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The crowds in the lunch room are getting bigger as the weather has gotten so no one wants to eat outside.  Dave and the crew have secured the Usual Suspects table and no one, not even the really big assholes, seems to want to challenge that.

As the crew is getting into lunch John arrives with another student.  "Hey guys, this is Jakob Wyshyhski.  He's new and Mrs. Abernathy from the office asked me to show him around.  Is it ok if we have lunch with you guys today?"  John has been absent from the lunch table for a few days, spending a lot of time in the library according to Dave's network of spies.

Sammy looks up from her notebook and smiles.  "Sure.  Hi Jakob.  You two had better sit a little away from me though, on the other side of the table.  I seem to have gossip cooties this week.  Don't want to risk it being contagious."  She gestures with her eyes to a group of girls who alternate between staring over at her then whispering and cackling to each other, and fights the urge to grin stupidly and wave gaily at them.

John grabs a chair next to Sammy and sits down.  "So I guess what they're saying doesn't bother you then?  Not that it's any of my business or anything."  He pulls his latest medical journal from his bag and flips to the bookmark, going back to reading.

Sammy shrugs.  "It bugs me that they're talking about me, mostly 'cause I have no idea what they're saying.  Some people are smiling about it, others seem to be all whispery and disapproving.  I'm pretending to be carefree and mostly oblivious; how am I doing so far?   So, since you do seem to know the Word, are you gonna tell me?  Or do I have to snatch your book away and make you... what is that, oh gross, reading about colonoscopies at lunch? ew!"

John gets immediately self-conscious and closes the journal.  "Apparently rumor is that you and Nick had an intimate encounter, and I'm using far more polite language than most people."

About that time Elrod puts his hands on Sammy's shoulders, leans down and kisses her on the neck, "Hey there gorgeous."  He says, "How are you this morning?"

Sammy flushes at John's response, especially since the words are coupled with a little tickle deep down inside that showed up when Elrod kissed her neck.  Yeah.  Definitely way too much into him for anybody's good...  "As chaste, pure, and virginal as ever," she says, answering both Elrod and John at the same time.  She's betting that Elrod really wants to know if she knows about the gossip.

Elrod coughs at Sammy's answer.  "Ah, ok."  He says, obviously confused.  "I...I'm gonna go get some food."  and he makes his way off towards the lunch lines.

John's gaze lay unfocused for a second, then snapped back into clarity.  "I need to clear something up.  I'll be around if you guys need me, and I'll see you after lunch Jakob."  John gathers his stuff and heads out of the lunch room.

Sarah strolls into the lunch room through the line with her brown bag and a couple of chocolate milks.  Heading over to the US table she sees John, a face absent for a while standing next to some new guy she hadn't seen around school before.  
John wanders off before she get's there.  "Hey gang..." Turning to the newcomer left at the table by John she says, "And hello strange person I've never seen before.  You seem to have been abandoned here.  I'm Sarah, nice to meetcha."

Sylvia's beaten to the punch by a millisecond.  She plunks herself down next to Sarah and Jakob and spends her indrawn breath on a lame, tag-end introduction.  "I'm Sylvia.  John has no friends who aren't us or on the football team.  Are you a football guy?"

Donnie rushes into the lunchroom, hair mussed and dark circles under his eyes. He gives Sylvia a peck on top of the head and eyes the new lug with uncertainty. "You don't look like John. Wasn't John here a second ago?"

Sammy looks away from the direction of the lunch line back toward Donnie, and an echo of something flickers in her eyes then fades.  I think I might have run him off.  "He had something to do.  This is Jakob."

"Gossip cooties?  I've heard they're the best kind to have.  Good to meet you."

He glances at each person around the table.  "All of you."

"How are ya?"

He stands up as she approaches the table and waits to sit back down until she takes a chair.

Jakob speaks slowly, as if considering each word carefully.  He's a big guy - tall and wide with exceedingly muscular shoulders, though the rest of his body doesn't seem like he spends much time in the gym.  His dark hair is a little longer then it should be and appears to have only a passing acquaintance with the brush.  He's wearing a pair of extremely comfortable-looking jeans, ditto for the workboots, and a black POW/MIA t-shirt.
Anyone looking closely enough will notice the scar just above his right eye and that his hands are a little redder than the rest of his skin.

Sylvia will not be denied.  "Are you a football guy?  Science club?  Um. . . . "  What else is John into?  "Newspaper?"  She smiles a broad, shiny, Cheshire Cat smile.

"Never played any football.  Looks like it could be fun though.  John said the coach saw me in gym class and tried to get him to talk me into going out for the team though.  Can't say I'm in the science club or on the newspaper either.  I'm not exactly sure how John got the duty of showing me around."

He smiles back at her.

"What do you do?"

"Newspaper," Sylvia chirps.  She roughly indicates Donnie, Sarah, and herself.  "Paper geeks."  Then:  Greg and Sammy.  "Drama geeks."  She looks around, but John's gone?  "John's our straight-up geek, but don't let it get around.  He's in the closet.  And Dave--Dave's our commander-in-chief, the cigarette-smoking head of FEMA's shadow government.  When the aliens come, he'll be calling the shots, and may it be for the better," she says with a nod of acknowledgement in Dave's direction.

Dave does not look up from his current book, merely waves a hand in Jakob's direction.  Greg smiles and nods, continuing to eat his lunch and read something laying in his lap. 

The general rumble of the lunch room continues as people come in and get food, find seats and converse.  There is less excitement in the air as the season has grown cold and the majority of the fun has left with the summer.  A few of the winter fun folks are more excited.  Skiing, snow boarding, ice skating and hockey.  They don't outnumber the summer fun crown though, and for the most part are also themselves members so their energy is less infectious to the mood of the room.

Dave's phone makes a noise and he slides it from his pocket, looking at it.  His expression is one of bewilderment for a moment.  Then he seems to come to terms with it.  The phone is returned to his pocket and he casually takes a straw, pulling one end of the paper from it.  He places the open in in his mouth and launches the remaining paper like a missile, striking Sylvia in the side of the head.  I just got a text from Logan.  His gaze on her is intense.  He says we're going to have some trouble soon and you should stay clear of him for a little while.  "I am not the head of the shadow government."  He says with a smile, "And you would do well to remember that."  then he returns to reading his book.

Sammy sort-of corrects Sylvia.  "Music geek, actually.  Drama just brings itself along for the ride."
She surreptitiously looks around at the crowd which is so very interested in believing there are lurid details about her life and sighs in resignation.

"Music geek," Sylvia confirms absently.  The sassy frivolity has washed away like the sugar coating it is.  She's worried, by the tension across her forehead and the small, somber line of her mouth.

She tries to quest out telepathically toward Logan, not with the intention of reading his mind but of catching the wash of his emotions.  Fear?  For himself?  If that's the case, she'll help him whether or not he wants it.

Sarah sits down at the table and opens up a chocolate milk.  "I've always thought I was more of a generic dweeb than anything else," offers Sarah.  To Jakob she asks, "How do you like fabulous Oak Park so far?"

His mind isn't hard to find.  It's a glacial wall sitting at his bench, watching the front doors.  There is the slightest glimmer of light inside.  She realizes it's the disquiet that he was used as the instrument of Rory's death, and his slow and methodical analysis of how that makes him feel.  This small flame sheds light on a nearby thought, that someone who views him as an ally has decided it's time to get rid of the US crew.  Logan is annoyed by the thought, since he tries to make his position clear. 

Threads form tapestries, and this thread leads directly to the person that so cleverly used Logan to facilitate Rory's death.  They were friends.  He was probably who put him into a position to be a threat to the US.  Unlikely directly related to the card and Rory.  Ally?  Do evildoers assume I'm an ally because I don't interfere?  Then heroes assume I'm a villain for not helping.  Then there is no objectivity.  Perhaps I've already contaminated the environment.  He processes ideas and thoughts in what appears to be a sort of spiraling chaos, hopping from one thought to the next and around, but there are vivid colors forming into patterns on the edges, and those patterns are enormous.


Sammy catches site of Nick from the lunch line.  He's wearing a grin that brightens his features and his eyes are focused on her.  When he notices her his smile broadens again and he waves.

Sylvia can't bring herself to plunder Logan's mind.  It has a crystalline coolness that she finds soothing--that she might always have found soothing--and she prefers to sit at the edge of its light and let its colors play across her.  Solace is what it is, solace and sanctuary like the glitter of sunlight through the vaulted windows at the sanitarium.  But then she feels a strange, squirrelly unease, something like longing, or guilt, and she finds herself giving Donnie a wan but earnest smile.

Logan says we should be alert, she tells him.  Someone's plotting against us.

A happy warm feeling fills her up.  She takes another quick glance at the people.  To hell with them. I'm allowed to smile.  Sammy smiles back at Nick.

Nick makes his way through the crowd with his lunch, and leans down to give Sammy an unexpected kiss on the cheek.  "How are you today?"  Drama kids kiss each other on the cheek all the time.  But Nick has some rules about that and Sammy.  And the fact that he just broke that rule gives her stomach an uneasy feeling.  Matters could only be made worse by Elrod choosing that moment to come back to the table.  His kiss on the cheek is more expected, but it turns Nick pale.

"I need a brilliant idea for a St. Valentine's Day party."  Elrod says, cracking open a bottle of water, "Anyone got any I can shameless steal?"

oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no...  The rumor factory plus Nick's rule-breaking overt attention plus Nick and Elrod sitting right here oh god, he's opening a bottle of water, what if its been contaminated make any nice feelings Sammy got from Nick or Elrod go away *poof* to be replaced by a hard lump in her gut.  She smiles and wipes at her mouth with a napkin.  As she does, she murmurs into the napkin "John, get back here.  Help."

Ready to put up a wall of air between the two boys if something goes badly why would anything go badly?, she leans back in her cafeteria chair and pretends to think.  "You could go with a 30s Mob theme and do a riff on the St. Valentine's Day massacre" she offers.  Nothing even mildly romantic about that.  Pure blood and gore.  Baaaad idea.

Elrod chuckles.  "Gangster theme would let people dress up in silly costumes.  Everyone loves costumes."

Nick's color begins to return, and doesn't stop until he's a warm red.  "I need to go.  I'll see you guys."

The breeze that blows stray napkins and papers around goes mostly unnoticed, and John is standing there.  Nick works his way past the taller boy and heads towards the door.

"Hey John."  Elrod says.  "How does a Ganster theme sound for Valentine's Day?"

John is silent for a second, he's trying to focus and the crowd is making it hard.  "Sounds out of the ordinary."

Elrod smiles, "Good.  I need to see a guy about that boat."  He kisses Sammy on the cheek again, "I'll see you later."  And then he begins to make his way out of the cafeteria.

John? Sylvia transmits.  Something wrong?

John glances at Sylvia.  Sammy said to get back here.  I thought there was trouble.

John smiles, and it's obvious he's not sure what he's doing here.

Someday you'll make someone a very happy woman, John.

Sarah smiles on, oblivious to The Sammy Panic.  "Gangsters might be fun.  It beats running around in diapers with bows and arrows.  Plus you'll get to hear all that really old music some of you seem to like so much.  Sammy you could get the whole band probably.  I mean it was big band swing back then right?  Or was that a little later?  What did they listen to before that?  Bang stones together or something?"

Only if I pioneer cloning.

"Um, I don't know what kind of music..."  Sammy looks worried and distracted.  "Did, um, Nick, seem right to you?  I thought he was acting... strangely.  Like... " she glances at Jakob and shrugs, because this is more important than keeping secrets, "Like maybe goo-strange.  Or like somehow, in his mind, the rumors about him and me, um, really happened, because that would explain... for a second, I was afraid he..."  She looks imploringly at John.  "Can you follow him and see if he's okay?  'Cause if he's not, something's going on."

"Want me to check him out?" Sylvia asks.

John nods and makes his way at a more human pace from the lunch room in pursuit of Nick.

"Somebody should, please?"  Sammy's stomach still hurts.

Sylvia gives Donnie a kiss on the cheek and heads out after John.  "Wait up," she calls.

John lets Sylvia catch up.

OOC: Starting a thread.

Sarah looks at Sammy with a worried expression.  Her friend's anxiety finally penetrates the thick outer wall of Sarah's mighty fortress of cluelessness.  "Huh?  Sammy are you okay?  You look... do you really think?  I thought maybe he took off because well... you and he and Elrod all in the same place... uh.. Oh!"  She turns to the newcomer Jakob and says, "This school is having a rough year.  I don't know if you've seen any of it in the news but we've had some weird troubles.  One of those troubles was somebody dosing the water supply with some sort of lust potion.  Not as cool as they would make it out to be in some teen movie.  Some people got hurt."

Colin arrives with his usual backpack and a newspaper below his arm.

"Hello, wondergirl. Hi, guys!"

That's when he notices Jacob, and he seems really surprised. He can't help but stare at him for a few moments, squinting a couple times as if to check he's real.

"Ehm... sorry. Nice to meet you. I'm Colin Crow. What's your name?"

I knew that wasn't just a dream.

Sammy appears distracted for a minute, almost like she's talking to herself.  Then she realizes that Sarah has spoken to herd.  "That's definitely part of it Sarah.  The other part... for some reason, Nick believes..."  Sammy looks around and whispers "He believes he and I had sex yesterday.  Together.  But I was with you guys, so you know its not true!  And there's a rumor going around that I did it yesterday with Elrod too... hold on a sec...there might be someone going around who can make themself look enough like me to fool Nick, or someone who can"  hope I can trust you Jakob "mess with people's heads, their memories."

She stands up.  "I have to find Nick.  Could you find Elrod and make sure he's okay?"

Sarah nods to Sammy, "Got it.  Uh.. do you have his cell number?"

"Yeah."  She blurts out a number.  "Thanks."  With that she grabs her things and bolts.

"I got it, I'll text it to you."  Dave says.  And then does.

Sarah lights up with a grin for Colin while she dials Elrod.  "Hey there!  Sorry, trouble seems to be brewing."
*one ringy dingy*...
...*two ringy dingy*...  maybe I should have SMS'd.

Elrod answers the phone, "Hello?"

Sarah says, "Hey Elrod it's Sarah.  Sammy asked me to give you a quick call.  Uh, can I meet with you right away?  Something strange might be going down and you may unfortunately be involved.  Where are you?"

"Sure.  Right this second I'm...."  There is a pause.  "On my way into the parking lot for some reason.  Let me meet you by the main doors in like two minutes?"

OOC: Assuming Sarah says yes, moving to a thread.

Trouble brewing? Of course. It's been what? Two days since the last time? he thinks back to Sylvia. He sighs and eats his ham n' cheese sammich. Might as well fight on a full stomach.

He gives Sammy a cheshire cat grin as she sits in between her to men, like a butterfly trapped in a net.

He waves bye to all who exit the table in rapid order, acknowledging Sylvia's kiss with a smile. He introduces the new guy. "Jakob, Colin. Colin, Jakob."  He waves his hand in between each.

His spell repetior needed updating, so he decides to finish up lunch early and head to the library to review and clarify. He had been translating much of his notebook ramblings into his computer at night, now that he had dropped WoW and had more free time, inbetweeen getting thrown around by Jack, jogging, hunting with his dragons, and homework. Right now, most of his spells are loaded on his palm pilot, under several mundane and one magical key. Whoever said technology and magic could not coincide had evidently not tried hard enough.

"Uhm... you surely heard some interesting rumors about us, didn't you Jacob?"

OOC: Jakob will see some events in 49-5, but for story purposes wont get a chance to act on them until we go to initiative.

Duly noted.  Back from vacation...

"Can't say that I have... I'm - literally speaking - straight off the farm."

"Farm?" Colin asks, then another little bit of his dream comes back to his mind. "Oh. Sure, the farm. Well, what I mean is... You're going to hear a lot of strange rumors about us. Fortunately, not all of them are true. Also fortunately, some of them are. And we sort of are... trouble magnets, in a way. But you should be well equipped to deal with that." He smiles.

OC: Has Jakob heard any such rumors about these, or any kids in the school?

There have been things about Oak Park being a freaky place this year, and there has been talk of bad things happening, but not so much specifics.

So noted...

**THURSDAY**
By Thursday Sammy has drafted and cancelled a dozen messages from her to that Eagle's Nest place in Arizona, asking for advice.  She has seen Nick in the halls, but has mostly avoided saying more than "hi" to him.  She eventually notices that El is not around.  At first she doesn't think its a big deal; then she wonders if maybe he's being tactful and staying well out of her way.

She sends a message
u dont have to hide.  i dont hate u.

She gets a replay about ten minutes later.
I was being a gentleman.  I know how I felt when I got cheated on.  I have to think you must feel sort of the same way.  Seeing her used to drive the knife home.  I didn't want to put you through that.  And thanks for not hating me.  It means a lot to me.

I'm just glad you are ok.  I was afraid you went missing and I was days behind on the trail.  You don't have to hide.

(OOC:  Kat is having trouble remembering.  There was a girl who cheated on Elrod?  or is he talking about Sammy?)

OOC: He's a senior.  You have heard tell of him having a girlfriend his Sophmore year for all of about three days.

I'm touched.  I'm glad to think you'd still come to my rescue.  If seeing me does bother you, or make you sad let me know.  Don't be shy.  And, if you can handle it, don't be a stranger.  I miss you.

The doctor says you'll survive.

I need some fresh air, she thinks.

She heads for the lunch table, with the hope of convincing the others to go to Tasty Dog with her.

John has tried to make it to lunch, but doesn't talk much.  It's not easy to tell if he's just engrossed in his most recent medical journal, or trying not to talk.  When Sammy suggests the Tasty Dog (a direct violation of the rules) he nods, "I'll go.  If that's ok?"

Sammy's eyebrows lift in surprise.  "Sure."  She shuffles restlessly in her seat.  "Sorry I snapped at you the other day.  I was over the edge."

John shrugs.  "It's ok.  I'm used to saying the wrong thing at exactly the wrong moment."

Sarah is looking at her sandwich.  "So you are suggesting we acquire food not approved of by the schools nutritional guidelines?  Furthermore you intend to lead a group to leave school grounds in the middle of the day against clearly stated policy?"

Sammy does her best to appear virtuous.  "Actually, I was kind of hoping you'd bamph us there."

Sarah drums her fingers together and replies, "Excellent." 

Jakob lumbers over to the table.  He's carrying a large, rumpled brown bag.

"You guys mind if I sit with you?"

"Only if you're eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil."  Greg says with an excellent Dr. Evil impersonation, including pinky move.

"Please do."  Rob says, "The more the merrier."  He's smiling.

Dave doesn't look up from his book, just makes a hand motion like asking was unnecessary.

"Sorry for taking off the other day."  John says, "I hope you got to your class ok?"

"Hi Jakob.  Want to eat down the street at Tasty Dog?  Its a dogs and chili place."

"Sounds good to me."  He looks at the bag lunch he brought.  "I'll have this as a snack later."

Sammy looks at the bag, thinks of Pip, then looks over at John.  A small grin appears on her face.  "We could go to a Chinese buffet instead.  Someplace where nobody might recognize us."

Donnie says "Going to the Dog is one thing. Skipping away from the school to go to a buffet is totally out of the realm of normalcy. Then again, we aren't very normal. Except Greg. He's the straight man to our Jackie Gleason."

Greg raises a hand to acknowledge that he heard Donnie, but continues to read.

Sammy shrugs.  "OK."

"Either is fine by me.  Let's get out of here..."

Sarah says, "Cool with me.  We can all take a stroll to the news room and head out from there whenever you are all ready."

Sammy needs no further invitations.  She's up and moving out of the cafeteria.

Sarah wanders over to the News Room with any one willing to tag along and *poit*  to the side alley of the Tasty - if that's where the consensus requests. 

Sammy whispers "OK, Jedi girl, now all we need is an aura of "Of course we belong here, nobody's breaking any rules" and we're all set."

Cue Sylvia, who comes in muttering over the creeping illiteracy of America's youth.  She stops at the threshold and blinks at the crowd.  Suddenly she looks anxious.  "What's wrong?"

Sammy looks confused.  "Nothing.  I just don't want to get busted for leaving campus for lunch."

Sylvia laughs a little, tucking a sheaf of articles on the debate team's success at the winter regional meet under her arm.  "Where are you guys headed?"

"Tasty Dog.  I want to put some curves on my narrow goody-goody ass."

Sylvia grins.  "Why stop at Tasty Dog?  Sarah can get you guys anywhere, can't she?"

"True.  Got a suggestion?"

"I don't know.  Mitzi's a vegetarian, remember?  We pretty much never go out."  She pauses, then brightens.  "But if you're taking a field trip, I'd go somewhere really wild like Hawaii or Canada--"  Sylvia's from San Francisco; Canada sounds exotic.  "--or Rome.  They have good pizza in Rome.  That's what the Travel Channel says."

"Time zones?  Aren't they still eating breakfast west of here?  Europe though... late dinner?  Chili dogs would be good enough for me right now, but we could research some places, go someplace cool another time -- tomorrow?  this weekend?"

"That'd rock," Sylvia says.  She's looking at Sarah, wondering how far the young Padawan can get them.  "It's better that we're not hanging around here anyway, I'm told."

Sarah holds up her hand and interrupts.  She says, "Uh... I'm not that good a jumper yet.  I don't even have my teleporter's passport yet.  Now if you want somewhere around the greater Chicago area and back for next class.. that I can manage."

"We could hijack a plane," Sylvia suggests, dreaming of the glamorous life of crime she'll never lead.

Sammy giggles.  "I don't need no stinkin' planes.  I can fly myself wherever I want to go.  So?  Today Tasty Dog!  Tomorrow -- someplace in the greater Chicago area so Sarah doesn't bust a spleen?"

"Is it the spleen that teleports?"

Sarah shrugs, "Like I know."

Sylvia ponders that.  "Okay.  I'm holding you up from Tasty Dog, but just one more stupid question while I'm at it:  how far can something be from you before you can't take it with you?  Like, if you take your shoe and put it on a table ten feet away, can you still take it with you when you go?"

"Well... 10 feet?  Wow, I don't think so, not yet anyway.  I mean I can do these group ports when everybody is next to me and roughly in contact, shoulder to shoulder.  Even then I can only do them when I really take my time and focus," offers Sarah.  "I keep practicing when I can.  If I'm just hopping around I can bring one light person with me.  Someone like John or Jakob are probably too big to be classified as carry on luggage."

Jakob chuckles.  "Those overhead compartments get a little stuffy anyhow."

He seems to be taking all of the superpower talk in stride.  He wonders what else he's been missing while out on the farm.

Sammy turns to him, suddenly serious.  "oh.  wow.  I forgot...  I'm not freaking you out, am I?  I figured after the other day when my evil twin came to town, my secret is out.  I'm not going to make a big deal of it, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy trying to hide it anymore.  What's the point?"  She sticks out her hand and turns on the 'give the runway model fluttering hair' breeze .  "Hi.  My name is Samantha Jameson, and I have paranormal abilities."

Sarah looks at Sammy with a startled expression.  "Oh.  Is that the way we're going with this?  I totally thought we were going to MIB him after lunch.  After we all borrowed money from him to pay for lunch."  She grins mischievously and adds, "But I guess we can try your way."

Donnie shuffles into the newsroom. "Don't mind them. They wouldn't do that to you. Unless they did and I was made to forget. Swamp gas, reflecting off the rings of Saturn, right?" He winks.

He accepts the handshake.

"Not freaked out at all.  In fact, it's kind of a relief."

As she speaks, Sammy lines herself up between Jakob and John to get ready to be *poit*ed away to Tasty Dog.  She's got the crazy idea that if she holds John and Jakob up with air, maybe they won't be so heavy for Sarah.  So much else about powers seems to violate the laws of physics. Its not like she could lift John normally, but with air its no problem, so why not?  "Relief? How's that?  Because you really saw what you think you saw, and aren't hallucinating?"

Sarah closes her eyes and tries to use the focusing exercises Morpheus had been teaching her.  She steps in the middle of the group and ... *poit*! 

OOC: (Guess we can finally head over to the Dog)

Jakob smiles.

"Something like that."

"That's what I've heard.  Nothing to see here, citizen."