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The Usual Suspects have moved to one of the longer tables.  They needed the space, and no one was going to argue.

Donnie is one of the first to join the Terrible Trio at the new lands.

He opens his arms expansively at the new US table and saya "It has HUGE..tracts of land!"

Sammy goes to the old table.  "Wow, I'm the first one here.  That's different."  She opens up her math book and starts feverishly grinding through a homework set, oblivious to the world around her. 

Laney, too, shows up at the old table, with her - by now familiar -distracted expression and a bagged lunch.   She does not sit down, instead smiles and asks permission to do so.



She's cleaned up since this morning, no grime or grit, and there is very little residue from the blood.  Her designer jeans weren't meant to shield a body effectively from road rash, and they didn't.   The thin fabric looks badly worn along her hip and is shredded at the side of her right knee, which has been covered with the same generic brand of bandaid as the one on her right hand. 

Her left hand is still sore, the fingers are not the color one's fingers should be, and there is a small, oddly-shaped but clean cut below her chin.

Her fuzzy, blue turtleneck weathered this morning's incident well; Laney is pleased the mud washed right out.

Alicia stalks in, catching a few eyes as usual with her gliding walk.

She stops at the old table, looks over where Donnie and the others are sitting, and says, "What? Are we segregating now? Boys against the girls or something?"

Intending to keep company with Sammy, Laney was fully aware the others were seated elsewhere so showed no surprise at that.   She takes a step back so Alicia may speak with Sammy.

"I hope not.  I prefer a challenge."

Laney is welcome to sit down.  "I don't know where everybody else is."


This earns a blank stare and a "Huh?" from Sammy.  Clearly she is clueless.

Alicia grins approvingly. "Damn straight, sister."


Tossing her bag under the bench, she thumbs at the other group. "Stand by. I'll do some recon and get a sitrep."

She ambles over to the other table and drawls, "What's up? Is there an outbreak of cooties I wasn't told about?"

Sylvia finds her way to Donnie's side with no problem.  She might not even notice they've moved tables.

She has a bruise on her cheek and a bandage on her wrist, and she's wearing something a little less Hello Kitty, a little more 'Hello-o-o-o, Nurse!'  They aren't revealing clothes so much as they're a little less prone to ripping and staining--say, when the wearer is slugging it out with some back-alley scumbag:  jeans, a flannel shirt, a henley, and a pair of steel-toed shit-kickers that she must have had to order special from some web site for girly construction workers.  She exudes confidence, the kind of bright-eyed purpose a retriever has when it comes running back with a Frisbee.

"We were running out of chairs."  Rob says.

"And this table is closer to the door."  Dave adds.

"And I have nothing to add."  Greg says without looking up from the script in his lap.

Donnie, who had been sprawled out with his feet up on a second chair, slaps the table and mock growls at Dave. He pulls out his wallet and hands five bucks over to Dave who, barely looks up from his most recent novel. Rob chuckles and eats a potato chip.

At Alicia's question, he Donnie shakes his head. "I bet Dave five bucks that Sammy would notice we had moved before you got here. Dave disagreed." He aves expansively at the table. "We've moved up the food chain. It was getting to darn crowded over there, so we have claimed another tract of prime real estate for the Usual Suspects.

Donnie's eyes roam quickly. "You look different, and I don't mean the bruise from fighting ruffians."

"I borrowed the shirts out of Kel's room," Sylvia says.  "The jeans are Ginny's.  The boots--"  She shows off the pink.  "--are mine, all mine.  I didn't want to trash Mitzi's clothes."

She plunks herself down in the seat next to Donnie.  "What did you do last night?"

John comes into the lunch room, head in a medical journal as he navigates his way to the table to sit down.  It's a moment before he looks up, and then over towards the other table.  He glances around and sees Sammy and Laney at the table he's sitting at.  He shakes his head and goes back to reading.

Politely awaiting the return of the Alpha Bitch, Laney is beginning to suspect some internal drama going on and looks for a rock to crawl under.

He looks at the boots. "Those are hot. Althea's gonna squeal when she sees them. Um, last night. Uhh, oh yeah. Finished the English paper on In Cold Blood due Wednesday because Tuesday Jack says he has 'something special in mind' so I don't think I will be in any condition to write coherantly afterwards. Other than that, I was emailing back and forth with that dude from Miskatonic. He's struggling with some theoretical stuff on a big project and wanted my opinion on it. I have to keep pretending to not use my own theorms, which use mathmatical equations that the human mind generally can't process fast enough. That's why I have a calculator. So unless someone is a mathmatics prodigy, they generally wouldn't understand. I don't want to start throwing advanced stuff at him because he'd likely become a little suspicious of me."

"Did Mitzi see you leave like that? She'd probably cry. I doubt Carolyn would disapprove though."

Rhys comes into the cafeteria and sees Alicia standing by one table while Sammy and Laney sit at another. Suspecting some kind of drama, but unwilling to pursue the possibility, he simply slips his arm around Alicia's waist.

"Did we move? Good. We needed the room. Hello, hot stuff."

"'Something special'?  Fear.  Fear the special.

"Are you playing blond for this guy?  Why would he be suspicious?"


Sylvia shakes her head.  "Kel said I could stash my stuff in his room as long as I don't look at his porn."

"I have no idea."


"Well, at first I was truly the understudy. I had no real idea what I was doing, but things are coming much faster for me now. I am starting to onder if I might be further along that him within another month, tops. Considering I am supposedly a freshman at Ball State University to him, if I started using advanced magical theories to answer his problems, he might start doing a little more research into me. I certainly do not want that. He might tell someone if he finds out a high school freshman in a suburb of Chicago is doing graduate level work, you know?" He snorts.

"I'm sorry, Mr. I-Ride-A-Two-Ton-Dragon-Who-Sings-Britney, were you trying to remain incognito?"

At the other table, John laughs and milk comes out of his nose.

This actually gets Sammy's attention.  "Ew! Gross!"  Her grin belies her words as she shoves some napkins in his direction.   Her attention goes back to her assignment and she mutters something about sadistic math teachers.

"Sorry."  he says laughing, and cleans up the mess, including wiping the milk off the medical journal he's reading.

Elrod comes in and ambushes Sammy with a kiss on the back of the neck.  "Hey you."  he says looking over her shoulder, "Gah, you have Hinkle for math?" he pats her shoulder, "Poor kid.  and you're so young too.  Listen, I need some of your precious time later, after band practice maybe.  I'll give you a ride home?"

Startled out of her miserable contemplation, Laney stammers, "Um...Are you alright?"  When it's clear John will survive, she twists her head to peer at what Sammy is working on and dares,  "I probably already took that class.  You want help, or are you just wading through proofs?  I think most of them do take pleasure in causing students pain.   Math teachers, I mean, when they assign homew - Oh. Hi." 

She scoots aside for Elrod.

She smiles up at El.  "OK.  Sounds good to me."  She looks over at Laney.  "If you can get me through this, I'll be eternally grateful.  I'm normally good at math, but this teacher --gah!"  Looking back at El she adds, "You remember Laney from Saturday, right?  I can't remember if you guys actually met each other or not.  I don't know where everybody else is."

"We didn't officially meet."  Elrod nods to Laney, "Nice to meet you.  And everyone else is at that bigger table over there."  he says, pointing.  "Except my little miss nonconformist."  he grips her shoulders, "I'm so proud of you."  He chuckles and gives her a kiss.  "I'll pick you up after practice.  Gotta go.  Nice to meet you again Laney."

Donnie's snort becomes a full laugh. After he controls himself, he says. "In that part of the mystical world, yes. Here, not so much."  

"But why?  Aren't these the guys you want to impress?"

Donnie shakes his head (which still feels wierd with the mohawk) "Not now, not yet. I don't want to get 'transferred' all of the sudden, know what I mean?" he says, making quotation marks in the air.

Sylvia frowns, suddenly serious.  "That can happen?  They do that?"

Donnie shrugs and points a thumb over at Dave. "Who knows? Ask our resident Mastermind if big gubberment can and/or does stuff like that."

"How many times do I have to deny it before you people will believe that I am not the head of the secret shadow government?"  Dave says from behind his novel.

"You're at least better informed than the rest of us," Sylvia observes.  "Is it true that they're going to tent Donnie's house and give him the E.T. treatment if he flashes his mojo around?"

Donnie points his finger decisively. "Exactly what the head of a secret shadow government would say! Ha!"

Donnie tilts his head and tenatively reaches out with a crooked index finger towards his girlfriend "Syl-vi-a?"

Alicia gives Donnie the hairy eyeball. "Uh-huh," she utters flatly.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'll pass the news back to the attention-impaired."

Alicia sashays back to Sammy and Laney.


As she approaches the table, Alicia coos teasingly, glancing at Laney and then back to him, "Morning, loverboy."

She announces to the table, "Hey, we've moved location to accama... ah, fit all us new people. I'm staking my claim, so hurry up if you want to grab some prime real estate."

She grabs her bag and heads over to the new table.


Alicia stops when she sees Sylvia and whistles in surprise. "Woah! It-Girl meets WTF!"


"Hey, lover," Alicia gives him a kiss just short of breaking the school's PDA policy.

"Yup, we've expanded and need new territory, I guess. Check out Grungette over there. If I didn't already have shades, I'd be covering my eyes in pain."

"Pleased to meet you, too.  Thanks for letting me listen to you practice.  That was fun.  Yes, Sammy.  The others are seated elsewhere."

"What are you working on...?"
The older Laney is a few classes ahead of Sammy and has mastered what she's been exposed to, in a way few ever do.  However, she has a peculiar habit of working backwards from a solution to the problem.  Recognizing what Sammy is agonizing over, she admits, "I think I can help you with this, but not within the space of a school lunch period.  I'm sorry.  If you want to meet after school sometime, that would be alright."

"That would be great.  Thank you."  Sammy smiles gratefully at Laney.  "I feel dumb that I didn't notice them all sitting over there.  If you guys want to move...?"  She picks up a pencil.  "And before you ask, Laney, yes, El knows, and no, he's not paranormal.  He's just El."

"Ye-e-es?"

[I realize I quoted the wrong bit of text in that earlier post.  Sylvia's talking to Dave, not Donnie.]

With Rhys in tow, Alicia makes it to the new table. She eyes Sylvia up and down, but doesn't say anything.

She addresses Donnie as she takes a seat, "Hey, Lagartijo. We're on the spot to go have a talk with that Poindexter guy. How do you want to have it go down?"

It's unlikely John didn't hear her.  But he probably never would have associated the term loverboy to mean him.


"They being Universal Studios?"  Dave says.

"They stopped doing that back in the 90s."  Greg says with a grin as he comes up for a drink and some chips.  "Now they just put you in one of those Feel Good Comedies with Robin Williams that makes you wish you were on another planet."

Sylvia gets up and wanders to the cafeteria line.  But not really.

And it serves to confuse Laney.



"He seems nice.  Kindof cute, too.  Does he help with - oh, I guess that's not something to talk about here, huh?  Um...Just call me whenever.  I don't do anything after school, anyway."

Once they've settled at the new homestead, Laney munches on an apple, listening.

"No! I was just doing an ET impression! Get it?" out comes the teative index finger "El-ee-ott!" he croaks. "Ah nevermind.


"Hello again, Alicia, and New Kid. What does Lag-arr-tee-oo mean?"

Alicia sniffs. "His name is Ree-is. He's no longer the new kid. We've got Wallflower Power here to take the spot." She good-naturedly points a thumb at Laney.

"Lagartijo means 'lizard.' As in green and scaly." She grins. "and your pronunciation stinks."

She waves the words away and leans forward conspiratorially. "But let's get to bidness. You got any ideas on how we chat the geek up?"

Laney looks up with a blank expression.

"Huh?  Have I met this Poindexter person?"

Donnie grins. "Ree-is is New Kid until our Lord and Master Sarah says otherwise. I am taking Latin instead of Espanol anyway." His grin widens. "Spanish is for those that can't hack a real language course."  His grin makes it plain he's poking fun, seeing if she plays the game or gets mad instead.

Or maybe he just has a deathwish. "I know some basic words and phrases. 'Donde es el bano' and 'uno mas cervesa, por favor.' I also know not to call a latino lady 'puta' unless I want my teeth kicked in."


ooc Bill does not know how to make the accent mark above his letters, so do not be offended just due to my failings on that account.

Sammy just nods and smiles in response to the comments about El, and says "I could always come over to your place if you want to reassure your family about your friends.  I clean up okay."

***

After settling down in a random spot at the new table, Sammy looks around and comments.  "Feels weird here."  She gets back into her homework, and occasionally takes a bite out of her sandwich.

Her danger sense is alerted when Donnie's deathwish words break through the white noise of the chatter.  "Hoo boy."

Jakob ambles into the lunchroom and actually manages to notice that the group has migrated to a different table.  He takes special care to test the air as he approaches and as he doesn't smell the stink of excessive angst or notice anyone seemingly ready to break out into tears, fisticuffs, or - heaven forbid - song, he takes a seat at the table.

"What's up, guys?  Sorry I've been a little scarce lately.  My uncle got the dumb idea of putting on a new roof - in the middle of the freakin' winter - and we've been hard at it over the last few days."

He begins the process of unloading his lunch bag.

"Anything happening that I should know about?"

Sammy makes sure Jakob and Laney are introduced.

Alicia makes a rude noise. "Latin's a dead language. Only stuffy professors know that stuff."

She raises her noise. "Spanish is a beautiful poetic language. All the best love poems are in Spanish."


"Damn straight. And your pronunciation still stinks. But, hey, here's a tip. If you want to make a Latino your friend for life, just call him a 'pendejo'." She smiles sweetly.

Rhys rolls his eyes at Donnie. "Come on, man. It's one syllable and not that hard to pronounce. 'Reese.' I put up with it from Alicia because..." he throws her a sideways glance and wry smile. "Because she's a hot latin chick that could kick my ass into next Tuesday."

Alicia doesn't even react to her statement.

“Oh!  That’s um…No, that’s not a very nice word to use.   Latin was kindof dull.  I took two years of it; no more.  It’s just as well.  I was fine with the grammar; my vocabulary, though…I’ve forgotten most of it.   It’s kindof messy…”   Wow. Could you have made any less sense?  Her minimal attempts to socialize failing with diminishing chances of getting an answer to her question, Laney turns back to Sammy. 

“Yes, I could even pick you up later or come over later.  It doesn’t have to be right after school...” and then she looks up and smiles at Jakob.

“I guess if it has to be done, it has to be done.   I’m not allowed on the roof anymore.”  Just shut up, moron.   “Jakob, right?”

"Aw, pituso," Alicia coos, lovingly leaning against him. "You say the sweetest things."

"That'd be me."

He's mildly preoccupied with choosing which of the four sandwiches he want to eat first.

Alicia stares at Laney for a second then finally says in a deadpan voice, "Wow. and they put me in Remedial English."

Turning back to Donnie. "Okay, enough with the language lessons. Are we doing this or not?"

"Actually it's the not just professors.  Doctors use it too."  John says.


"And Klingon."  Rob and Greg say at almost the exact same time.  Then they give each other a high five.

Sammy kicks in some information.  "There's a guy who might know something about some of the things happening here at school.  He's the robot expert in the Science Club.  A few people will probably be asking him some questions.  Last time anybody tried this with him, he became highly offended."


"It'll probably be later.  I need to go with El first, and even that won't be until after band practice.  Laney's helping me with some math," Sammy explains to the group at large.

"Oh yeah," Alicia says in exaggerated sarcasm. "To describe intestinal tumors. That's real romantic."


Alicia spares a glance at the two and shakes her head. "Chichones."

"Really?" asks Sammy.  "My sister is taking a poetry class at college.  They read translated love poems written by ancient latin poets.  She thought I would like this one."  Sammy closes her eyes and tries to remember the words.  She softly says,

"Let us live, my Lesbia, let us love,
and all the talk of the stern old men,
may it be worth a penny!
Suns may set, and suns may rise again:
but when our brief light has set,
night is one long everlasting sleep.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then another thousand, and then another hundred,
and, when we've counted up the many thousands,
let us confuse them so as not to know them all,
so that no enemy may cast an evil eye,
when he finds out that there were so many kisses."

Sammy opens her eyes and smiles.  "Isn't that pretty?"

Rhys sniggers. He simply can't help himself.  ;)

Alicia sits quietly for a second. Then she consciously makes a point of shrugging. "Well, it certainly beats 'There once was a man from Nantucket.'"

He gets a hard poke on his side from Alicia.

"Ooh, Catullus." Colin says, arriving right in that moment. "How has he come up? St. Valentine in the air already?"

Alicia throws up her hands. "I give up."

She burrows in her bag and produces her lunch, which proceeds to lay out in front of her.

Sammy beams a bright smile at Colin.  "Thank you for knowing that!"

"See? Latin is far from a dead language. It is the progenitor of so many languages in use today, including your beloved one."


"Yes. We have two ways to approach this in regards to you. We can play up the fact you constantly get in trouble. You've been stuck in the newspaper with the rest of us hopeless geeks and I am dragging you along on a story lead. Or, you could actually be interested in the subject. I am going to talk to him and get his opinion on the damage to the two construction sites, implying that they might be rogue robots. He'll probably shoot that down and then I will start asking more interesting questions. Either way, can you keep an eye on the other sci-club members? If any of them seem to get freaked out or worried about any of my questions, we'll peg them for later interviews."

Alicia thinks on this as she chews on a bit of tuna salad.

"Okay. Not to be contrary, but wouldn't your girlfriend be better suited for that sort of stuff? Or is she too busy applying for the Kurt Cobain Groupie Club to help out?"

Sammy's pencil point snaps.  "Dammit." She brushes the errant graphite away, and pulls another one out of her bag.

Alicia's attention remains fixed on Donnie, a mild expression on her face.

"Maybe Donnie thought that you'd like to help out.  Watch his back.  Sylvia's talents lie more at being subtle.  And everyone knows Sylvia and Donnie are an item.  If you look a guy over, it's not like someone's girlfriend flirting right in front of the boyfriend."  Dave's voice is dull, and he doesn't bother to look up from his book.  "If you'd rather not help, maybe Sarah will."

"Sarah's with Colin.  He looks mild mannered, but anybody with any sense knows that he'd rip the lungs out of any guy who made a pass at his girl."  Sammy waggles her eyebrows at Colin.  "Laney might be able to do it.  She's really new, nobody knows anything about her at all, and she's not seeing anybody yet."

Alicia shrugs. "I'm not saying I ain't up for it. I was just curious."

Addressing Donnie, she continues. "So we meet up with him during one of their meetings, to make sure the... what'cha call a group of geeks? A nerd-herd? Anyway, so we check him out when he's in the crowd. You ask while I scan. Okay. What's the time and place?"

"Perhaps I also wanted to see if you can do anything besides look slinky or try to rip people's face off. We try to do the right thing Alicia. Sammy would not have bothered with you if there was not a reason to. Otherwise you would already be on our shitlist instead of eating lunch with us. I trust Sammy. Colin has already seen a little of what's inside you, and he hasn't done or said anything. I rely on his insight more than anyone else's, even my own. I said some pretty mean things last week to you for going after Sylvia, and yet here I am wanting to work with you. Chances, Alicia. We are showing you how we work, in hopes you will want to continue to work with us. We trust each other, we rely on each other, and we care about each other. Do you want to be a part of the Usual Suspects?"

Colin takes a slight bow. "I strive to serve."


Colin raises his eyebrows. "That sounds so primitive. Am I really like that? I usually try to be a man of the 21st century, and that includes a) not treating your girlfriend as a property, and b) in my specific case, admitting that my girlfriend is much more bad ass than me, and that she doesn't need me to be her knight in shining armor."


Colin winces. "Being a part of the Usual Suspects also includes accepting Donnie for what he is and forgiving the way he has with words. There is no admission test." he says apologetically, then he tries to change topic. "Why exactly are we planning to... flirt with Preston instead of just talking with him? The guy's not stupid."

She had appeared lost in her own musings for a time.  At the sound of her own name, she looks up at the crowd and, in a barely audible voice asks, "Why are you so upset over talking to one person?  What did he do?"

Alicia fixes her gaze steadily at Donnie for seconds after his little speech.

Finally, she nods as if accepting the gauntlet thrown at her face.

"Nice speech. Did you practice much in front of the mirror before trying it out on me?"

She leans forward. "Have you considered the possibility that the reason you see me as just a face-ripping skank is because that's all you've bothered to see? I know your type, Donny-brook. Everything's black and white for you, right and wrong, my way or the highway.

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, green-eyes, but the big bad world out there? It takes naive little boys like you, chews 'em up, and craps what's left on the sidewalk. And until you get off your high horse and actually live with the s**t that this world is filled with, you can take your holier-than-thou attitude and shove it right next to the stick up your ass.

"For your information, I have been trying to work with you, and as far as I can see, you're the only one bitching about it. So you can just cut this 'we' and 'us' bulls**t. It's not 'The Usual Suspects'," she says the name mockingly, "that has a problem with me, it's you. So put or shut up."

She keeps her pose, staring at Donnie, leaning forward, her pose simultaneously relaxed and tense.


Without moving a muscle, Alicia replies, "Don't cover for him, Colin. Donnie wants to play this hand, let him show his cards.

"And for the record, we weren't planning to feel Preston up, just talk to him. It was Captain Righteous here who seems to assume the only thing I can do is be eye-candy."

"And if we knew that."  Greg says, "We could move on to scene twenty-seven where There is a daring rescue and a car chase."

"No car chase.  Only Dave and Laney have driver's licenses."  Rob says before taking a sip of soda.

"What!  This is outrageous."  Greg says in mock anger.  "I can't work under these conditions."


"Yes, we know you've had it rough.  Obviously none of us could know how rough, since we're all just kids from the burbs.  We didn't have to live with being different our whole lives.  We've never had to hide our true selves from the people that might have cared for us.  We've never had someone try to destroy our lives, kill us, our friends, our family.  We've always known just the right thing to do, so we've never had to struggle with our inner demons and make the conscious decision to do the hard thing.  The right thing.  We could all learn a lot from you.  With your worldly experience, we should be looking to you for guidance.  We should all be just like you."  Anyone near John can feel heat radiating off of him more intensely than usual.  His words were calm, almost conversational.

Sylvia, sitting invisibly next to Donnie, rolls her eyes, her own suppressed anger simmering under her skin.  She's had this anger a long time, though, and today she's the master of it.

Dave looks up from his book.  "Gee, I wonder if maybe Donnie's mad that you tried to attack his girlfriend.  which you did because of some inner reason we don't know, because you never shared.  and yet, because Sammy has essentially vouched for you with her own blood he's put that as behind him as he can.  Keep in mind though, we all are a bunch of teenagers and suffer with immaturity, I personally would have just had you arrested."  He shifts his gaze towards Donnie.  "Dude.  You are sort of sitting up pretty high from the sounds of that little speech.  But you are the noble academic type, so it's to be expected."  He looks towards the empty seat Sylvia was in.  "And Sylvia cracks me up.  I'll bet a dollar she's not really in the lunch line, she's still sitting right there next to you.  She's ready to take on criminals, but Alicia, hell no.  Avoidance is the best policy there."  He looks at John.  "and sir, you're not very good at that.  You don't articulate well when you're mad."  He puts his book away and stands up.  "And I'm invoking the STFU rule.  I don't have to listen to you guys bicker.  I can just go back to being a slacker, it wasn't as much fun as helping you guys fight crime and stop bad people from hurting other people, but at least I didn't have to hear this sort of petty shit."  And then he turns to go.

"Wow."  Greg says.  "I don't think I've heard him say that much since he reviewed Battlefield Earth."

Sammy giggles.  "I was exaggerating.  A little.  OK, a lot.  I do know you'd defend Sarah with everything you have, if she wanted or needed it."

"Turn that narrow gaze back on yourself Alicia. First and foremost I have not called you any names since I lost my temper with you last week. You constantly insult me and I feel I have done a pretty good job turning the other cheek. I can take a few insults, for now. As far as slinky face-ripper, those are about the only sides of you I have seen. I have seen you at lunch here most days, and once after school. Here you are all over Rhys through most of lunch, pushing the no PDA policies to the limit. The one time I see you outside of school, you sneak away with Rhys for some, whatever, and the next time I see you you and Jack are going at it like master martial artists. You then insulted me and went off to sulk. You aren't showing many cards here Alicia.

As far as my experience? Well, I was hoping to talk to you a bit more without the big audience, but you want it now. You aren't the only one who has had their memories fucked with and been used as a tool. Torrance did that to me. She slipped into my mind, slit apart some memories and inserted some fake ones that led me to believe that Elrod had mortally insulted Sammy. I went to his house in the middle of the night, and when he answered the door, I beat the living hell out of him. I put him in the hospital. Cracked his skull, broke much of his face, several ribs. The only reason he didn't require reconstructive surgery was Colin's intervention. Among many other things, he's a healer. The most horrifying thing about it? Until my memories were reconnected, I enjoyed doing that to him. I liked the power. I liked the fact I nearly beat a guy to death. Someone who did absolutely nothing to deserve it besides turn Torrance down when she wanted him. I have to live with that memory of enjoying hurting someone who did not deserve it for the rest of my life. It makes me sick to my stomach. So if you want to throw down the 'I been through shit and you haven't' line, you should be aware you ain't unique, honey.

I don't know your history, and from what you admitted you don't know much of it either. You've faced a life of difficulty, but don't assume that just because we look normal, we haven't had to make some serious and painful decisions ourselves. I had foreign gunmen in my house that attempted to murder me and my family for what I am. I've had superman-hopped thugs with baseball bats come after me what, three times now? I've had friends die, others driven nearly mad. People have tried to sacrifice my friends to increase their on power on several occassions. We've dealt with adversity quite a bit."


[quote author=NestorDRod link=topic=6611.msg217832#msg217832 date=
Without moving a muscle, Alicia replies, "Don't cover for him, Colin. Donnie wants to play this hand, let him show his cards.

"And for the record, we weren't planning to feel Preston up, just talk to him. It was Captain Righteous here who seems to assume the only thing I can do is be eye-candy."
[/quote]

"You seem to have forgotten what I suggested you do. Use those highly tuned senses to notice things I would not. I said not one thing about flirting with him, or coming on to him, or anything related to that. I suggested that I be the one talking to him because he knows me. Not well, but knows I am on the paper, knows I am connected to the rest of the people here. You are an unknown quality to him."

He turns to Dave. "Sorry to make your lunch uncomfortable, man. I really didn't mean to. Hopefully we'll get back to the kicking bad people butt real soon."

By this time Sammy has shut her own book.  "Dave, can I come with you?" she quietly asks. "Because this is more than I signed up for."  She looks at Alicia.  "You have good inside of you.  I wouldn't have taken a chance on you otherwise.  But this..." she gestures uselessly with her hands "crap, has got to stop.  You've been agonizing over what is the 'real you'?  People only see the face you put on yourself, and they come to believe it.  Their eyes and their thoughts become your prison and your cell, and you come to believe that what they see is true because its what you show because its what they expect because its all they know from you... if you really want to do right by your mom and Rhys and yourself, and give things a fresh start, then cut it out.  Back down a notch or three.  Until then, I can't try to help you any more, because frankly, your level of problem is way out of my league, and you're making me a nervous wreck worrying about you.  I have enough on my own shoulders, I can't carry all of your baggage too."  By this point she's in tears and is having trouble talking.  "I'm sorry if I'm letting you down."  She shoves her books into her pack, stands up and pushes past Dave at a run.

Rhys has the good grace to at least look embarassed, but stays out of the conflict.

Sylvia is quiet, focused, ready and waiting for Alicia to go flying across the table again.  She's got Donnie's back, and she means business.

Laney stares vacantly at the apple in her bandaged hand, the little nibbles in the fruit formed a fractal design.  She hadn't noticed she was doing this until now, while the hostility and arguments, the crying surround her and thread together, a binding pressure in her head.  If she could find the right cord, remove that one link, the whole thing would unravel, and she would be free.   Or cut them all and see what falls.

Donnie reaches out a hand "Sammy-" but let's it fall as she exits the area. "I did not want her to hear about that. I never talked to her about that night."

Alicia sits silent, as everyone brings up their arguments. She doesn't say anything, make any motion, except for her jaw clenching and her skin paling when Donnie describes his own experiences, and her eyes closing when Sammy says her peice and leaves.

It's easy to tell from the tightness in her muscles and the thinness of her lips that she's holding an outburst of emotion in by force of will. Finally, slowly, she rises from her seat.

She faces Donnie, but her voice addresses the table in a tight, clipped voice. "Just. Stop. Judging. Me." It's hard to say if the words are a demand, or an appeal.

In the same slow, controlled manner, she turns and walks out of the cafeteria, leaving her lunch, schoolbag and coat behind.

The fire suppression sprinklers pop, and a rain of cold water begins to fall into the room, drenching Everyone before they make it from the room, save for Sammy who was running out.

It is a theater of chaos as people struggle to cover books and papers, scrambling to get things picked up and flee.  A few people simply open umbrellas.  There are startled screams, and laughs.  And yelling.

Laney remains seated, gazes up at the ceiling in quiet acceptance as the chill water soaks through her clothing and pastes her hair to her cheeks in long, black tendrils.  Can't get worse.

Donnie just sits there. "Perfect." He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes and face in weariness, then reaches under the table and makes sure his cell phone and PDA are deep in his backpack. "John, did you smell smoke or anything?"

Rhys calmly collects all of Alicia's things and, along with all of his own things, follows her out of the cafeteria as best he can in the chaos. He looks for her wherever he thinks to.

Colin has his raincoat on and looks guiltily around.

"I have to admit I was thinking of something like this, and I made it happen twice already, but I don't know if it was me this time."

Sylvia appears in the seat next to Donnie.  "My boots," she says dismally.  "Colin, if it was you, expect retribution."

Donnie looks at Colin, a droll expression on his face. "And you happen to have your raincoat on?"

"I..no."  John says as he stuffs his belongings into his pack."

It's not long before the principal is at the doors urging everyone to exit the cafeteria calmly, and reassuring them there is no fire that it's just an isolated malfunction of the sprinklers in the cafeteria.

John sits looking at Laney as people make their way out.

Leaving the sodden remains of her bagged lunch at the table, Laney grasps the strap of her backpack and sloshes through the puddles, silently wandering towards the exit in a kind of daze.

"I didn't. I'm just quick." He keeps munching on his sandwich on the way out.

"If you can't be seen, you can't complain. What's the problem with your boots?" he says, looking at them.

"I'd vote for finishing lunch at Tasty Dog," Sylvia says, "but we'll freeze to death getting there.  I'm going to go find Sammy and see if she can work up an indoor sirocco so we don't die of pneumonia."


"They're new," she complains, without any real malice.  "And now I'm getting water in them."

Alicia is walking to the principal's office. As Rhys approaches, she stops and waits for him to catch up.

Seeing her things in his hands, she says tiredly "Thanks," and reaches for them.

She then waits to see if he'll say anything. She acts completely oblivious to the disaster unfolding in the cafeteria.

Her whole demeanor exudes defeat. Whatever energy had filled her before is now dissolved, vanished.

They dismiss class for the rest of the day to let people go home and get out of wet cloths.

OOC: I will start a new general topic to handle this, and further posts here can be considered the following day at Lunch.


OOC: you may have missed it, she's wet too.

Colin evaluates the situation. "Rolling up your jeans should do the trick."

He looks around. "Sarah's probably safe in the newsroom. But Laney...?"

The next day the North Cafeteria is open once again.  The sprinkler system has been fixed, and the mess cleaned up.  The room has a fresh scent, even with the masses crowded into it.  Dave and the guys are at the old table.  There is a sign on the one they had occupied the day before that simply read CURSED TABLE.  Sit here at your own risk.  It was obviously in Greg's neat hand writing.

Dave, Rob, and Greg are back in their usual seats.  They are debating the merits of a remake to tell an old story to a new audience.  Greg routinely seems shocked by some of the things his friends say.

Sylvia slides into a seat on the Dave-Rob-Greg end of the table while she waits for Donnie to show up.  She finds it easy to get caught up in the analysis of story and movies:  who doesn't think he or she is an expert?

"Stories are always retold," she says.  "The idea of a story's having specificity and a static identity emerged only with the introduction of copyright.  Before that they were meant for retelling.  That was the whole point of writing them down."

Sylvia gets pulled into the discussion, which is essentially Dave saying 'remakes suck most of the time' and Greg trying to get him to appreciate the nuances of the way the story is told, but then essentially agreeing with him and faulting screen writers that loose site of the story and directors that think FX are what makes a movie.  Rob munches on his lunch and nods a lot, pointing to one or the other when they make a good point.

Sammy enters the cafeteria and looks around cautiously.  I could just sit with Heather or Janie.  After a moment of indecision, she walks over and slides into a seat on the other side of D/R/G.  She looks at the tremendous trio and says, kind of quietly, "I'm sorry for my part of the angst fest yesterday.  I've been feeling like the monkey in the middle trying to defend all of you and Alicia from each other, and I just couldn't deal with it anymore."

"It was the table."  Greg says.  "Obviously cursed.  I put out a warning sign."  He leans into Sammy and smiles.

Dave looks up from his book.  "I made sure her and Rhys got to her place.  She seems okay, sometimes.  we forgive you."  he says the last part with a grin.

"Hey, I played a part in one of the worst nights of your life.  I got no room to judge."  Rob says, offering her a Cheeto, "Cheese flavored crunch?"

"Hi, Sammy," Sylvia sings, feeling invisible even though she's not.  At least she thinks she's not.  Rob was just talking to her, wasn't he?

Sammy accepts the cheeto.  "Thanks, guys.  Hi, Sylvia.  I'm sorry to you too.  I tried to help her, but it was just too big for me."

"Greg-- do you know if I'm expected to try out for the spring play?  I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day anymore."

"You don't have to apologize to me," Sylvia says playfully.  "I just need your love, too."

"There is some debate as to what it will be, and if it will be.  School board is talking about funding cuts.  And the arts programs are the first to go.  So we'll see what happens."

"But I do love you Syl!  Why would I toss myself in front of Alicia and let her slash me up instead of you if I didn't?"  She tries to leer lasciviously.  "Besides, I can't be too openly affectionate.  Donnie would feel left out."

"I don't know.  From what I hear, guys sometimes think of love as a spectator sport.  Big payoff for almost no effort.  Right, guys?"

Sarah joins the table out of sheer self defense.  She woke up in an empty school yesterday afternoon because no one had bothered to phone her!!!
She comes wandering up at an apparently juicy point of the conversation.  "I don't think Donnie would feel left out.  Especially if you both invited him.  Then woke him back up from the faint and invited him again."

Dave shrugs.  Greg looks to be deep in thought on the topic.  Rob nods enthusiastically and offers her a Cheeto.

"Good thinking.  You're invited too.  You can bamf him to the hospital when he goes into cardiac arrest at the sight of the three of us."

Sylvia accepts the Cheeto like the Academy award before crunching it down.

Rob raises a hand, "I could serve as his second, I mean if the need arises."

Sammy smiles sweetly and leans over toward him.  "Sure.  The more body heat the better.  I get chilly so easily."  She shivers dramatically and plucks away the cheeto he holds in his free hand, crunching it with gusto.

Sylvia isn't willing to go as far for the joke, but she can admire Sammy's chutzpah from her chair.

Rob smiles, "I love high school."  he says, going back to eating his lunch.

Sammy settles back into her seat, her hair brushing against Greg's chest for just a moment as she moves back away from Rob.

Time to test the smell theory again.  Let's go to the hidden cameras and watch.

Greg moves some of her hair off his shoulder, in an obvious manner.  "What, no lemon scent today?"

"No.  I got tired of smelling like furniture polish."

Cool.  It might not be as strong as Mom's was.  That'll make things easier.

Donnie strolls in and leans down to give a quick peck on the cheek to Sylvia. "Afternoon everyone." He looks at Rob. "What's with the cheshire cat grin?"

Sarah just rolls her eyes at the "Last Virgin in Chicago" and opens up her lunch.  "So why didn't anyone wake me yesterday?  What happened?  I nodded off in the news room and nobody is in the building when I wake up.  It was a little disconcerting."

"We're talking about sex," Sylvia says.  "You, me, Sammy, Sarah--probably out in an alley on a dark night on a dirty mattress.  Should you fail in your duties as Mr. Big Love, your runner-up, Rob, will be made Mr. Big Love in your place.  I'd watch your back, sweetie."

Sarah coughs on her sandwich.  She takes a drink of chocolate milk and refrains from saying a word.

"I looked in on you before I drove Alicia and Rhys home."  Dave says, "You were sleeping so peacfully I didn't want to wake you."


"Dude, I was just offering to cover for you in the event you couldn't be there is all."  he offers donnie a Cheeto.

Rhys walks up to the table just in time to hear this. He stands still for a moment, one eye twitching and a stupid grin on his face.

"I think I'm gonna have to re-boot my brain after hearing that..."

Sylvia looks at Rhys, eyes searching the space around him and behind him.  "Bore da," she chirps, not terribly.  "You look like you're missing something."

Rhys is momentarily surprised by Sylvia's greeting in Welsh. "Very good! Bore da to you, as well."

He takes a seat.

"Alicia thought it best if she stayed away for a little while to let things cool down. She didn't mind me still coming, though, mostly because I need to at least try to be a peacekeeper. I know it's lame for me to apologize for her, so I'm not going to do it, but she really is sorry. And so am I, really. I should have stepped in and tried to not let it get so out of control."

Donnie freezes as his brain processes this, blinks several times, than asks "Does it have to be a dirty matress? If we upgrade to a hotel, I'll even bring flowers. And Dude, " he says, turning back to Rob and acceptign the cheeto, "with these three I will definately need back-up."

"O-oh-kay," Sylvia says, and tries not to let herself skip a beat.  "I'll bring the nurse costumes and the alcohol wipes."


Sylvia draws breath as if she's about to say something, but letting Alicia sort herself out seems like the best plan.  She shrugs and nods.  "Sit down.  You are not her symbiote.  You are not to be held responsible."

Donnie shrugs. "My little speech was kind of high handed. I only wanted her to see that being with us can serve a greater purpose. I wasn't kidding that we rely on each other immeasurably, but sha has to want that too. Colin told me it was too much, too soon. Maybe after Jack sorts her out a bit and gets rid of some of that energy and built up frustration, she'll be more open to.. whatever my point was. Sorry, I'm still a little distracted." He eyes Sylvia with a sardonic smile. "Plus, it's really not your job to do so. You're adjusting to life in Oak Park same as her."

Rhys listens to both arguments and concedes graciously. "Thank you, both of you. I know I don't need to, but I want to. It's not my responsibility - and I know that - but I want to help in any way I can to heal this rift. It seems to me that there was a lot of getting-off-on-the-wrong-foot involved, and it wasn't all Alicia. It was mostly her, though...

"So, anyway, I can take her place to go talk to Preston, since I'm an unknown quantity, too. If you want."

"There's no rift," Sylvia says.  "She's easily upset.  We're easily upsetting.  Not getting along is the inevitable result.  It's not war or anything."

Jakob walks into the lunchroom and finds his friends at the new old table.

He isn't carrying a lunch bag.

"Greetings, all," he says as he takes a seat.  "What's today's argument about?"

Sylvia's fielding everything today.  "Dirty mattress versus four-star hotel.  What's your preference?"

Sammy clams up when Rhys shows, for many reasons, Alicia and the nature of the conversation just ending being top among them.  She finds herself an inch closer to Greg than she had been when she first sat down, even after she leaned across him to torment Rob.  Her expression is sad, but resolute.  She can't get back into the middle of this.  She'll help Alicia where she can, but she can't support Alicia alone, and she can't support her at all if Alicia doesn't actively cooperate.


On top of a piano in a conservatory.

Sylvia dimples.  With the candlestick, Miss Scarlet?

Rob raises a hand, "With flowers and three hot babes.  That is a critical element to your decision."

Sammy blushes furiously, caught red-handed.  Or something like that.

Sorry for broadcasting.  Daydreaming.

Sylvia smiles it off.

Donnie eyes Jakob suspiciously. "Where's the small refrigerator's worth of food you usually lug around when you join us for lunch?"

Sarah suggests, "The Peninsula or the Park-Hyatt."  She adds a little shyly, "I hear they're pretty nice."  Then she glares at Sylvia, "Not that I will be joining your fun fest you lecherous wench."
At least not until I've had some practice with one person first.  Then move on to naked twister or something.  There's got to be some sort of steadily increasing level of difficulty before you get to that.

She should not wear white.  With her dark hair long and loose, it accentuates her natural pallor.  No humor in her eyes when she notices the sign the boys placed at that table; her lips tighten and she quickly looks away. 

Intending to ask Sammy if it's alright if she joins them, Laney closes the distance to the psycho geek table until:




She sent him in her place?  So it's true then.  Bullies really are cowards.  I wonder what else Dad said was true...What else did I miss?  What have I forgotten?

The conversation drifts on without Laney as witness.   
She stands silently musing over tradition and wisdom lost between parents and offspring through generations.  Has anything changed over the centuries?  Will she say the same to her own children; will they ignore it, too?  She's certain if she studies it closely enough, she can unravel that mystery - But her eyes catch a glimpse of her lunchbag; the paper is twisted in a distracting configuration between her curled fingers.  Did she make that pattern on purpose? - Even more demanding of her limited attention is the tiled floor beyond.   It isn't the same design as yesterday, she's sure of this.  A recent waxing after that bizarre sprinkler incident changed how the light reflects in the room, changed how food slides when it falls, changed how the students tread...Changed everything...

"Coming to sit with us, or thinking maybe no?"  John says from beside Laney.  "We're not really too bad.  Once you get to know us."

Her tension melts into a friendly smile for John.   
"Hi.  Um...May I?  Um...is there room?

"Oh!  Did you try the violets, yet?"

Sammy sees Laney standing there, deep in her own thoughts.  She gets up and goes over to the other girl's side.  



"I have another option, if we're too much. I could introduce you to some of my very normal, ordinary friends.  Most of them don't have a clue I'm different; if they do, they're not telling.  So its these guys, my band friends, or some of the drama club kids."  She smiles affectionately.  "My friend Nick could make someone who took a vow of silence scream with laughter.  You would probably like being around him.  I think he'd be glad if I visited too.  So would Heather and Janie at the band table.  It could expand your social circle past the freaks and geeks."

"Nono, they're fine.  I mean, yes, I'd love to meet your other friends, too, but um...You don't need to leave for my sake.  I'm alright.  I don't mean to be a bother.  Oh, and I really did mean it when I said I'd help you study whenever.  I'm sorry about yesterday.  I should've made sure things were alright.  I never know when to interfere..."   She looks around the cafeteria as if she could pick out those Sammy spoke of.

"Hmm.  In that situation I think there's something to be said about a hayloft.  I guess that puts me closer to the dirty mattress side."

"Oh, that... I figured that it's rare that I usually actually get to eat my lunch here - you know, sprinkler incidents, hormone spillover, steel-cage death matches, killer robots, other-dimensional bogies - so I've been picking at it all day between classes."

"That is a very smart idea," offers Sarah.  "On the other hand if it weren't for the constant debacle of the lunch table mayhem I'd probably weigh twenty pounds more than I do.  Maybe we should patent it as the Super Teen Diet?"

John looks between Sammy and Laney a few times.  "There's room, let's go sit and eat and relax some."

That was all the encouragement Laney needed.   With a small wave to the others already seated, she slides into a chair beside John.

While she nibbles on an apple, the room expands in her sight; she marks windows and exits and faces.  So many faces.   Some, she thought, might be friends.   This makes her smile just a little.   Then she continues mapping the room...

She doesn't ask about the violets again.

Sarah smiles at John, Laney and Samantha Jameson as they come over to the table.  "Howdy.  Make yourselves comfortable.  I had a premonition that today's lunch would be much quieter so no worries about explosions, fights, robots, aliens, witches, obsessed fanboys, or probably even any spilled milk.  I can not vouch for the caf stew."

"Aliens and witches?"  Taking Sarah's words literally, she could do nothing but stare in shock.

Sarah blushes, having forgotten to who she was addressing her usual flippant comments.  "Oops," she starts by way of explanation.  "Sorry Laney, I was just being silly.  I just meant that I thought today would be a nice quiet lunch."  Better not tell her just yet that we've fought witches and I've got an actual factual alien voice in my head every so often.  Heck none of the newbies know that one yet.  I'm not even sure I ever mentioned it to John for that matter.  It sounds a little crazy.  Crazier than everything else.  Which is driving naked the wrong way down the freeway crazy to begin with.  Though technically I still have absolutely no proof that Morpheus is an alien and not just some powerful mentalist like BJ.  Save that one for later.

"Food."  John says, taking his lunch from his bag he begins to eat.

"Calf stew?" asks Rhys, his attention obviously piqued. "Where?"

"Um...quiet...right..."  She looks up at the ceiling expectantly.

Sarah looks at New Boy suspiciously.  "Caf.  Cafeteria?  No veal.  Though technically whatever meat is in there is fairly unidentifiable so who can really be sure.  Besides, if Sylvia ever found out about it there'd be...trouble.  And I said there would be no trouble today.  So clearly there is no calf."

Sammy slides back into her seat next to Greg and whispers, "Greg.  We need to help Laney to meet some people that are normal.  Well, more normal. Nick and his friends, maybe?  They're nice enough.  Are they normal enough?"

"I'll take normal to mean don't fly, move faster than a speeding bullet or read minds."  He whispers smiling.  "Not a problem.  I'm sure I can make some introductions and find her a place in the normal old drama club crowd."

"Cool.  Thank you.  Say hi to Nick for me."

"You should say hi yourself.  He's trying to work up the courage to talk to you.  And he's really not very good at courage."

Sammy is saddened at those words.  "Aww... "  She pushes around her food.  "Maybe I'll call him.  That should be safe enough."

"Calling is safer than in person.  I know he feels bad about what happened, whatever happened.  We could find someone else to fix him up with, really do some serious damage."  Greg is kidding, and obviously trying not to let the conversation get to heavy.

Sammy rolls her eyes.  "You can only say that because you're immune.  I'll call him."

Donnie, snapping back to reality from his foursome fantasies, hops up from his seat. "I'm getting food. Anyone need anything?" With that he's off to the lunchline.

Sammy snaps back to the present as well, and says "Hold up, Donnie.  I have to go up too."  As she walks alongside of him, she says "Sorry I didn't call you back yesterday.  I was having a rough day, and I went to bed early.  I forgot you had texted me until this morning."

"Least you didn't leave him sleeping in the newsroom when the school closed." quietly grumbles a not really upset Sarah. 

She stares at her napkin intently.  A look long familiar to Dave, Rob and Greg.  As usual no levitation of objects occurs, no pyrokinesis, or transformation into diamonds or flavored coffee drinks.  She sighs.  "Well no change on that front.  Did anyone have any clever ideas as to what to do about Mike or Gina?"

Donnie shivers a little, shovuing his hands in his jeans pockets. "No problem Sam. I just- I have just never discussed with you what happened with Elrod. I.. I didn't want it to come out like that, but at least it has. I just wanted to make sure you didn't utterly hate me now."

Sammy's hands are deep in her own pockets as well. No touch no touch no touch  "I already knew most of it.  I don't hate you.  I've been dealing with a lot of stuff lately, so if I seem odd, its probably me, not you."  She wonders if she should elaborate.  "Thanks for sending around Pip and Dylan.  They've helped.  Dylan is" fascinating, enticing, oh so tempting "nice."

Donnie chuckles. A deep one, manly; a hint of what his laugh might be like in years after he grows to adulthood. "Nice is not a word I would immediately attach to Dylan. He can be pleasant and aloof, but I think devestatingly enticing would more likely be the proper description."  Donnie takes a tray from the stack and hands it to Sammy, then takes one for himself.
"Dylan is like the best and worst parts of me, burned clean of all my hang-ups and issues, and reforged into something lethally beautiful. Dragons are that, if anything. Pip is just all sorts of awesome. Somethimes I think he possesses some sort of empathy. He always seems to know what to do, or how to knock me out of a bad, angry, or sad mood. He's also quite wilful and keeps me in my place whenever possible."

Donnie takes a sandwich, a bag of chips, and his usual two cokes. As they wait to pay, he asks "So what's going on Sam? We haven't really talked in a while. Probably my fault. It usually is."  

Her reply is evasive.  "You already know about most of it, or can guess at it."  She pays for the bowl of rubbery red jello with some dried up whipped cream that she picked up at the very last moment when she realized her tray was still empty.

Donnie snags a cookie and a bag of Sunchips and deposits them on his tray and pays. As they walk from the line, he transfers them over to Sammy's. He stops and looks her full in the face. With one hand, he reaches out  and rests his hand on her arm for a brief moment. "Sammy, whatever we go through, know that I am your friend, and would do anything to try and keep you from getting hurt. I can't help you with heartache, but everything else I will try."

He removes his hand; the moment is past. He grins suddenly, classic fourteen year old Donnie. "Besides, you totally owe me a four-way now." He laughs and turns back towards the US table.

A note of something, a siren's song maybe, creeps into Sammy's voice as she replies.  "Don't laugh too hard, lizard boy.  The idea scares me now, but given what I'm finding out about myself, it could happen, someday."  Her hand flies up over her mouth.  "Oh god Donnie, it wasn't supposed to sound like that!"

Donnie shivers, as the hairs on his arms and neck stand at end. He turns back to Samantha as the grin falters, then resolves again as he waggles his eyebrows lasciviously, obvious through the rising blush. "Well then. I think we can say we're even, airsinger."

He turns and heads back towards the table.

"Uther would be oh so pleased."

And when Donnie comes back to the table, Sylvia is giving him a look that's ninety-nine percent deadly severity and one percent what an optimist would call amusement.

Donnie looks entirely too innocent, eyes wide. "What?"

Sammy turns as red as her jello.  "Or he might not."  Like if, for instance, Dylan got there first.  Or if it turned out Donnie wasn't the center of attention.

Laney glances up from her apple.

"Who's Uther?"

"The school dragon."  Rob says.

"Well, some kids have adopted that idea.  I'm not saying we started the rumor or anything."  Greg adds.

Sammy sits down and shovels in her jello.  If her mouth is full she can't talk.

"Oh that's rich. He's going to be all annoyed, and secretely pleased. His lot are really quiite vain once you get past the bluster."

"I thought the siberian husky was the school mascot.  Were they talking about changing it?    A dragon sounds much better..."  She returns to nibbling on her apple before she can say anything else foolish, realizing there is some private joke going on at her expense.

Man at this rate my 'premonition of no trouble' is going to be blown out to the water in the next five minutes. thinks a slightly worried Sarah as she munches a sandwich.  Maybe we should just get it over with and give her the full show all at once... HEY SYL!  YOU RECEIVING?!?  TESTING 1,2,3!

Sylvia puts her fingertips to her forehead as if she's suffering a sudden migraine.  Loud and clear.  Really loud and clear.  Need something?

Donnie catches a worried look from Sarah and sets down his sandwich. He clasps his hands in front of him and looks seriously at Laney. "Laney, if you are going to be sitting with us more often, there is something you really ought to know about us before you get too entrenched here."

He looks over at Greg, Dave and Rob, then Sylvia, and glancing at Sarah. He ignores her goggle-eyed worry.

He sighs dramatically and closes his eyes. He states "We're gamers." as he opens his eyes, looking comically proud. "Half the people here game regularly. We even play-" >beat< "Dungeons and Dragons sometimes. It can frighten some people, but it's true. Half the crap we talk about makes zero sense unless you're a gamer, so son't feel liek there's some giant mystery about some of the stuff we say. If we break out in Ghostbusters movie lines, wax poetic about the qualities of cheetoes, or say something starting 'remember when-', it's likely gaming stuff. Just thoght you should know."

He picks up and starts eating his sandwich again."Boy it felt good to get that out in the open."

Sylvia gives him a girly power tap on the shoulder.  "Good for you, girlfriend.  Out of the closet and on with your life!"

Laney smiles at Donnie; it's a sweetly patient smile.   Her darkly reflective eyes seem to look through him and past, however, and he might suspect that if a scaled monstrosity of enormous size and fiery breath were to, at this very moment, rip open the roof of the building with its massive claws and scoop up handfuls of howling teenagers to shovel them into its cavernous mouth - thus devouring said cheetos - there would be the same placid acceptance in Laney.

Sarah thinks belatedly to Sylvia, I was just wondering if we should give Laney the whole show at once.  Sort of rip the bandage off approach.  She gives us an incredulous look every time we tell her that strange things happen.  On the other hand she isn't really on board with the whole thing.  I mean any ability she has is like the elephant in the room when we talk to her.  She doesn't think she has one and as far as I know we don't have any real proof.  I mean, do we keep her sitting in on our lunchtime powwows or see if we can't get her some normal friends whose lunchtime chats orient around picking matching outfits for the next day or maybe something more real like some kids interested in politics or social justice or the ecology or something but just thinking that makes me feel like I'm being elitist because she seems nice in a totally clueless way.  I just don't want her to have a melt down the next time something horrible happens.  On the other hand if she got pushed off towards us I'd be curious to know if she really does have a power and whether or not she has any control over it.  I mean if we ditched her now who knows if we wouldn't be hunting her down for some problem later on.  Not that I want to ditch her because that sounded totally wrong... Ah!  Sorry Syl I usually try to keep this rambling in my own head.

No sweat.  What are friends for if you can't borrow their brains from time to time? Sylvia uses Colin like a USB flash drive, after all.  I could search her.  I don't really want to if we don't absolutely have to know what she does, but I'll do it if we're ever in a crunch.

Sarah grins around a bite of sandwich.  We'll call that plan C.  Besides she doesn't have any obvious physical powers so I wouldn't want you getting into a brain fight if she has mental powers other than the ability to disbelieve any suggestion of paranormal power in herself or us.  I'm getting this awful itch to teleport her somewhere.  Course I wont have her join the mile high club like Donnie but maybe a quick trip to the Tasty... No bad Sarah.  Ooh!  What if her ability really was to disbelieve in stuff.  Like she could knock your ability out because she didn't think it was real.  That'd be pretty sweet.

Sylvia's brain seems stuck on the "mile high" thing.  Wait, what was that thing you were just saying?  About the club?  And Donnie?

Did she wake up in the right dimension this morning?  Suddenly cuddly Donnie is the center of smoochy-flirty vibes that are not hers.  All is not right with the universe.

Club Donnie?  Huh?  Sarah pauses and goes back over what she just said. Ohhh sorry I didn't mean.  Heh.  Me and Donnie.  *snicker*  Sorry I didn't mean that.  Well I did but not like, bad.  It's like somebody worried that you were sleeping with your brother.  No matter if he's cute or charming or wonderful or whatever.. he's Donnie.  He's the guy on the other end of the mic shouting 'Get back here Leroy!' When I do something dumbass online or brooding behind a thin cardboard screen after informing us that our lanterns have gone out and a faint dragging noise can be heard coming towards us in the tunnel.  I meant when I tossed Donnie straight up to get him out of his Alicia fuming for the day.  We played catch with Althea.  Much fun of the nearly frostbit kind.  No clothing removed, actually wishing for more and hot coco by the end.

Sylvia's relief is plain on her face.  Oh.  Of course.  Donnie's lost some weight since taking up the Jack Donaldson fitness plan, and it's easier to see his height and his blond hair and his blue eyes.  Sylvia's obviously going to have to do some baking.

Sarah mentally gasps, You were jealous!  Seriously?  Oh my gosh!  I hope you don't ever think any of those menage a numerous are anything real on my part?  I'm not.. I mean Colin and I aren't even.  *mental sigh* Why aren't Colin and I... I mean he's standing on first base and I've been signaling him to at least head to second.  Sorry TMI.  Also I despise baseball so I don't know why I'm involving it in an expression.  Dropping that subject.  You've got enough stuff going on without hearing me whine.

Sylvia's good at keeping secrets, very good at keeping secrets, but for a moment she totters, wanting to spill a source of insecurity that, until now, has been kept between her and her boyfriend.  At last she manages to say only, I could talk to Colin about it.  If he gets upset about it, he'll be upset with me, and he and I won't talk for a while, which is nothing new.

There is a flutter of wings, and a black shadow darts through the lunch room. A blackbird, apparently totally unafraid of humans, perches on the usual suspects' table. It turns toward Rhys, and chirps. It then seems to fly directly to his face, but it zooms up at the last moment to perch on a neon lamp. It chirrups again at Rhys, then flies to the next lamp towards the exit. It seems to indicate it with its head.

Sylvia's response is immediate and urgent.  She finds Colin.  Is something wrong?

It looks like she can't find him anywhere.

Sylvia bolts to her feet.  "Oh crap.  Where's Colin?"

"I'll look around, but if the bird is here, that means he's here, right?"  John doesn't wait for an answer.  A wave of heat radiates off of him and he's gone, a breeze the only sign.

Laney lets out a thrilled giggle at the sight of the bird, but Sylvia soon has her alarmed.

"Why?  Was that bird a pet of Colin's?"

Edit:
She didn't even notice John's vanishing trick because, damn, that was quick.

Rhys instinctively covers his face with his arms when the bird flies at him. But, feeling no attack, lowers them again and watches the bird as it flies toward the exit.


"Does this have something to do with him? Should I follow it?"

Laney stares incredulously at Rhys and asks, "Can you fly, too?"

Then she's quiet a few seconds before thoughtfully adding, "If Colin's not here, and not in class...He's probably in the - ((and she takes a guess where he might be.))"

OOC: News Room is what Laney says.

Sammy's voice betrays her worry.  "I would.  He might need help, and the bird might think you're the one to do it."

"The bird does seem to want your attention, Rhys.  Could it hurt to follow it?" 

Sylvia, panicked by not being able to reach out and establish telepathy with Colin, gives Laney a stare made eerie by fear and forgets herself.  Yes.

He's out of touch, she tells the others.  I can't find him.  I can't find him.

In a mild voice, staring directly at Sylvia, Laney says, "Someplace...Real as an emotion. Real as a thought. But he said he wasn't very good at explaining 'where' it is."

Sylvia takes a second or two to process that and spontaneously faints, collapsing with no undue grace onto the cafeteria furniture.

---

In the astral world, she tries something she's never tried and reaches out for Colin again.  Colin!  She exerts herself in a deafening psychic shout.  COLIN!

That's all Rhys needs to hear. Believing speed may be of the essence, he slips under the table where no one can see him and then shifts into a matching blackbird and flies up to meet the other one and follow it.

In the minor chaos surrounding a girl fainting in the cafeteria, Laney certainly doesn't notice Rhys' disappearing act, either.   The flutter of a second pair of wings distracts her only a second as she slides down from her chair to the floor, kneeling beside Sylvia, first to see if she's wakeful, then to confirm she's still breathing.

Edit:  or table.  wherever.  fainting in a chair with no arm rests has one on the floor in no time.  ::)

Sammy lets loose with an expletive and moves next to Sylvia, really worried now.  Colin's missing, Sylvia has fainted... are we under attack?  She looks to the others for an explanation.

Donnie catches Sylvia as she bonelessly slides down her chair. He looks around, searching for anyone focussed on them or attacking. Unfortunately, summoning dragons or the sword would not help in this situation in any way, so he simply let the others do their work. His powers were too.. flashy.

A little less than a minute later Dave pulls his phone from his pocket and speaks up, "John says Colin and Alicia are in the news room."  Dave looks at Laney, then back to the group in general.  "He thinks Colin is doing some magic."

Rhys follows the black bird through the halls, and it lands on the door handle of the News Room.

Rhys shifts back to himself and opens the door.

"Well then ask him to get his butt back here," Sammy says tersely, "If this is just a faint, Syl's taking way too long to come out of it.  We ought to take her to the nurse's office."

Donnie sags with relief and sits, propping up Sylvia. "Colin probably knows what he's doing. If the sky starts to thunderstorm, we can worry."
""

"It's never just a faint.  It means something's wrong.  People don't faint for no reason, believe it or not.  Yes, she's not waking; she needs medical attention."   Laney murmurs this as she stands and steps back from the others crowding near Sylvia.   She scans the room for teacher to summon...


((and holding here for time differential))

Dave fires off a text message, "One....Two..."  and John is standing next to Sylvia, kneeling gently.  He looks at her in that way he does for a moment.

"She just went limp?" He asks, taking one of her hands in his.

"Yeah. She might have strained something mentally? I don't know.."  Donnie looks worriedly at John. "Should we splashe her with cold water or something?"

"Yes," Sammy answers, "just after panicking about Colin."

Meanwhile, in the tranquil astral zone, where the tempered breezes of rationality soothe the troubled spirits of the psionics who seek solace there, Sylvia searches for her friend, possibly one of her best friends, with the studied focus of a precocious adept--or the raw volume of a five-year-old lost in a grocery store.

"Colin!  Where the--"  Expletives deleted.  "--are you?!"

She doesn't really know her way around her and can't do anything but blunder.  But she knows Smith can travel, so she gives it a crude attempt, powered by nothing but desperation.

[Can she find Colin?  Or hell, anybody.  Might be a nice chance for her to find out who else lives here.]

"She's probably fine.  Her heart rate is normal, breathing is steady.  Let's move her to the news room for some privacy."  John seems calm as he eases her into his arms.

"Here's her stuff."  Sammy scoops up Sylvia's bag(s) and dumps them on Donnie.  "I'm staying here."

"But...the news room?  Why not the nurse's..."  she trails off to silence, sits back down in her chair and simply watches them in confusion.

"She's not hurt, she's probably just run off mentally."  John says, carrying Sylvia from the cafeteria.  Once he's out of the crowd he races the rest of the way, finding a spot to lay her down in the news room.

"Run off?"

There is no logical pattern to this behavior: the bird, searching for Colin, fainting...   None that she could see.   Very disturbed by this, Laney holds her apple in her palm, staring at it so intently her eyes water and the room fades away as she tries to make sense of something.

Colin opens the door to let John in. Inside, Rhys and Alicia seems to be sleeping on a gym mat.

He prompts the director's armchair for her. "Lay her here." he says, and then touches her hand.


The generic landscape of the astral realm is almost featureless. It resembles a gray lake of possibilities, with waves lazily rolling around. It's the will of the visitor that shapes it, and when Colin finds her, Sylvia has almost summoned a tropical storm.

Here. Sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry.

OOC: If we need a thread for this separate from the Colin & Alicia thread we can do that, otherwise I'm just going to move the procession there.

The tropical storm becomes clear and sunny with her relief at laying eyes on him, but she seems to feel some obligation to be severe with him, like a babysitter who catches the kids running with pointy objects.  "You scared the crap out of me.  I thought--"  She shakes her head.  "I thought--"

She can't come up with the specific worry or the words to describe it, and she sort of wants to hug him.  But that would be weird.  This is Colin after all.  "I'd better go back and let the others know you're all right."

Telepathy doesn't work here, remember? That's why you couldn't find me.

He takes a look around.

I'll have to teach you to navigate this place. I'm no expert, but you've only skimmed the surface. Let's go back now.

A wave higher than the others rolls over them, and she finds herself in the news room, in John's arms.

OOC: I have to go out for a few hours. Just the time for Rhys and Alicia to have some privacy and find out about the alien. :)

John sees her eyes open, and he smiles.  "How about warning someone next time you do that?"  He sets her down in a chair, making sure she is back among the living before letting go completely.  "Donnie was right behind me with your stuff."

Sylvia blinks, feeling clear-headed.  She gives John an apologetic look, aware of the irony of having run off to find Colin without warning anyone that she'd be leaving her body behind in their safekeeping.  "Sorry about that.  I thought someone was trying to abduct him again.  I didn't think it would take more than a minute.  Did it?"

"This might not make sense, but I don't perceive time like you do.  Everything takes a long time for me."  He puts his fingers on her wrist.  "Maybe a code ward, or a here, hold my body might be helpful."  He says with a smile. 

She begins to push herself upright, moving slowly in case she bruised something.  Sylvia is beginning to look like a wounded soldier, all gauze and bandages and scars, but it means she's used to pain and used to working around it.  "Oh, sure.  'Hold my body, John.'  Like that's not going to get you chased down and mauled by a flock of dragons."  She grins at him and then looks at Rhys and Alicia.  "Oh.  Her.  In my news room.  Of course.

"I should probably go."

"I'll wait in the hall with you until Donnie gets here."  John says as he helps her out into the hall.

"I needed a quiet place." Colin says apologetically. "And since when is it your news room?"

Colin is in pain. His biology can't hide it from John, and his mind can't hide him from Sylvia. The new tattoo sealing itself burns like a fire brand. Yet his face and voice do a good job of hiding it. Almost as if he was used to it.

As they turn to go, Colin grabs Sylvia's hand. "Thank you for worrying about me, anyway."

"It can be your news room if you want to spend your weekends editing copy and doing layouts," Sylvia sings.  "It's not like I need it for my college apps."


She squeezes his hand in return.  "Are you all right?"

"That looks painful."  John says, pointing towards the new tattoo.  "But I'm not going to tell you how to take care of it, not with all the others you have."

Donnie huffs up, and looks into the room. He is carrying Sylvia's things, and a relieved smile breaks out on his face when he sees her up and about, having a 'moment' with Colin. He kisses her on the cheek, then scolds her. "No more doing brain 'sploding stuff in the middle of the lunchroom without telling anyone first." He waggles his finger at her as he fishes out the remains of her soy-cheese and sprout sandwich.

"I'm going back to lunch."  John says, detaching himself from the group and heading back to the lunch room.

Sylvia smiles at him.  "Sorry.  I should wear a sign around my neck:  'Out of body.  Back in five minutes.'"

"...and to this day, my sister still can't stand the smell of Cheez Whiz!"  Sammy laughs.

(She is making idle chatter to cover the fact that she is worried about Colin and Syl and Alicia and...)

She politely watches Sammy, pretending she listening.   
Laney's not a particularly good actress.

John comes back into the lunch room, finding his seat.  "No crisis.  They're all ok."  He says, unwrapping a power bar from his bag and eating it.  He pulls a few more out and lays them on the table.  "Sylvia did some sort of out of body thing to look for Colin.  I asked her to warn someone next time."

Relieved, Sammy smiles.  A moment later, she snerks.  "Maybe next time we should use an eye pencil to write the words "Vacancy, Apply Within" on her eyelids."

"What about the bird?"

"That's really a question for Colin."  John says.

"Oh!  So it is his pet.  Very clever to have trained it like that.   Where's Rhys?"

"He probably went to find Colin and Alicia after you guessed where Colin was.  How did you do that, anyhow?"

"Do?  Very good odds.  Anyone could've figured that out.  John did, right? There were only a few places he was likely to be.   I'm um...pretty good at guessing."

Laney's pondering the symmetry of her stack of saltine crackers and not paying much attention to the rest of the table at this time.

"John's fast with extraordinarily good hearing.  He probably heard Colin's breathing and followed the sound."

Laney nods, obviously this is not news to her - or she's not listening and has no idea what she's agreeing with, which is difficult to tell by her neutral expression.

Sammy isn't sure if she's being ignored or what.  She leans over and whispers suggestively "Did you know John has five... well, you-knows?"

Sammy is rewarded with a blank stare, absolutely no comprehension in those large, dark eyes.  They do sparkle so; Sammy can see herself in great detail reflected there.

"Whoa!  Fingers.  Five fin...gers.  On each hand."  Sammy stares at her own reflection in the other girl's eyes and whispers.  "John? is this mental vacation thing contagious?"

"On a second thought, I'll humbly request the use of the room, next time, boss." he says, grinning.



"It is." he says. He almost rubs his hand on it, then he thinks better. "But the pain doesn't last too long. Usually in a day or two it's gone. And it comes with a lesson, so there's a bright side. In some places, what doesn't kill you really makes you stronger. Or wiser, at least."

He turns back.

"I'll go get them back too."

Sylvia looks him over.  "If you have enough room on your body for all the lessons you've learned, you're behind the curve, buddy."

Sarah heads back into the lunch room.  She'd ducked out for a minute just before all heck broke out.
"Sorry I was gone so long.  There was this stupid line at two of the bathrooms, must have been the stew so I went home and got side tracked checking my email.  Did I miss anything good?"

"No.  It's one of her.  It's something she can do."  He decides not to use the word powers in front of Laney. 

Laney had returned to staring down at her uneaten lunch, but raises her head and smiles, answering, "A bird flew by to bring Rhys to Alicia and Colin in the news room.  Sylvia and John went looking for Colin, but everyone's fine.  I guess they'll be back soon."

"Oh."  Wide eyes.  "OH."


"Yeah, same old stuff.  Shame about the stew.  I hate when that happens."

"Stew...yes...and lasagna."

Sammy laughs.  "Yeah.  That's why I almost always bring something from home.  Doesn't hurt that my mom can cook, or that she's good at keeping a couple of things going on the stove at the same time.  I only hope I can learn to juggle--"  Sammy comes to a screeching halt, remembering the conversation she had with her mom the night before.  "I like her lasagna."

Sarah nods, "Oh.  Okay."  
She fishes out some cookies and munches. 

"What's up, guys?"

Jakob approaches the table and takes a seat.  He looks around at his friends and can still see the tension in their eyes.

"OK... what did I miss this time?"

"There was some concern about where Colin go to.  and then Sylvia did something that made us think she fainted.  And then a bird flew over to show Rhys something.  And other than that, all is well."  Dave doesn't look up from his book as he speaks.

"Cheeto?"  Rob offers, "Cheese flavored crunch!"

"...but not in that order."  She packs up her belongings to leave the cafeteria early, hoping maybe this time she won't become lost on the way to History.

"Nice talking to you.  Seeya."

"Doesn't sound half bad... for this place."

He declines the offer of the Cheeto.  "No thanks.  I'm not hungry right now."

"Someone not the date and time.  Jakob isn't hungry."  Dave says with a smile.

"Wait five minutes."  Greg says as he takes the Cheeto Rob offered Jakob."

Sarah texts a message to Colin.

U OK? They say U R.  Call me l8r?
*hugz* -S

She clears up her stuff and smiles to the group.  "I'm gonna be on time for my class for a change.  The shock might make them forget about the quiz.  Give me a ring if something blows up."

She jets ... in a completely normal walking fashion. 

OOC: For lack of a better place to put this:

Sometime late in the week, Sarah gets a phone call from Sammy.

"Sarah!  Hey -- got a minute or two?"

"For you Sammy I've got three, just lemme grab my timer," says Sarah.  "What's up girl?"

"Couple of questions, but maybe more like favors.  First, has Colin said anything to you about the movies at the university on Saturday?  A bunch of romantic comedies?  I was wondering if you guys are going to be there.  The other question is maybe a lot more fun.  I've been taking John out for flying lessons on Saturday mornings and we've been doing road trips, and we're starting to make some serious distance.  I was wondering if you'd want to start coming along to stretch your tp muscles?  The only rule is that the destination has to have an interesting name, and it has to have an all you can eat buffet that John can decimate before we come back.  Want to see the country with us?"

 

"I think so," says Sarah, "Colin wouldn't pass up the chance to take me to something like that.  Do you think they count Shaun of the Dead as a romantic comedy?  Well I'll keep my finger's crossed anyway."


A long quiet pause over the phone before a somewhat nervous Sarah asks, "Are... are you serious?  Really?"  She yells into the phone, "Yes!  I'd love to!"  In a quieter tone she asks, "Little cold to be flying though isn't it?" 

"We can dream."


Sammy laughs with delight.  "John's always so warm; he's the heater!  I throw a bubble around us and it keeps in the warmth.  We run one way and fly the opposite; he carries me and I give him training wings, so we're always close enough for that to work.  I started thinking that now we've got a rhythm down, it would be cool to try to bring someone else along.  I bet I can throw a bubble around us when you blip; you can carry us too, right?  With all three of us taking turns, we might get pretty far.  There's that movie thing on Saturday, so we won't be going then, but the next time we go, you're in.  Got anywhere you want to go?  Funny named places are the best, but there has to be lots of cheap food available.  He's not so shy about filling up his tank where nobody knows him, and the exercise makes him hungry."

Also happening in the lunch room this week:

She’d removed the magazines from her pack so she would not forget.   She walks directly over to John, patiently waiting for the conversation to lull if he is a participant.   Then she offers the journals back to him, hesitantly, her hand riddled with small bandaids.   

In a voice so low one might wonder if Laney herself could hear above the cafeteria din, she begins, “Thanks for lending these to me, John.  They did help clarify a few things.

“Have you um…come across anything discussing psychophysiologically oriented assessment?  These articles summarize the results of the clinical trials and hypothesize about applications, but there’s nothing about a cause or… or risks or treatment.  What…What happened to the test subjects?”

While standing there, Laney nervously glances at the faces around the table with him, then down at the lunch bag clutched in her other hand. 
There’s no recognition of its purpose in her eyes.

"Treatment?"  John seems totally confused by the statement.  "It's not like a sickness, it's just, well like being able to fly or move through solid matter."  He looks uncomfortable for a moment, "you don't think therre's something wrong with you, do you?"

"Very much so."  She closes her eyes briefly, long enough to accept the disappointment, though her shoulders slump as if under a weight.

When she opens her eyes, she's nothing but grateful smiles, however.

"Thanks for your time."

John pulls out a chair for her to sit down.  "Sit and eat."  he says, "It's lunch time, have lunch with us."

"Oh!  Um...Alright.  Thanks."   She drops into the chair provided and pries the brown sack from her locked fist so she can withdraw an apple.

"The articles didn't say where they found the test subjects, either.  Randomized.  Whatever.   What happened to them?"

"College students.  Most of those studies are volunteer and the names and such are all confidential.  But, what I don't get is why you think there is something wrong with you?"

Sammy enters the cafeteria in the company of some girls.  They talk animatedly for a couple of minutes, then go their separate ways.  She comes over to the table and sits down wherever there's an open spot.  "There was a pop quiz in my geometry class today, Laney.  I think I did okay; at least I don't feel sick about it.  Thanks for your help."  She pulls a clementine out of her bag and starts peeling it, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

"Confidential..."  Read: They got locked up.

"I just haven't been -



"- No problem.   If you need to go over the next chaper, give me a call.  I don't do anything after school.   Oh, that reminds me...So can you fly, too, John?"

She nibbles on her apple, her startlingly reflective gaze fixed on John's face.

Sammy looks up and smiles.  "Sure.  If you want to just hang out that's good too."  She goes back to her little orange.

"The names of the study group would be in the records.  I could probably, I mean I might be able to find out.  Did you want to talk to them?  See if they've had experiences like yours maybe?"


"Ah."  John looks at Sammy, then back to Laney.  "I should be able to.  I've sort of done it, just not very reliably."

Still she keeps her voice very low, clearly to preserve some privacy.
"I think, as strong as you are, if you were to vault, to jump? that you would go far.  It might not be flying at all.   Without wings or control of the air, I mean...I guess that could happen.  How else do people fly?   Are there studies about that?

"And...no, I...I mean, yes, I want to know what happened to them, but I don't want to bother anyone.  And it might draw attention to...to me.  I don't want that."

Sammy oozes faith in his ability.  "You will."  Then she smiles encouragingly, and goes back to dissecting the fruit.

"I can ask.  I know some people.  Maybe they can put us, well, you in touch with someone.  As for flying, it's different for different people.  I can leap pretty far, but all the people that have had powers in the blood line mine come from, all the ones I know of, they could all fly."

OOC: What's the deal with funny named places in the south that seem to be all built around / next to atomic sites or strip mining?  The remainder seem to be literally just bends in the road.  Hmm..

IC:
Sarah says, "I'll have to play on the web and see what I can come up with.  Where have you guys gone before?"

She hadn't meant to expose their activities or secrets to the entire table.   Laney cringes when Sarah joins the conversation, and she remains pale and silent with bowed head, the hand holding her apple rests limply in her lap.   

John puts a hand on hers, "If there is one place you're safe.  One group of people you're secret is safe with.  It's these people.  I've known about my powers my whole life.  I spent my whole life hiding them, until I came here.  I know how hard it is to be able to open up.  You don't have to be worried about being you with us."

OOC: Ya didn't Laney - Sarah and Sammy are having a chat .. that Kat dropped into the lunch thread.  Silly Kat.  :)  Silly me as well.  

OOC should be in its own thread but its not.  Happening elsewhenwherehow.  Not at lunch.


OOC:  You are overlooking the ones near NASCAR tracks and federal prisons, sometimes both.  Also an interesting overlap.

IC:  Sammy reels off some place names.  "Anywhere you like, though.  We could always go stare at oddball stuff too, you know, like the world's biggest rubber band ball, or find movie theatres that only show cult films.  Whatever amuses you.  The trip's the thing.  The destination is just the prize in the cereal box."

Sarah's been tapping away on a keyboard considering somewhere warm.  "Hmm... think we could make a trip to New Mexico?  Because A.. it's warm and B... I found a double header of two towns near each other with good names.. and uh... looking at the map it looks very nice there.  And warm.  Did I mention warm?  Not that this freezing winter stuff isn't just loads of fun for five months out of the year but maybe an occasional break would be nice.  Too far?"

"I think we'll be all right; at least we can try!  Warm sounds good to me too.

((Oh, I wouldn't worry about it.  Laney's a little out of sync, anyway.  ::) ))



In a low, rushed murmur, Laney answers, "Sorry. I didn't mean to tell anyone about you.   I really didn't.   It's just in a public place like this...seems reckless.  And I don't even know if...if it's...if I will hurt anyone."  Anyone else, you mean.

"I'm not me.  That's the - New Mexico?"  

((Unless, of course, that is still a phone call.  In which case...well, she might've said that anyway. Hmmm... Na.))

OOC:  Sammy could be calling Sarah at lunch time, since Sarah hasn't been around much lately.  That would sort of make some things make some sense.  Stupid me, not starting a separate thread.  Doh, doh, doh!

"Relax.  It's noisy here.  Most people don't pay attention.  You just have to stay calm."

"Unless they have hearing like yours...I guess.  I'm sorry. I'm sorry.  This isn't me." 

She curls her hand and looks up at John, with a small, appreciative smile.   "Um...The articles.  If it was all volunteers, it must've been a larger scale than I... The chances of anyone having...Well, like you said.  One tenth of one percent.  Or...or do you think that's different?   Maybe not a power at all.  Maybe a natural occurrence in humans no one had recorded before."

"Maybe.  The study wasn't the only one, but it was the most famous.  I can do some more reading."  John leans closer to whisper in her ear, "And try not to apologize so much.  You really don't need to say you're sorry so often."

A few stray napkins flutter by on the floor.  the pages of an open book flip in the breeze.  Sammy silently chews her food.

"Thanks.  I hate to be so much trouble, but I really appreciate the help.  I -"

Perhaps having a higher body temperature precludes detection of subtle temperature changes in another person, even when so close as John is to Laney when he whispers.    I doubt it, but it doesn't matter.  Laney's face warms with color, what few thoughts she had lose their cohesion, and the only words she seems to be able to say at that moment are:

"I'm sorry."

By now, Sammy has put her earbuds in, trying not to listen or even pay attention to what seems to be a highly private conversation.  After a moment she pokes at her player, then pokes again, and again, and again.  She looks at it with some confusion.  "All this dumb piece of junk wants to play is "I'll Follow the Sun".  I don't even remember downloading that.  Maybe it needs a software update."

John chuckles and goes back to eating his lunch.  "Eat before you starve."  He says with a smile.

In between chewing, Laney ever-so-helpfully offers, "They're not very reliable, those devices.  Made in China, I guess.  Mine kept breaking.  I don't even own a CD player anymore.  No point, really."

"Yeah.  I guess.  I'll try again at home, with new software or something."  She stands up.  "I'm going to go ask Nick about the movies, and propose a larger group.  No surprises, right?"

She gets up and heads over to where Nick usually sits.

"Ask?  Oh."

And in a conspirative whisper to John, "Nick didn't even know I existed until he came over to Sammy's house to ask her out.  She tried to explain it to me, but honestly, I don't think she understands it."

Nick is with the group of drama folks he's normally around.  He gets up when Sammy comes over, "Hey, you're not coming to cancel this Saturday are you?"

Sammy shakes her head 'no.'  "I just wanted to talk for a minute.  Can you take a walk, or are you busy?"

"I'm never to busy for you."  he says with a grin, and they move to another less crowded spot.  "What's up?"

She doesn't normally do this, but she throws up a double bubble with a layer of air between around the two of them in the hopes that it'll keep sound in, or at least baffle it enough to give listeners some trouble.  "Going for some privacy," she explains, in case Nick is sensitive to the pressure change.  "I have no idea if it'll work though."  She smiles, a little hesitantly.  "I'm not going to ask anything too horrible, don't freak on me.  Um, first off, when you asked Elrod and me and Laney about Saturday... is that invitation open to a larger group?  Or were you aiming for two couples...?"

Nick looks around, then focuses back on Sammy. "The more the merrier.  Didn't Greg mention someone named Laney too?"

This sets Sammy back a step.  "Didn't Greg? You met her, Nick.  You asked her out.  Are you messing with my head?"

"So that is the same girl?  wow, what're the odds of that?  Me asking her to come along and then Greg mentioning her?  Well, good I guess, she's a friend of yours.  So anyway, yeah more people is good."

Sammy feels a headache coming on.  "Um, yeah.  So, more the merrier, blah blah -- but you didn't answer my question.  Or maybe you did, but I totally missed it."  She rubs at her temple.  "So... no... Gah.  I sincerely apologize, Nick, but I'm not real clear on the expectations here.  Specifically, your expectations.  I'm not sure Laney is either."

Nick takes a step closer to Sammy.  "I thought your two might like to go with me.  I felt...weird about just inviting you, even though I'm totally cool with us just being friends and being in shows and stuff.  And then I thought you might think I was looking for more if I just asked you.  And so, I thought I'd ask Elrod and you.  Then Laney was there, and you left the room and she was all confused and the invite just came out.  Maybe it was like a panic attack or something.  But, I just want us to be okay.  So invite more people.  We can make it a big event and have a lot of fun and just be...okay.  Okay?"

"Okay..." Sammy whispers and the blood rushes a little bit out of her head.  At least that's what she thinks is happening as she finds herself swaying almost dizzily in Nick's direction.  She grabs the back of a chair like its a lifeline and drops the fields fast.  Thinking is hard.  So is speaking much above a whisper.  It would be so loud.  Deal, girl!    "Okay is good.  I miss you too.  I'd like being okay."

Nick smiles, "Okay is good."  he nods slowly and moves a little closer.  "You okay, you look like you might feint.  That would so totally not be cool."

Sammy holds on tighter to the chair.  Don't get any closer, no, no, no, no...  She's still on the verge of swaying into him. oh yeah.  we are so not doing that to El.  Not like this, not in the middle of the cafeteria.  She's still not talking right either.  "I'll be okay.  I think-- I think I might have been holding my breath.  Since the other day, at least."  A quick, gently self-deprecating smile makes her seem more like herself.

"Oh, okay."  Nick says, and then John is there with one hand on her shoulder.

"I told you that milk smelled bad."  he says, turning her towards him some, "You should go splash water on your face or something."

"Yeah."  Nick adds, "You kind of look like you're warm."

Wingman to the rescue.  My hero... and she finds herself swaying in John's direction.  "Yeah.  Hot.  Too" two "hot in here.  Water is a really good idea.  I'm going to-- I should go, get me some of that.  Water.  Good idea."  She remembers to let go of the chair, and heads to the nearest girls bathroom.

Laney had seen John's head turn towards the room, and then the breeze that meant he had gone.  It was only a minute and he came to sit back down.  John leans closer to Laney, "There are going to be more people at the film festival.  So you can relax about that.  It'll be more like a group outing than a double date."

"Good.  I think that's what he wanted, but then Sammy - Good.   Thanks.  Um...are you still going?  Do you need a ride or - stupid question. Sorry."

"Not a stupid question.  Are you offering to give me a ride?"  John says as he finishes his sandwich.

"Well, we didn't talk about who was... Mike's off this weekend, so Jean can use his car and...Well, yes?   Stupid.  You can get there faster than...um..."

Sammy splashes some water on her face, and takes a moment to sort of compose herself.  Then she goes back to the table to get her stuff.  She still looks peculiar.  Vulnerable.  She doesn't sit down.

"Thanks, John.  I'm going to find someplace... quieter.  Laney, about Saturday, you can ask who you want.  Its okay.  El's willing to drive but... well, just let me know if you have other plans.  I'll, um, see you later." She turns to go.

Oh, hell no, I'm so not getting tangled up in more of this drama.

"Um...Thanks.   I have a ride.   I just need to know where and when this thing is.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be OK.  Thanks."  She walks away.

"She just needs some air probably."  John says, So I'll take a ride if you're still offering.  Knowing Elrod there will probably be dinner sometime after probably."

"Dinner?  I have to be off the roads by eleven or hope I don't get pulled over.  But with my lu - How long do these things last?  They're not really going to sit there watching movies all day, are they?   That seems like a...What else do they do?"

She spouts off these sincerely naive questions for John, then looks around the table at any others within hearing range.  She's reluctant to offer a ride to anyone else, in case she wants to escape early, but still she asks, "Is anyone else going?"   

Greg raises his hand.  "I'm gonna drag a few drama queens down there.  The line up is four films, Starts at noon and runs until nine o'clock.  There will be a break after each movie and some chatter among the film buffs.  There might be a dinner break in the schedule, but I haven't seen it yet."

This event is sounding worse, the more Laney learns about it.   With effort, she maintains a neutral expression when confronted with eight hours of torture.  Maybe it'll get cancelled...

"By that you mean the drama club?  How many members are there?"   She prods Greg with further questions designed to keep him talking with minimal input from her.  She appears interested, though occasionally there is a change in her gaze, as if she were looking through him rather than at him.

Greg talks at length about the drama club.  There are around fifty regular members and another twenty or so that are willing to be involved for large projects.  "I've got about a dozen or so that will be there."

"Careful."  Rob injects, looking towards Laney, "Greg-O talks during movies.  Constantly."

It looks like Greg might object but thinks better of it and shrugs.  "This is true.  So if you don't want to hear the films dissected, you might want to ensure you sit a ways off from me."

It's an easy opening, and Laney takes it.  Smoothly setting Greg up for a presentation about which movies they'd be viewing Saturday (or to speculate about the selection), what critics say about them, what his opinions are, why they were chosen...

She's quite comfortable listening in near silence.   It's difficult to judge how much she's absorbing, though.

Greg is a dynamic speaker when it's about film.  He explains the films on the program, and goes into a good bit about them.  this easily consumes the rest of lunch.

((And this is for Friday))



…butterfly flaps its wings in Beijing - Enough. Just stop it.  I can’t do this right now. 

Laney enters the cafeteria and stares at the lines for awhile, debating whether or not to brave them for a soda.   She’d forgotten to bring a drink for lunch.

Forgotten to wear her usual steel-toed boots, too, apparently.  The soft grey slippers looked more suitable for summer; they were also mud-stained.

Sarah spots Laney contemplating the lunch line.  She was heading up for a chocolate milk herself so she'd try a hello.

"Hey there Laney.  Deciding whether or not the food is edible today?  There were no lines at the bathrooms when I walked by."  She grins and hopes that she isn't taken seriously.  "I'm grabbing a couple of chocolate milks want to come with?"

"Hi! Yeah, sure.  I was going to get a soda.

"I'd warn people about the green beans, but I don't know anyone who would willingly eat green beans."   Laney smiles crookedly - an expression that would be less unsettling if she were actually looking at Sarah during the conversation.

"I owe someone calories, too."

Sarah says, "I like green beans.. well not the slimy ones they have here.. but fresh garden ones?  Had some when I was out at my cousins."

She looks at Laney curiously as the line moves forward.  "Calories?  Any particular kind?"

That stalls Laney.  She steps forward only after being jabbed in her back by the tray of the student behind her.

"Um...never had fresh, no.  City girl.

"I don't know what kind.   Edible, I guess.  I owe John for helping me out yesterday.  I think I need a leash or something.  What do guys like to eat, anyway?  Four at home, you'd think I'd know.  They can't all like tastykakes, can they?"

Sammy walks in the direction of the cafeteria, having an ongoing internal argument with herself.  She's giving the world around her exactly as much attention as is required to avoid walking smack into somebody, but no more.

...what if it just confuses things more?  But maybe it won't.  If I go over there today and things are normal, or at least more normal, it might make tomorrow a whole lot easier.  If things aren't normal enough, then I can come down with the flu between now and tomorrow morning.  The flu, ha.  More like I flew away, woohoo! Someplace warm. This isn't entirely because of me and my quirks.  If he'd be around more, maybe I wouldn't find myself in this kind of situation.  Yeah, right... liar...

As she walks through the cafeteria doors, she's very quietly singing to herself "...Well there’s a rose in the fisted glove and the eagle flies with the dove, and if you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with..."  She chooses to delay her decision by walking to the end of the serving line and weighing the pros and cons of green v. red v. orange jello.

Sarah can't help but *snerk* at that comment.  For a moment there's a very naughty image attached but it's quickly shuffled off to the side.  "I don't think you can be as bad as that.  Then again we haven't really had the chance to hang out yet."


"My brother really likes Trout Almondine," offers Sarah, after a moments thought she adds, "though he also will scarf down a box of Entenmenns donuts if he finds one unguarded."  

Laney sighs heavily, shaking her head.  "He'd probably be weirded out if I get him something, anyway.  If he likes apples, I'm in luck.

"I've only been here a week.  No time to hang out, really.  I mean I had fun listening to the band practice.  If you're taking geometry, you and Sammy can - She's further down the line there."   Laney stares distractedly into the room for a minute or three before turning back towards Sarah.

"Are you going with the others to the film festival tomorrow?   I'll be there.  It's not exactly socializing, us all staring at a screen...

"Oh. I guess since you're with Colin, you were at - Well, I should apologize to him in person."

Friday at the lunch table Dave, Greg, and Rob are discussing some You-Tube videos.  Rob is the console game geek of the three and talking about the content of the videos.  Dave is going on about how funny the guy is and Greg is talking about how effective the little animations are and talking about how the imagery is good with minimal tools.

John is eating his lunch and reading intently.  His usual medical journal replaced with a stack of papers that look like print outs from a web page.

Whether Sarah replies to Laney or not, there is something about the dark haired girl's expression that tells Sarah she wouldn't hear any answer given.  Laney doesn't remember to get her soda, either.

Sammy skips the jello; there's really not a whole lot of difference between red, orange, and green, and she isn't really in the mood for it anyhow.  As she steps out into the main cafeteria, she looks around for some random sign to help her make a decision.  She heads over to the US table and sits in an open seat.

"Hi."  She digs in to her lunch to discover a container that keeps packed food warm.  It opens to reveal a hot roast beef sandwich with a small cup of brown gravy on the side.  "Yay!  Mom loves me best today."

Elrod passes Dave, giving the brief handshake of young men that age and stops too kiss Sammy on the neck.  "Mmmm, your mom's gravy.  Listen, you want to go somewhere tonight?  Since we'll be with other people tomorrow I thought maybe tonight or Sunday would be good for us to get away.  If you're free?"

Sammy is glad to see Elrod.  "Ha ha!  You must have been reading my mind.  I'm totally free, but this gravy isn't.  That's mine, all mine!  Unless you want some, and ask nicely.  Then maybe.  What do you want to do tonight?"

"I was thinking we'd just get away.  There are a couple of options depending on your schedule and your folks."  Elrod says, resting his head on her shoulder.  "I have a call in to your dad.  So plans will become more final once I hear back on that.  There are plenty of options though."

Sammy tilts her head so its resting against El's.  "Ooo-kay.  I'll find out when I find out, I guess.  I suppose it doesn't involve me flying you somewhere myself though, does it?"

"It certainly could if your dad give me the all clear."  he says, "I need to go harass the principal for a signature.  have a good lunch and I'll see you later."  He leans over her shoulder and tilts his head to kiss her on the lips, and then walks away licking pilfered gravy off his finger and waving.

Laney eventually arrives at their lunch table.  She does not sit, instead hovers beside John, politely waiting until his part in the conversation appears through (if he converses at all) so as not to interrupt, also trying not to pry into what he was reading.

Then she says in a very soft voice, "Thanks again for your help yesterday, John.  Did you find a place for us to go tomorrow?  Sorry, I do better if I have directions before I drive, not during...  That's all.  Um..."   She looks around the table for someone in particular, then turns back to John.

"Do you want my apple?  I just realized I don't like yellow ones."

John looks up and smiles.  "I was wondering if you were going to say anything."  he says, pulling a chair over for her to sit down.  "There is a nice cafe not far from the theater.  I'll email you the address so you can use your preferred method of getting directions."  he gently takes the apple from her, "Want a Snickers bar?"  he offers the candy as he munches on the apple. 

Laney's not sure if she can stomach the change in routine, but the candy does smell awfully good.  Easing her backpack to the floor, she curls into the offered chair beside John and mutters a half-hearted protest while she unwraps the Snickers.

"I owe you calories, not the other way round."

When she'd nibbled far enough to see all the layers in the candy bar, she stares at it for awhile, then asks, again in that almost inaudible voice, "How'd your meeting go?  Did you solve whatever problem...um...you had?   I used to be so good at puzzles.  Now, not so much...A liability, I think.  Lucky I couldn't make it."

"It went better than I thought it would.  Happy endings are nice."  John says.  "And I wouldn't worry about owing me calories.  I burn them too quick to keep track."

She looks up at John, grinning impishly.  "You should track them, or you'll wake up one day a skeleton after a busy night."

"She's alright then?  Good.  Kindof weird anyone would bother with a high school kid anyway..."  rambling on in a murmur, while she prints her email address onto a sticky note and presses this to John's arm. "...probably just a detour, not an ending.  I'm not sure there are such things as endings, happy or otherwise.  Only changes."

The candy bar is devoured.

"It's an emotional time.  Our brain is changing and we don't often have the ability to understand cause and effect.  Throw super powers in the mix and it can get really complicated."  John says, taking her sticky note and putting the email address in his phone.  "I'll send you my address too, or should I meet you at your place?  Would your aunt be ok with you having a boy show up at your door?"

"I have your address.   We can meet wherever you want, though.  My aunt has to work in the morning, so you wouldn't be able to meet her, but um...They already know who I'm going with and where.  They're not um...strict or anything, as long as I let them know what's going on.  It's not a problem.  Wherever you want.  Would your family be okay with a girl showing up at your door?"  Again that playful grin.

"They wouldn't mind.  I had a girlfriend, she moved to England.  I have the feeling it wouldn't have worked out anyway.  I'm not really good at not being distant."  He looks towards her, "So I guess just come by whenever.  I'll be home."

Alicia stares at the cafeteria door behind the plastic lenses of her sunglasses. After a few seconds, she sighs and continues down the hall.

Maybe she'll try the storage room today. It's supposed to be locked, so she has a good chance of having an uninterrupted lunch.

Colin arrives at the table more relaxed than he's been in a while. He says hello to everyone, takes a seat, and gets out his brown bag.

"Anything interesting today?" he says, sitting back.

Laney had been munching her way through that candy bar, staring blankly at John's pile of papers that Friday.  When Colin speaks, she looks up.  There's a second he's sure she didn't recognize him at all.   Then, "Hi.  Interesting?  We had a minor explosion in chemistry today.  There was a crack in the beaker, and it split when I heated - Oh. Sorry about last night.  I wasn't allowed out."

Colin smiles at the hundredth 'sorry' by Laney.

"Good thing it wasn't anything overly flammable, I guess. Don't worry about yesterday. I thought I could show you some of my works, but there'll surely be another occasion. You guys coming at the film festival tomorrow?"

Sammy shoots him a glance that is touched with quickly suppressed panic.  "Yes -- will you be there too?  Sarah wasn't certain when I asked her -- oh, hey.  Right.  John, Sarah will be joining us for the Saturday Fun Runs, if that's all right.  I asked her -- I think she'll enjoy flexing her teleport muscles."

"Saturday Fun Runs?"

"I would like that,"  Laney mumbles. "Um...yes, going tomorrow.  I didn't know it was called a Fun Run, though. Weird."

Sammy relaxes a little bit.  "A better name might be Flight School, but there is some running...  There's good reason to believe John will be able to fly, someday.  We've been working on it, bit by bit.  We pick a destination and just... go.  I fly with him to get him used to how it feels, and give him a safety net when he wants to try it on his own.  When I get tired, he runs and carries me.  Sometimes its just a game to see how fast or far each of us can go, how hard we can push ourselves.  We can go pretty far, but I thought we might be able to go really far with a third person.  Anyhow, when we get to our destination, we have lunch.  Tons of lunch.  We clean out all-you-can-eat restaurants.  Then we come home."

"And Sarah said she'd be coming too? Cool. She needs a bit stretching out, now that it's too cold for parkour."

He suddenly remembers something.

"Have you perchance got out of the country? Chris made a comment about we should try to stay within national borders. I dunno why."

He daydreams a bit.

"I'd like to come too, but I'd only be dead weight, unfortunately." he shrugs.

He looks back at Laney.

"I guess we earth-bound people will have to find something else to keep our Saturdays busy. You could come next Saturday, Laney, if you want."

"We haven't left the country.  You know, once she gets into the rhythm, starts stretching her muscles, maybe she could carry more passengers.  You wouldn't be dead weight; you'd be helping her to get stronger."

Colin laughs. "A gym weight instead of dead weight. Nice way to spin it, Sam."

Laney cocks her head to one side, pondering. "They're going car shopping Sunday.  I'm babysitting. Jean wants a mini-van.  Three boys, one SUV...It's not working so well anymore.  But Saturday I'm free.  That'd be fun, I guess."

She flinches at the laughter and smiles distractedly at Sammy.  "How high can go you?"

This wins him a smile.  "My pleasure."


Sammy ponders the question.  "I'm not sure.  Till the air runs out?  I don't need to breathe, but I don't think that means I don't need air."

Laney frowns at this; it's not fitting well into her reality.  "Air?  But you said...Can't you just keep a bubble around yourself, pressurize and preserve it for when you do need to breath?  I thought that’s how you manage around so many…um…Well, what you were talking about before about djinn.  I thought, since you could control air, you would have a buffer of…Sorry.  I don’t understand.”  Her face flushes a pretty shade of pink, embarrassed and mumbling further apologies.

She scrambles for a new topic.  “You aren't bound by gravity?"

"The more the merrier."  John says, as usual three steps behind in the conversation.  "Sammy doesn't appear to need to breath.  And I'm still puzzling that one over."  He says, sticking his head back in his reading.

Sammy cocks her head sideways, like a puppy who wants to give a pleasing answer but isn't quite sure what you are asking.
"I don't know because I don't know.  I've never tried to see how high I can go, and I've never tried to do anything in a vacuum.  I'm just guessing.  I manipulate air, so I'm guessing I need air nearby to manipulate?"


"Maybe I breathe through my skin.  Or maybe now I am air.  I suppose I could always dive into a swimming pool and see if I drown."

"If you do I volunteer to give you mouth to mouth."  rob says with a raised hand, then he smiles.  "Cheeto?  cheese flavored crunch!"  he says, offering her one.

"Just make sure if you do I get to film it.  That kind of thing is stuff you want a record of in the event we have to clear someone of murder charges."  Greg says grinning.

"Good point."  Rob says, "I'd hate to have it be that scene where I'm giving her mouth to mouth and they drag me off and arrest me thinking I killed her."

Sammy calls Rob's bluff.  She takes a piece of paper and tears it into rough squares.  She writes 1, 2, 3, 4, etc until all the squares are filled with a number, then slides #1 over to Rob.  "OK.  You get to be first in line.  But I'm going to need a lot of air.  Greg, you want to hold a lottery for the rest of these?"  She takes the Cheeto.

"There is air in water.  You wouldn't drown.  I guess, if you need the atmosphere, then...then you can't leave it.  But it's affected by gravity..."  Laney manages to confuse herself into silence, which may be a relief to some, though not to her.  That Sammy hasn't experimented, doesn't know her boundaries, and wasn't even curious is beyond Laney.   She pokes at the empty candy wrapper on the table with a saltine, frowning again.

Sammy sees Laney's confusion, can hear it in the way her voice tumbles off.

"I only discovered my powers a few months ago.  I haven't yet figured out everything I can do, and unexpected things emerge every once in a while.  I never thought about going way up before; doesn't it get colder the higher you go?"

Laney blinks off her distraction.  Her gaze sharpens, fixes on Sammy's face.

"That has to do with compression.  Yes, colder as you go higher. Less volume, less pressure.  There's no help for that, unless you can bring your own atmosphere with you.  I guess."

"I'll leave the lottery of men in line to kiss, I mean," he makes air quotes "Give Sammy mouth to mouth, up to more qualified individuals.  Dave?"

Dave raises a hand and nods.  "Consider it taken care of.  Put me down for number two."  he says with a slight smile and a glance over the book towards Sammy.

"I could try, I suppose," Sammy replies.  "Maybe Sunday.  If I passed out, I wonder if I'd wake up in time to pull myself out of free falling straight into the ground?  That could hurt a lot.  I don't know if I can make it warm enough though.  I've tried, but never pulled that off yet.  Its a pressure volume thing?"


She smiles at him.  "Two.  Do you think I could get them all to make a meat shield for me to fall onto when I come crashing down out of orbit?"

"Wear something from the Victoria Secret catalog and I could maybe arrange something."  Dave says.

Sammy laughs.  "You guys are playing hard ball today.  Do you want to pick out the outfit, since I have no idea what meat shields are looking for in Vicky's Secret these days, or should you just remember that there's a chance of things burning off me as I plummet to my certain doom?  Don't things burn when they're moving through the atmosphere?"

"That will double the crowd."   Rob says, offering her another Cheeto.  Rob and Dave both nod.

Laney just shakes her head, rubbing her eyes.

"Sammy, space is only around 60 miles up; you can mess with satellites and space stations in under 600.  You don't have to go so fast that you...burn off clothing.  In space, there won't be any friction.  When you return, you won't be freefalling, you'll be flying at a controlled speed, right?  Test your mobile atmosphere.  Seriously.   It would suck if you popped like a ballon.  

"You're gonna love Physics."

"Then again..." Colin says with a slightly raised eyebrow "...magic and physics aren't very consistent with each other. I think that if you need air around you for your powers to work, they'd simply fail to propel you over a certain line, much before it starts to be dangerous. Or at least that's what I think. Magical creatures aren't renowned for their understanding of physics. I think evolution probably did its work hammering automatic failsafes in their powers. You'd better ask Donnie about this."

"Donny might know.  But Dylan... Dylan would know for sure.  Thanks, Colin."  She smiles at Rob.  "Rob might know too, but he's not telling.  Maybe if I bought him a bag of Cheetos and delivered it in the Victoria's Secret outfit Dave's going to pick out for me?  How about it Rob?  Then would you tell?"

Laney shakes her head again, attempting to dismiss the image of a Cheetos bag gift-wrapped in black lace lingerie.  It's a challenge since her head's beginning to ache from trying to make sense of things.

"I would've thought magic and physics would be complimentary not contrary, but I know nothing of one and very little about the other.  If you can alter the boiling points of liquids, then you'll be fine if you can't make your own pressurized bubble.  Can magic do that?"

Colin thinks about it.

"Donnie has a spell to alter gravity. I think it's fair to say that altering pressure wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities. It sounds easier."

"I can try, if you can come up with a way of measuring it, so I know I'm doing it right and how it should feel.  I don't want to try something important too far away from backup."  She grins at the number 1 and 2 ticket holders.  "Or mouth to mouth resuscitation.  Would I have to do it in a special room, so the air could be sucked out?"  She shivers.  "You know, if I do something like that, I want Mr. Heep there.  It would be safer."

"A chamber so large...Um...I think it'll be easier to just bring a pressure gage with you."  Laney giggles.  She's smashing more of those crackers than she's eating.

"It'd be easier to get hurt that way too," Sammy replies.  "I'd rather test under controlled conditions.  Or ask a magic guy if its even worth trying.  Colin might be right -- I might have some sort of built in safety switch that'll keep me from ever getting into that situation."

"Atmospheric gases are bound by gravity.  Chances are you would be too."  John says, as he begins to scribble some calculations on a notepad.  "In theory you'd probably be able to reach the edge of the atmosphere layer, then there wouldn't be enough air to provide more lift."