottom. it may sound irriational, but paisely just couldn't help but feel if she'd chosen dance or piano or softball or anything over becoming a volleyball player, well maybe, just maybe she would still be happy and free spirited, still somebody worth loving and taking the time for. she couldn't think about what happened to her. she wasn't as strong as she'd always thought she was, she was soft and sensitive on the inside, though she put on a numb mask for the rest of the world. she didn't handle it well, she didn't see the good in it. she put up walls while she was in the hospital though, walls to keep her mind from falling into the despair of thought. she refused to be completely enveloped by her own personal devils, though she was being eaten alive on the inside by them. there was no way she would ever come to some "acceptance" of the ordeal though. at least that didn't seem possible now. maybe years and years from now she'd be renewed and find something to make life worth living again, but for now the color was drained from her world, all the roses were dead, the oceans dried, the winds ceased, the trees fallen, the sun faded into darkness. her world wasn't a world worth living in. paisely would never commit suicide, she couldn't do that to bailey or gale or her father, who'd just lost his wife, and the rest of their siblings who'd lost their mother. not to mention it wasn't her life or existence she'd felt resentment towards, it was a person. a man. she refused to think his name though, for fear the walls would come crashing down. it was one of her personal rules. paisely left him behind when she'd left florida. she'd dropped out of the olympics, and lied about the reason. nobody knew what that man had really done to her, not the whole truth. she used the excuse of the earthquake and her mother's death to escape. she called gale, who had just arrived in valkyrie for himself from the army, and told him that she wanted to come home, she needed it. he booked her the first flight out of miami. it involved switching plains in los angeles at lax, but paisely didn't mind. she just wanted to be home as soon as possible. home was the one place she didn't feel afraid of anymore. valkyrie. god, that word had never sounded so good before. gale warned her not to expect much though. even their home had been severely damaged, so gale and bailey had arranged a place for them to live, all three of them. apparently bailey wasn't down for staying with jules. paisely was secretly, incredibly, thankful she'd be living with her. she really missed bailey, who'd been the only person she'd kept in touch with over the last five years since graduation. bailey was one person paisely felt she might be able to be herself around, and as much as she hated to admit it... she missed jules too.

…this earthquake was another story, though. paisely was worried of how things were going to be when she got home. from the way she'd heard about it, things sounded pretty bad, almost like there was no home left to go back to. she hadn't seen footage of it though, since she never watched the news. they news was still talking about her escape, her dropping out, the man who'd caused it all... she couldn't watch the news because she couldn't stand to listen to another word about all of it. she wanted to cut her hears off and be permanently deaf. she was so sick of everybody talking about her. not to mention a lot more important things were going on. people were dying in valkyrie, or had already died. they'd been smuthered and suffocated in their own homes. why didn't anybody spend more time worrying about that than her being kidnapped or how bradjolina broke up because of jen anniston. who the fuck cares?! they should be trying to save people, not worrying about celebrity fads. the world was so shallow, so selfish. that was probably the only thing paisely had gained in the past few years... the past few months. she'd become a lot less self-centered. she cared about other people more than herself. she realized that there may be, no, there were people out there who'd suffered more than she had, who had been through some horrific event a thousand times worse than her's. the mere thought of that literally broke her heart. she would never wish that on somebody, not even her worst enemy. nobody deserved it. maybe that was part of the reason she wanted to go back to valkyrie, maybe some small part of her was hoping she could help people so they never felt as low and as dead as she felt now. though, it wasn't like she could do much with a cast on her ankle, her arm in a sling, and her greenstick rib fracture. it almost made her laugh that everybody was so upset she'd pulled out of the olympics. the doctor said she'd had a fifty percent cance of recovering in time for it. didn't these people get it? she obviously had horrid luck, so what made them think she'd be in the fifty percent tile of being able to compete? not.a.chance.in.hell.

…upon arrival, paisely had shut her window, and closed her eyes, blocking out all the noise around her. she didn't want to hear about what happened, she didn't want to see what it looked like - not yet. she began to mentally prepare herself for the worst, forcing the hopes out of her head. hopes were for the foolish. the plane landed swiftly, and paisely waited in her seat patiently when the passengers began to get off. it took a while for the plane to empty out. there was apparently a lot of people pulling into valkyrie, probably people coming home for the earthquake. finally, when the plane was empty, a few flight attendants came over to paisely, "are you ready, ma'am?" a man asked. paisely didn't even respond to him, "could you three help me?" she croaked, surprised by how hoarse her voice sounded (probably from not having spoken more than two words in the past few days). she had gestured towards three female flight attendants with her good hand. she noticed the male one nod out of the corner of her eye and walk away. one of the women went towards the exit of the plane while the other two heaved paisely up, her good arm around one of their shoulders, and the other woman holding her up gently. they were very careful, but paisely still felt a bit of pain. she winced ever so slightly, biting her lip to fight it back, as the two women led her to the exit. the third woman was there waiting with a wheelchair. a couple more weeks and paisely wouldn't have to use that stupid thing anymore. her arm would be healed and her rib mostly okay and she'd be able to use crutches. until then though, she was relying on other people to get her where she needed to go. the two women set her down in the chair, "goodbye, miss parker," one of them whispered, like she was trying not to affend paisely. she mouthed a "thank you" back before the third attendant began pushing her off the unloading ramp and into the airport. paisely was relieved to see how busy it was. at least valkyrie itself hadn't died, it was the last part of her still living. paisely looked around silently, ignoring the stares who recognized her. they weren't people she knew personally, just people who'd been fans or seen her face on the news or maybe had a sex ed. class together sophomore year who she didn't remember at all. the flight attendant pushed paisely to the arrivals where a ton of people were waiting for loved ones. it took her a few seconds before she spotted him.

…gale. he was wearing his officer's uniform, looking clean cut and dashing, medals plastered on his chest in organized fashions she didn't understand, but admired. the flight attendant pushed her towards him and his serious facade broken down, "paisely," he said, smiling. there was something dark about his eyes though. "gale!" she crooned, trying to sound happy. to him it just sounded like a bad actress on a show from the 1960's though. he kneeled down in front of her and took his good hand into his own. they met eyes for only a second before he diverted his own. it physically hurt him to look into her eyes, like he could see all the icy sadness swirling in the blue depths of them. paisely pretended not to notice though, she turned around and tranquilly said "thank you," to the flight attendant. the woman nodded, and smiled almost apologetically before turning and walking away. gale took her place pushing paisely towards the baggage claim. he asked her shallow questions, how the flight was, if the peanuts were good. she asked him the same, how the weather had been, how the army life was... etc. both of them gave short, curt answers. the middle of an airport wasn't the place to get into a deeply emotional conversation. they arrived at the baggage claim, and gale left paisely outside the groups of people as he went to go stand and get her luggage. she looked around aimlessly, a little eager to get to the safety of her house and see her loved ones. but then she saw something, or someone, rather, unexpected. it couldn't be? could it? nina suresh. it was her though. paisely couldn't help but stare at the girl who was her best friend in high school besides her family. she looked so different, so simple. the nina suresh paisely knew wore designer clothes, carried around expensive handbags, and was like a show on her own just walking down a hallway. now you could throw her into a crowd of people and nobody would look twice. paisely couldn't look away from her. and then they met eyes.

status•finished.
tagged•paisina!
comments•ew, my banner sucks, but yay for reunions! hope you don't mind i kind of just assumed they looked at each other?
clothes•lazy&cute?
lyrics•my immortal – evanescence

[nina dalisay malaqui]

- - - - -

nina had to admit, she hadn't exactly thought this emergency trip to her true hometown very well. sure, she'd packed all of the essentials and she'd made sure to tell marco where she was going, she'd booked the right flight and confirmed with her mother that the limo would be picking her up at the right time. she'd even called her dad at the hospital to offer her help in any way possible. normally she would have been extremely proud of herself for getting all of these tasks done but it was just a bit hard when she realised that she hadn't actually considered the emotional and mental side of everything. it wasn't until she was actually half way out of the philippines when nina realised that it had been basically four years since she'd been in valkyrie. four years. a lot had happened in that time. and she hadn't talked to any of her friends from valkyrie in four years. she hadn't gotten properly drunk and partied for four years. she hadn't spoken full english in four years. she hadn't worn designer clothing for four years. okay so that last one was a little shallow but it still counted. during the last year or so of nina's time in valkyrie, she had been well known for her expensive fashion taste. she'd paraded down in the halls in outfits that had other girls literally stopping to admire. she'd basically been in her own little daily fashion show and truth be told, nina missed that a little. she missed having all eyes on her. she missed feeling like someone who mattered.

but nina reminded herself on the plane that she wasn't that person anymore and that was a good thing. she was no longer the stuck-up rich girl that she'd always sworn she wouldn't be. somewhere along the line nina had fallen into that trap and now that she was out, she managed to convince herself that she was obviously a better person now. these days she wore whatever she could afford on her husband's bank wages and trust me, these were a far cry from her gucci boots and chanel jackets. but as we have already stated, nina wasn't that girl anymore. these days she was content with who she was. she felt like a better person now. she felt more whole and awake. that was probably thanks to the lack of hangovers now though more than anything. but moving out of valkyrie had somehow allowed nina to shed her valk-girl image and restored her into the sweetheart that she had kept hidden for so long. finally she was the girl, or rather woman that her mother had prayed she would be. of course her husband marco had helped too. he was just so ridiculously nice that it was impossible to not to smile and be nice back to him. so nina sold most of her designer clothes so they'd have a little extra money, gave some items to alex and took a few of her favourite outfits to sit in her closet so she could pull them out and admire them. but that was about as close as nina got to the old valk-nina.

now that she was so far from the nina that everyone had known and loved, how was everyone going to react when they saw her again? nina could just imagine the scathing looks she was going to receive. she knew it was probably a little shallow to be thinking about how everyone would react to her when she really should be worrying about the earthquake. nina hadn't watched any news reports yet because she'd literally booked the flight to valkyrie straight after her mother called to tell her what had happened but from what she'd heard from a few other people sitting on the plane who were also coming to see family, it was pretty bad. truth be told, nina was actually pretty scared about what she would find when she arrived. did she even have a house to come back to? she knew that tim was in hospital because part of the ceiling had collapsed but just how much of the rest of the ceiling had fallen her mother had failed to say. what if the whole house was destroyed? obviously it wasn't completely wreaked because nina's limo was taking her back to the suresh estate so there was obviously enough still standing to allow her parents to be living there. but nina had a feeling her parents were probably extremely lucky. sure californian earthquakes weren't exactly rare but an earthquake that actually made news and required nina to fly across the world was something to worry about. so much so that nina chose to not worry about it and focus on keeping an eye out for any of her old friends. at least that wouldn't give her a panic attack.

so there she stood, at the luggage pick-up, nina looked around boredly. her suitcases were nowhere to be found on the carousal yet and considering there was quite a big crowd that was slowly closing on her, nina squished her way out. she couldn't help noticing that no one seemed to give her a second glance, if they looked at her at all. how times had changed. once upon a time people would have stared at her in her designer-handbag glory. now she was just another person in the crowd. stumbling out of it, nina ran a hand through her messy hair and glanced around the airport. she might as well check out the place so far while she waited for the crowd to clear. as she looked around, nina's eyes passed over a blonde girl in a wheelchair waiting a few metres away, all alone. but wait, nina did a double take as she realized the girl was staring back at her with a slight look of surprise. a second glance made nina take a deep breath in because suddenly she recognized the girl. paisley parker. one of her closest and best friends in valkyrie before she left. they'd been party buddies originally until they decided to start talking outside the clubs and had bonded very quickly. nina felt kind of bad for not keeping in contact with her and by the looks of things with paisley in a wheelchair, they had a lot to catch up on. hesitating slightly, nina walked over to paisley, fiddling with the ends of her hair as she did so. "paisley? oh my god, hi." nina stopped about a metre away and stared at the wheelchair clad blonde, her voice sounded slightly husky from not talking for several hours and she heard a sense of awkwardness in it. what did you say to someone you hadn't seen in four years after moving countries with no warning?

- - - - -

TAGGED TO; paisley !
TIME/PLACE; afternoon / valkyrie airport
CREDITS; lyrics by onerepublic.
OUTFIT; far from glamorous.
WORDS; 1,060
NOTES; woo awkward paisina reunion! <3

- - - - -

[/size]

[paiselyparker]

- - - - - -

…the paisely who existed five years ago would find the present one to be a complete and total stranger. she would not recognize her at all, and when she did she wouldn't believe it. it would have broken the old paisely parker's heart to see how far she'd fallen in such a short period of time. five years ago. oh, how she hated those words. they burned with a melancholy intensity in her heart. five years ago. just five years ago paisely had been whole and healthy. she was glowing in appearance, a smile always on her face. sure, sometimes that smile was snarky and malevolent, but usually it was genuine. the girl had been a happy person. she was eccentric and free spirited, that girl you never knew what to expect next with. she had a good heart with a craving to get vengence on those who wronged her, which wasn't many. she'd been courageous and fearless and willing to try new things. she was a dancer, an athlete, a pianist. she was the best friend of nina, the cousin of bailey, the middle sister in a family of ten. she'd had a mother. she was a partier. she never backed down from a challenge. she'd been that girl who you grew to hate or learned to love. there was no way around it. she'd been an entirely differen person, and that wasjust five years ago. paisely wished she could see that girl again, talk to her. she knew that old self would know exactly what to say or how to react. she wasn't that girl anymore though. now she was numb. she was numb, and cold, and scared, and broken. she felt like a child again, a child lost in a foreign city where everybody spoke another language. she was so incredibly lost, and god, she had no idea what to do with herself anymore. that was part of the reason she came home, home to valkyrie. she had this feeling that being back would somehow heal her. like some enlightening, divine light would fall from heaven and restore her to her normal state. or maybe just a slow process of feeling better. either option worked.

…paisely hadn't kept in touch with a single friend after high school. she really only had a couple true blue buddies she knew she could lean on when it was necessary, and one of those two friends and she had a fight at the beginning of her senior year, which lead to her only having nina suresh. it was so strange, how they'd started out as party friends and then had a heart to heart get together one day and just became instant best friends. paisely had sincerely adored nina with all her heart. she would have taken a bullet for the girl when they were tied at the hip. after graduation however, paisely move away and joined an olympic team. nina moved to some faroff crackpot place paisely could never remember the name of, and that was basically the end of their friendship. paisely always considered nina her friend though, just a friend she figured she'd never see again, or at least very rarely over the rest of their lives. they lost contact, nontheless, and that left paisely with no friends. it was a good thing she had three sisters and an amazing cousin though. so in reality, she always had friends... just friends she shared dna with. her and bailey remained really close of the jump. bailey was more like a sister to her than shatton, shasta, or callie had been. it was natural though. shatton had been closest to paisely, but when she and callie moved to new york together, it was inevitable they'd become the new terrible twosome of the family. and then shasta got married, so of course bailey was always her closest family member. not to mention they were the same age, and went through high school together. bailey had gotten far with her dreams too, going to julliard, becoming a legite ballerina. paisely could relate with her success. and then there were the boys. gale was the one she'd always been closest to, despite the age difference. her and shasta never cared about the "shame" he'd given to their family name once. he was still her big brother, she still loved him, and that was why he'd come to pick her up now.

…paisely always missed having a best friend who didn't share her genes, though. so in other words, she missed nina. she missed their conversations, their dancing, their girl's nights, their gossip, the terror they struck in the hearts of the common teenagers. she had good memories with nina, some of the best she could remember. that was why there was so much confliction in her heart when she looked at her now. her best friend from five years ago when she was an entirely different person and a soul that wasn't shattered into pieces was standing right in front of her, greeting her. half of her wanted to turn around and escape. she wanted her leg to be healed so she could hop up and run as far from nina as possible and not look back. she was almost ashamed to be there with her, broken and unfixable. she just didn't want to be reminded of that person she wished she was so badly now, because deep inside she was sure she would never be anything like that old paisely ever again. but the other half of her wanted to get up and hug her best friend and cry all her fears away and be told it was fine and she was okay and it would all work out. she wanted to tell her everything that happened and to ge it all of her chest, she just wanted nina to be her friend again. not just her friend, but the same friend she'd been to her five years ago. instead of either one though, paisely just stared at nina awkwardly when she spoke, her eyes wide with a whirlwind of emotions swirling in their icy blue depths. her mouth was dry, and she couldn't speak at first. when she tried, the words never came out. she coughed lightly, and then blinked in a harsh way, like she was seeing the sun for the first time, "nina? she meant for it to sound like a question, to sound excited... but it really just sounded like a listless statement, "wow, um, hi. i... i haven't seen you in forever." she felt like she was going to throw up and start sobbing all at the same time.

status•finished.
tagged•paisina!
comments•i hate my banner D:< buut woot!clothes•lazy&cute?
lyrics•my immortal – evanescence

[nina dalisay malaqui]

- - - - -

it sounded a little naive considering the situation but nina really hadn't expected or planned on seeing one of her old friends so soon. she'd hoped she would have time to get home and get back into her valkyrie headspace before she had to deal with that. she certainly hadn't banked on bumping into someone in the airport, despite the fact that everyone who had ever lived in valkyrie seemed to be flying back to help out so it was highly possible. nina just prayed that she could make it to prince phillip drive before she had time to see anyone. so naturally spotting paisley was a bit of an unwanted shock for her. it was even worse in a way that paisley wasn't just an old friend. she was nina's closest and best friend and one of the people nina felt most guilty about for not bothering to keep in touch. surely paisley hated her now and thought nina was a mega bitch. despite being on the plane for several hours and thus having plenty of time to figure out what she was going to say, now that nina was actually standing in front of paisley, the filipino brunette was coming up completely blank on any sort of excuse or explanation for her absence. what did you say to an old best friend that you had basically ditched and not spoken to for five years?

paisley had been the unexpected best friend who popped out of no where for nina. they'd started off as nothing more than party friends who hung out on the dance floor together and tossed back shots side by side but one coffee and spontaneous heart-to-heart later and they had become best friends almost instantly after that. there was something about paisley that nina couldn't help loving. paisley was bubbly and fun and a little snarky and she made nina laugh until she cried. along with shay and bailey, nina considered paisley to be one of the friends she would keep for life. but of course things never go the way you plan them to. instead, nina went for her intended short trip to the philippines and simply never returned and being the slight coward she was, she just couldn't send back any form of explanation to those girls she had considered like sisters. of course the last nina had heard from her parents who attempted to keep her filled in, paisley had gone off to join some volleyball olympic team, just like nina knew paisley had dreamed about. at least someone got to live out their dream. nina had never gotten the opportunity to do anything with her love of singing and performing which was probably part of the reason for her bitter attitude towards her marriage.

so paisley had moved away and nina was left with no form of contact even if she'd wanted to get back in touch with paisley. and considering shay had disappeared too and the mitchells probably wanted nothing to do with nina after her fight with jules and the fact that bailey had barely said goodbye when she left, she had no friends remaining in valkyrie. luckily nina did have old friends from her childhood back in the philippines. when she'd returned for the first time in over ten years, her elementary school friends had flipped out with excitement. she'd made new friends over there too of course and she thought she'd settled in quite nicely over the few years she'd been living there. but of course it just didn't match up to valkyrie somehow. the girls in the philippines hadn't seen nina at her lowest point like bailey had or partied hard with her like shay had or had those amazing conversations with her like paisley. safe to say, they just didn't match up because they didn't seem to know her as well, despite some of them having known her longer than her valkyrie girls. but the one thing that they did have over paisley and bailey and shay was that the girls in the philippines understood nina's situation much more. several of them weren't happy about arranged marriages but they helped nina get through it and they loved her stories about america so in a way she still got to be a bit of a celebrity, just no where near on the same level. but weighing up the pros and cons, valkyrie still won every time of course. the biggest con though was that now she had been gone so long, could she still fit in? did people even want her to fit in?

and now we are back to where we started. what did you say to a friend you hadn't bothered to talk to for over four years? as nina approached her best friend, or ex-best friend now she supposed, she couldn't help noticing that paisley seemed a little uneasy to see her. well uneasy was okay. as long as nina wasn't getting a direct rejection yet or a bitchy look that she knew paisley could pull off, she wasn't too worried. although she had to admit paisley looked worse than she did. not to mention the wheelchair. nina wished with all of her heart that she could just run up to paisley with hugs and squeals of excitement and paisley could fill her in on everything but something told nina it wasn't going to be that easy. it never was. finally standing in front of paisley, waiting for her to say something back, nina felt her stomach churn in anxious anticipation of what was to come. and finally paisley blinked her eyes and spoke. "nina? wow, um, hi. i... i haven't seen you in forever." well that was better than nothing. nina swallowed and attempted a smile although it felt more like a grimace. "i know, ito ay naging tulad ng apat-" nina stopped suddenly and winced, hearing her words. crap she had accidentally spoken tagalog without even realizing. "uhhh i mean yeah it's been... like four, five years." she ended lamely, her accent thicker than she would have liked. speaking tagalog almost permanently for four years made it a little tricky to get back to english. oh god her mother was going to be thrilled. but nina turned her focus back to paisley. "so...how have you been?" she asked awkwardly, her english words sounding forced and a little uncomfortable. damn it. this was not how she had hoped her first encounter to go down.

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TAGGED TO; paisley !
TIME/PLACE; afternoon / valkyrie airport
CREDITS; lyrics by onerepublic.
OUTFIT; far from glamorous.
WORDS; 1,060
NOTES; woop that flew out xD and are we going to have them have another reunion where it is all hugs and non-awkwardness?

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[paiselyparker]

Jan 15, 2011 19:56:19 GMT -6 @paiselyparker said:

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…paisely began to wonder what else was different about valkyrie and the people she'd known back then, before the earthquake and before everything. just being here in the airport with a girl she hadn't seen in years made her second guess exactly how much had happened, or could have happened. she wondered about her senior class, about the trio girls who were once her cousins's friends, a bout "scandal star," that hayden hadley girl and her blog, she wondered about the shak kids and the valk kids, about the people her age who had gone on to do great things. there was so many changes. so many people followed their dreams and left valkyrie. now it was like deja vu. paisely felt like everybody was coming home, like the earthquake was meant to bring everybody back, to rebuild broken ties or something. why else would she have run into nina, of all people, instead of somebody like craig smith who'd sat behind her in her economics class senior year? she was curious to see the changes, and she was staring at one, probably one of the biggest ones. aside from herself, of course.

…nina and paisely had been the glamorous daring duo of the senior year along with bailey and shay. it was like a fearsome foursome, actually. things had been so different then, so blissful. now they were more like a personal hell. paisely hadn't kept in touch with anybody except bailey though. she never believed people when they'd say you never kept any of the friends you had in high school. they'd tell her that it was superficial and not real. paisely figured she'd be the exception though, that her and her friends would. that wasn't quite the case though. in fact, if it weren't for the fact that her and bailey were family they probably would have lost contact too. she really was incredibly grateful she had a family member who was her best friend. she was actually just grateful for her family in general. they had always been there at her back, through thick and throug thin. paisely kind of wished nina was a part of her family, that way they would have stayed in touch too. they would still be best friends. they wouldn't be in this awkward predicament they found themselves in now, staring face to face at each other and totally weirded out.

]…the stranger girl who had once been nina's best friend stared. her eyes seemed far away and a thousand years old. her gaze kept flickering away. she didn't really want to lookt her, to look into her eyes. or at her face. or at her body, her arms, her toes, her hair. damn it, paisely just didn't want to look at nina at all. and she didn't want nina to look at her either. it wasn't that paisely felt any resentment towards this girl she still considered her best friend deep down. it was just... she knew things weren't the same. she knew they weren't going to be the same, they never were going to be the same. she didn't want to face the reality of what they'd both become. she was a hot mess, and well nina... she wan't sure what happened to nina but she wasn't the same. they weren't the fun loving fierce fighters they'd once been. they weren't wearing their designer clothes, they weren't parading around like they owned the place, they weren't hugging and laughing like they would, or should, have been. it was all so different, and paisely didn't want it. she hated it.

…she listened quietly as nina spoke, and then she suddenly began talking in some jibberish paisely didn't catch at all. maybe nina had gone crazy over the past five years? or maybe it was just a different language... but hey, whatever worked. paisely raised her eyebrows skeptically, her lips twitching and she almost smiled, which she hadn't done in a long, long time. she didn't though, her body just wouldn't let her. "um, mind explaining what yaky shabang ladula poonam is?" her voice was emotionless, with an underlying humorous mocking to it. she just made up some sounds that really sounded nothing like what nina had said, but she was actually curious. as far as paisely had known, nina never spoke any other language. paisely narrowed her eyes, "well, yeah," she replied as nina went on about how long it'd been. there wasn't much else to say to that. she glanced over to the baggage claim, which had just started to move. she spotted gale, staring so intently at the bags that she was afraid his eyes might fall out. she glanced back to nina, "i don't know, how does it look like i've been?" she looked down at her wheel chair. she really wasn't trying to be rude, and she did her best to make her voice at least sound indiffrent if not friendly. looking back at nina, she decided to direct the subject away from herself, "what about yourself? you're not quite... what i remember." it was amazing ow much she was talking, even though her words were curt and short.

status•finished.
tagged•paisina!
comments•welcome to rambleville. anyway, i feel like we should end it in the next few posts so they can be like thinking about each other and finally actually decide to get together and set the record straight, ya know? you can end it or i will, but yeah. xD
clothes•lazy&cute?
lyrics•my immortal – evanescence

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[nina dalisay malaqui]

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standing awkwardly in front of paisley not knowing how to act reminded nina that there was a good reason why she hadn't bothered visiting valkyrie at all in the last four years. when she'd initially moved across to the philippines, she'd put up a great fuss about the whole thing but once she realised there was no way to get out of the marriage as long as her mother had any say here, she resorted herself to the idea and eventually it grew on her. this was her chance to completely reinvent herself and start a new life. to be honest, by the time nina had graduated she didn't really like who she was and what her life had become. sure, the partying was awesome and she loved having all eyes on her as she strutted down the school corridors. that had been awesome. she had become the girl she never thought she was. back in her younger years of high school, nina had watched her friends like the BAD trio doing the things she would eventually do and had just shaken her head. but things changed and eventually bella left, anne slipped out of her social life to recover from the accident and daphne spiraled downhill, leaving the top of the social ranking open for nina to slip into. she hadn't completely taken over but she certainly got a lot higher than she had been before. with paisley, shay and bailey at her side and a boyfriend most of the time unless she and jules were fighting, nina finished senior year pretty perfectly in most peoples eyes.

but the whole saga with jules had definitely worn nina down. he hadn't known anything about her old boring, sweetheart life and for some reason nina hadn't wanted him to. she wanted to forget that part of herself. being valkyrie's sweetheart hadn't gotten her anywhere and the nina who loved to get drunk and party seemed to have a lot more friends so she was going to stick with that. unfortunately once jules eventually discovered there was more to his girlfriend than he knew about he wasn't exactly pleased at her for hiding a whole part of herself. but in nina's eyes, that wasn't who she was anymore nor was it someone she wanted to be reminded of anymore so why should she have to tell jules? that had only lead to more fights though of course and before you know it, nina and jules were officially over and nina no longer had anything to prevent her from getting married. without a boyfriend to use as an excuse to stay, she was forced to board the doomed plane to manila in the philippines. but once she had moved there and started a new life without all of her fancy designer clothes and handbags since they just did not fit in, nina was suddenly thrown back into her old self without realising. the bitchy looks were reserved for her mother only now and the sweet smile seemed to appear on her face more often. and after a year or so, nina was yet again a completely different person. it almost made her a little dizzy to think about how much she had evolved over the years. more than most people did in a lifetime.

this new nina wasn't the happiest out of all the different versions of herself of course. it was impossible to be completely happy when you were a hopeless romantic stuck in a loveless and forced marriage. but nina was content and she was resigned to her fate. she accepted the fact that this was how her cards had been dealt and she was meant to live and grow old in the small town of san miguel, manila with her arranged husband marco. that was how it just had to be and there was nothing she could do about it. but now that she'd changed so much, nina felt like it was just impossible to go back to valkyrie. her parents came and visited her and her husband regularly whenever dr suresh had time off working at the hospital so it wasn't like nina felt the urge to go visit valkyrie. not since she lost touch with all of her friends anyway. she couldn't help wondering about her old friends though, and how their lives had ended up. reminiscing about scandal star and how mortified she'd been when she first appeared on the list, thinking about what might have happened to daphne and anne who had been such celebrities in town once upon a time, that grey rainbow blog run by her cousin's friend hayden...that small town held so many memories both good and bad for nina but going back could tarnish all of them.

indeed this was not how nina wanted to remember paisley when she went back to the philippines. she wanted nothing more than to keep holding on to that memory of paisley in her designer clothes, sipping coffee and having those amazing conversations at starbucks and laughing together. this paisley scared nina a little because to be honest she barely recognised her. this paisley was a little cold and unfamiliar. "um, mind explaining what yaky shabang ladula poonam is?" right there, nina immediately picked up a hint of mocking in paisley's tone. it was almost like paisley was treating her like she used to treat the freshmen when the two girls had been seniors. "uh sorry about that. it's been a while since i spoke english." she gave a lame short excuse, shrugging her shoulders and not quite making eye contact with paisley as she spoke. at paisley's response to her question, nina nearly blushed with embarrassment. of course, paisley looked terrible and nina thought that in the nicest way possible. she looked like she'd gone through hell and nina couldn't help wondering what had happened but right now things were just too awkward for her to consider asking for details. "sorry, stupid question i guess." nina glanced over at the baggage claim area and noticed the crowd had cleared away a little. thank god. that meant she could escape this awkward reunion soon. "what about yourself? you're not quite... what i remember." well that was an understatement. nina had almost been surprised that paisley recognised her at first. but then again she'd recognised paisley. "yeah, no more designer these days. long story." nina folded her arms at her chest and hugged herself slightly, trying to think of anything to say to ease the thick tension. "well i should go get my bags. mom's expecting me soon. but we should catch up soon." nina forced a small smile on her face, looking directly into paisley's eyes almost as if to try and remind her of the friendship they'd once had. "anyway uh, i'll see you around?" nina meant to make that a statement but her tone turned it into a question unintentionally. taking a few steps backwards, nina gave an awkward wave before turning around fully and heading to the baggage claim area where she could see her luggage now coming around. well that hadn't gone as well as she'd expected.

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TAGGED TO; paisley !
TIME/PLACE; afternoon / valkyrie airport
CREDITS; lyrics by onerepublic.
OUTFIT; far from glamorous.
WORDS; 1,060
NOTES; ok lame ending there xD but we need to start their better catch-up soon haha.

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