groovygamers.com

Dave, Greg, and Rob are at the table as well as Breanna this week.

Megan made her way into the lunchroom, dressed in the yellow Bejeweled T-shirt and Abercrombie pants she had worn in the illusion the witches had put them in (which had made putting the clothes on this morning feel rather odd).  She waved over at those at the US table as she headed over to where the other cheerleaders were sitting for a moment to go over some of the things they had to do in regard to Homecoming preparations for the week.

After talking with them, she headed over to the US table, taking her normal seat next to John (or next to where John normally sat if he was not there yet).  “Hey everyone.”  She said, having a slightly odd feeling as this were the same people that had been at the table in the illusion.  Realizing she had not ever met Breanna before in reality, she addressed her directly.  “Hi, I’m Megan, you must be Breanna.”

As she spoke, the blonde teen took out her stack of new teen magazines.

Sammy walks in with her going to lunch escort, one of Dave's nameless minions.  She's wearing a yellow sweater, a pair of snug fitting jeans, and new riding boots, her one big purchase in California.  She thanks the minion, takes her backpack full of books from him (he insisted on carrying it for her), and makes her way over to the suspect's table.  She sits down next to Dave.  Very quietly she says to him "So why are your boys all being so very nice to me?  What story did you and El tell them?  This last one said something like I should 'keep him in mind after Elrod graduates'."  She looks over at the boy, then back at Dave, and with a tinge of dread in her voice asks "He is one of your boys, right?"

"Oh, yeah.  Hi."  Breanna says, extending a hand in Megan's direction.  "You must be Megan."  she sais with a smile.

"He's just taken by your charm."  Dave says with a smile.  He leans close and whispers, "If you're ever in doubt about one of them, ask to see some ID.  If he doesn't show you my phone number in his caller ID, then you have a problem."

John comes in and glances around the room for a second.  It seems perfectly casual, but Megan has known him long enough to know there was nothing casual about it.  He was sizing up the room, and the various groups of people.  He makes his way over to the US table and sits next to her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.  He has on a yellow T-shirt under his blue jacket.  "Hey everyone."

Sammy nods in acknowledgement. 

"Hi John.  Hi Breanna!  I'm Samantha Jameson, Sammy -- remember me?  Elrod and I gave you a ride home from the Halloween party.  I heard you got hurt last week -- are you feeling better?"

Megan shakes Breanna’s offered hand.  “Hopefully Kel will show up today, we can never tell when he will decided to come by or not.”

The blonde teen then watched as John came in and scanned the crowd, the fact that one would need to try to look for potential threats all the time around school a bit of a depressing thought.  But, at least they had helped to remove one of those threats, and hopefully could soon deal with some others.  Megan decided to take a look around herself, so she scanned the area.  The look around seemed casual as John’s had, but with her mind working dozens of times faster than a normal persons, she was able to more carefully look things over in a fraction of the time.

She returned his kiss on the cheek with one of her own after he sat down.  “Hey yourself.”  She whispered and then started thumbing through her magazines again.  It would be hard to talk about stuff too much with Breanna there, but perhaps it would be nice to just be more “normal” for once at lunch.

(ooc take 20 on a notice check)

Sarah strolls into Lunch with an 'All is Well in the World' smile.  She looks around the lunchroom as if surveying her domain before joining the US table.  She is dressed in a pale pastel yellow shirt and sage green skirt.  She wears a dozen of the yellow charity bands on her wrists.  Her lunch sack even has a yellow happy face on it. 

"Happy Class Color day!"

OOC:  Is Dave in pink?  Please tell me he's in pink.  Please? 

OOC: You're kidding, right? 


Breanna looks in the direction of Sammy's voice, and for a minute she looks confused.  Then, she slowly nods her head, "Right."  she says, smiling, "Yeah, right, okay.  I remember."  She turns her head back towards Megan, "Oh.  I didn't even think about that.  I just assumed he ate here with you guys all the time."

"Kel's too cool for us sometimes."  Dave says from the end of the table.

"You're a senior, right Dave?"  Breanna says, "Are you wearing pink?"

"I'm pink on the inside, where it counts."  he says, going back to reading his latest book.

Megan was glad she was looking down at one of her magazines when Dave mentioned Kel not coming around for lunch because he was “too cool” for them sometimes.  She almost laughed when Breanna asked if Dave was wearing pink, but then, the other girl obviously did not know Dave. 

“Kel often likes to work out at lunch.”  She said, turning a page of her magazine after having read it in less than a second.  “You would think tossing and holding us up in the air during practice would be plenty of workout.”

"That only proves you're one of a rare breed, Dave" Sammy quips.  She sticks a pink carnation in his shirt pocket.  "There ya go.  I brought some just in case El needed some school spirit, but there's enough to share."

"I feel moved by school spirit. Ssomeone call and exorcist."  Dave's tone is flat, but he's smiling.

"Well, here I am."

He mockingly gives Dave a close inspection.

"Don't worry. It's a temporary thing. Expect it to show up again on Friday, though."

Colin too wears the same sweater he wore in dream reality. Despite it probably being the most uncool thing ever, he happens to like it, and has decided the witches won't make him like it any less because of what they did. His face looks better, and he's only got a simple bandage over his nose now, instead of the huge scaffolding he had to wear the first days.

Before sitting down, he squeezes Sarah's shoulder passing by, then gets near Breanna and takes her hand.
"Hi. I don't think we've been properly introduced yet, but I'm Colin Crow. Kel talked to me of you and I've already seen you... Well, that would be a long story... Anyway, what's the proper etiquette in these situations? Should you... touch my face or something?"

“Just on Friday?”  Megan said in an exaggeratedly appalled tone as Colin arrived to diagnose Dave’s case of school spirit.  “There are three more dress up days before Friday!”

She and John had planned out coordinated outfits for Wednesday, but she had refused to tell him what she had in mind for tomorrow. 

Breanna smiled, "Nah, that's just a pick-up line the blind use."  she said.

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they're not as humiliating to a male senior as today."


Colin chuckles.

"Very well."

He takes a seat (possibly near Sarah) and announces the table "I've been thinking... what would you think of a podcast version of the school newspaper?"

"It could work.  Would you do the whole paper that way or just parts of it?"  Sammy asks.

She idly scans the cafeteria, looking for... something.  Anything.  Afraid of finding it.  Afraid of not finding it.

"I'm not sure yet. It's not really my field. I was thinking of asking Donnie. It's just that..." he silently points at Breanna "Well, never mind. I'll let you know if anything comes out of it."

As the discussion turned to newspaper stuff, Megan focused more on her magazine reading.  After half finishing the current issue of Teen Vogue, she looked over at John to see if he was still tense, alert and watching the area around them.

"Oh.  Okay."   Sammy's fingers tap-tap-tap on the table.  "I should get something to eat."  Just to do something besides sit here and be paranoid.  She squeezes Dave's shoulder as she pushes back her chair to stand up.  "I'll be in line if El comes in and wonders where I am."

Sarah has a spot next to her for Colin as always.  Even if she has to push Sammy out of it.  "I like the idea of a podcast.  Just add the download link to the website and you are all set.  You should probably do a survey to see if anyone else is actually interested in it.  I mean organizing the process and then recording it will take forever plus the time spent cleaning up the audio is another big chunk of time.  I think if you are interested in it you may have to pass the idea on to the audio visual geeks as a possible project.  You might suddenly find yourself too short on time to deal with the important stuff that seems to need constant attention," says Sarah and adding, "You know... me?" 

She grins before turning to Breanna.  "Hi Breanna, I'm Sarah.  Want a cookie?  I figure you're new to the table so you should get first crack before the hordes descend and leave nothing but crumbs."  She opens up her lunch back and pulls out a sack of cookies.  "Just straight up chocolate chip today."

Donnie walks into the cafeteria, with an astoundingly bright yellow t-shirt on. with a smiley-face design on the chest.  He smirks as he comes over to the table, showing it off. "My mom almost didn't let me out the door with it. Nearly destroyed her sense of propriety and fashion."

In the center of the chest is a hideous smily face, looking normal until it hits around the normal line of the mouth, which is instead replaced by a mass of wriggling yellow tentacles. Beneath it in black block lettering is the phrase 'Cthulu Happens'.

Megan looked up at Donnie’s shirt and smirked.  “I can see why.”  She replied at his comment as to why his mom would not let him out the door.  But then she gave him a non-judgmental smile.  “But it is yellow, so it does fulfill the class color for the day.”  She then turned the last page of her current magazine and flipped it into the middle table.  “Done with Teen Vogue if anyone is interested.”  She then opened the latest Teen Cosmo.

John has since relaxed some and was eating his lunch, flipping through a copy of a medical journal.  When Megan looked over at him he smiled and leaned his head against her shoulder for a second, continuing to read.



"Thanks."  Breanna takes a cookie and munches on it for a moment.  "I could help with a podcast if you like.  I have some good sound stuff on my laptop.  as for time, assume that it will take three times as long as you want the podcast to be to make.  That's a ballpark estimate.  So a ten minute podcast will take at least thirty minutes, longer when you're first starting out."


"Oh, me."  Greg says, standing up to reach across the table for it.  Dave and Rob only shake their heads.

Sammy makes her way through the slow lunch line, saying hi to her friends as she spots them.  She gets the Splort! of the Day (named for the sound it makes when it leaves the serving spoon and hits the plate) and something to drink, then goes back to rejoin the Suspects.  From across the cafeteria she can see that Elrod hasn't joined them yet.  Random thoughts fill her mind as she threads her way through the tables and chairs.

If he doesn't make contact soon, I'll ping him to see if he's okay.

I wonder when the police or the school are going to bother to let me know that I have a stalker?  Maybe they think its better to keep me clueless.  Better bait that way.   Maybe I should change my costume idea for tomorrow and come as Winnie the Pooh's Honey Pot instead.  That'll send up a flag.  But what does the flag say?

She sits down.  "Nice shirt Donnie.  I'd have pegged you for a Flying Spaghetti Monster kind of guy though, full of noodly goodness."  She stares in resignation at the Splort!, sighs, and begins to eat.  "The problem with going away is that there was no food in the house this morning.  Mom thinks my dad had the pizza shop on speed dial while the rest of us were gone, but there weren't any leftovers to prove it."

She takes a bite, then does a double take.  "Rob?  You're joining us today?"  How did I miss seeing him earlier?

"Yeah.  I missed sitting with you guys."  he says as he peels an orange, "Besides it improves my street cred to be at the table with the head of the cheerleading squad and the quarterback."

He is immediately struck on the shoulder by both Greg and Dave who announce the attacks with "Narf" which seems to have siome signifigance to the group of them as they laugh some.

Sammy's cell phone beeps with a text message;
Hung up with the principal, might not make it to lunch.  See you after school for a chili dog?

Megan smiled as John briefly rested his head on her shoulder, her right hand coming up to lightly brush his cheek with the back of her hand before he sat back up and focused back on his medical journal.  She then looked up over at Greg as he called the Teen Vogue, wondering if he was teasing her.  She then focused back on Teen Cosmo.

ok, c u then!

"Greg!  I don't care if you want to drool over pictures of girls modeling swimsuits and dresses, but gah! could you at least do it where I won't risk drowning in the spit pool?  Take some of these napkins, dude!  Really!"  She throws some napkins in his direction then looks around at the others.  "El won't be joining us for lunch.  Anybody want to walk with me to the Tasty Dog right after school so I can say hi to him at least once today?"

Sure."  Breanna says.  That way I can figure out where it is."

"OK.  I'll meet you at the main doors."

Megan smiled at Sammy teased Greg.  She rather doubted Greg was taking the magazine to drool over girls, did not seem like him at all to her.  When Sammy asked about someone going with her to the Tasty Dog after school and Breanna spoke up about going, Megan looked up at the blind girl and then Sammy.  “You think you have some time to head over there before practice?”  She asked John, figuring it might be good for a few of them to be there.

John just nodded at Megan's question.  "Which reminds me."  He says looking up at her.  "Don't let anyone get sick on Con Debate.  I've signed up for this lecture series at the university, and all but one of them are on nights we have practice or meets."  He digs a flyer from his pocket and hands it to her.

The flyer is for a lecture series on Paranormal Medicine by a woman named Jocundra Verrett.  The series is several sessions over the month of Novermber.

Sarah smiles with a sense of relief.  For the first time all year Rob sounds like a familiar friend at the table.  Is he still a friend?  We still don't know anything about what's happened to him.  He was involved with the witches and they were involved with Vandross.  Is it too difficult to believe another line connects Rob to Vandross?  But he's Rob.  Is he Rob?  Deal with it as it comes.

"Has everyone picked their homecoming buddy yet?  Dave?  Are you going to be seen with a girl?"

“I’ll make sure everyone is eating their vegetable soup.”  Megan said with a smile as she looked over the flyer John had handed her.  “This looks awesome, I know you’ll enjoy it.”  Megan said with a wide smile as she looked back up at John.  She was glad he was getting involved with things that would help him towards his goal.  It was important to him, so it was important to her.  “If you haven’t already, I can tell Laura when I see her at a Homecoming planning meeting later this afternoon.”

"If I can find one cheap enough."  he says from behind his book.

"I'm going with Sylvia's sister.  She's trying to avoid some guy in the school play so I'm elected pretend date."  Greg says as he flips slowly through the Teen mag he'd fetched from the table.

"I'm asking a girl from my social studies class."  Rob says, "She's really shy though, so try not to embarass her, okay?"

"US?"  Dave says, way too loud.  "How could you think such a thing."

"I suppose I should ask Kel."  Breanna says.  "Does anyone know if he's already going with anyone?"

Megan looked over at Breanna as she mentioned asking Kel to go to Homecoming, remembering when Kel had asked her, just a bit too late after Seth already had.  But that had been weeks ago, before she had even met John, so who knew what had happened since then.  “I don’t think so.  But Kel often keeps quite about a lot of things.”

Donnie is a bit surprised to see Rob, the old Rob but without the shyness and secret longing stares at the breasts of every girl at the table. After his banter with Dave and Greg, it seems he has come around now that he had been 'invested with the power of Meno' or whatever. Donnie relaxes marginally and resists staring at Rob from the corner of his eyes. After Rob's declaration of intent, Donnie can't help but say "As long as she's not a secret coven member, you should be fine."  He grins to lighten the joke, but inside he quails at the bluntness of the comment. Dammit mouth, stop talking before brain decides.

He snags a couple cookies and drops then in his suddenly heavier backpack and looks around for Sylvia. She usually beat him here for lunch on most days.

"Hush up, Dave, or I'll make you dance with me.  You don't want to know what happens to guys who dance with me."


Sammy looks at Megan but doesn't say anything directly to her.  "I'm not sure either.  He made noises about maybe going with someone but that didn't work out, so you probably ought to ask him directly.  I'm sure he'll be flattered either way."


Sammy visibly flinches at Donnie's remark.  "Not funny..."  she murmurs.  She puts her spork down and stares down at the remaining food on her plate.

"Smooth Donnie."  Rob says, "I'm suprised you're not more of a ladies man with lines that smooth."  He's smiling, and launches a chip from Dave's lunch in Donnie's direction.

Colin tries to think of a witty remark, but when nothing comes, he just smiles at her.


Colin looks back at Sarah.

"Well, it looks like we just found someone who's up to the task. Donnie, what do you think of it?"


Colin just grimaces, but says nothing.


He looks at her with a confused expression on his face, and he's about to ask her about it... then he thinks it may not be such a good idea, after all.


"Speaking of ladies, where's Sylvia? I'd like her opinion too."

"Sly is lunching with Logan.  I saw them out front."  Rob says.

Donnie coughs coca-cola all over his tray.  "Funny *gasp* Rob. *cough* Touche'. Bastard. You're not serious, I hope."

He checks his Cthulu Happens shirt for spots of coke.

“Yeah, he did ask me.”  Megan replied.  “But he asked too late, I don’t think he has asked anyone else.”

When Rob them mentioned that Sylvia was having lunch with Logan Darklighter and Donnie almost coughed on his soda, Megan glanced up from her magazine a moment, wondering if there was going to be another case of drama, and hoping there would not be.

Sarah considers that last bit of information.  "What's the deal with Logan anyway?  Whenever I hear about him I think he should look like Dave except with a beard.  Or is it the other way around?"  She shrugs.  "Does our resident know it all have an inside track on all things Darklighter?  Like how he ended up with a Star Wars name?" 

She looks back at the man behind the reading material. 

"Logan... well, I don't really know what to think of him. Syl is likely doing some investigation."

"His dad is a mega ubber Star Wars geek.  So, while mom was recovering from the c-section surgery he slipped down and named the baby.  She's never gonna let him live it down."  Dave responds.

Sammy says "It's better than Jar Jar."

She grabs some things from her backpack and starts grinding away at her biology homework.  "Glad I got an extension on this..." she says mostly to herself.

“Here is Teen Cosmo for anyone that wants it.”  Megan announced, placing the finished magazine in the center of the table.  She took up Seventeen then as she rested her head against John’s shoulder.

Sarah slides the magazine off the table and into her pack.

Donnie runs his tongue along his bottom lip, looking down at his tray and not at anyone else.

Emotions whirled through his head: surprise, anger, and hurt were there, the usual three. But a sense of patience slowly moved through him and despite his flushed complexion (when do I not get flushed from some sort of emotion?)  he calmly picks up his hot ham'n'cheese sammich and takes a careful bite, keeping his eyes on the tray in front of him.

Ostensibly scanning her textbook for answers to some of the cell structure and function homework questions,  Sammy peeks up through her eyelashes to watch for any sign that Donnie is going to go crazy-angry because Sylvia might be eating with Logan.   She's relieved to see that he seems to have a grip on himself.

She begins to label the parts of a diagram.

Sarah smiles to herself at all the book readers at the table.  She pulls out her notepad and starts scribbling quickly.  When she's finished she tears the sheet in half and hands one to Sammy and the other to Colin.

Sammy:   
Hey California Dreamer,
Do you have the time/interest to take a spin around the park tonight or tomorrow?

Colin:
Colin,

You are a cutey.  I have a neat trick to show you if you have some time tonight.  If you are busy tonight can I pick you up for school tomorrow and show you? 

Sammy scans the note and nods at Sarah with some curiosity.  "Um... Breanna?  do you have tickets to the dance?  Megan is doing stuff with the Homecoming Committee, and I volunteered to help with decorating the gym.  I doubt its been sold out, but if it is we can check to see if anybody is getting rid of tickets."  Hesitantly, she continues.  "Donnie?  Did you ever get your tickets back?  I mean... you're still going, right?  That hasn't changed?  I should still deliver those flowers on Friday?"

"Oh, tickets.  I didn't even thnk of that.  I'll text Kel and see if he has any, then if not I can get some, right?"  Breanna takes out her phone and quickly fires off a message to Kel.

Another curious thing.  "How does that work?  Do you have a text to voice reader in your phone?"

Colin takes her pen, and draws a little smiley face where she says he's a cutey. Then he adds: Tonight's ok. When and where? If I'm lucky I'm going to have a little thing for you too.

Donnie's shoulders slump. " I completely forgot about that. Unless Greg or Dave snatched up the tickets, no I don't have them. I left them on the table that day."  He looks up hopefully at the two upperclassmen. "As far as the flowers, yeah, definately deliver them."

Megan looked up at Donnie as he and Sammy talked about the Homecoming tickets he had thrown on the table after his fight with Sylvia.  “John picked them up to hold for you Donnie.”  The blonde teen said as she nudged her boyfriend.

John takes out his wallet and holds the tickets up for Donnie.  "Do I give them to you now, or hold onto them incase you decide to throw them away again before the dance?"  He's smiling, but the look donnie sees in his eyes conveys more depth then his words.

A minute or two after Breanna sent her text message to Kel her phone chimes.  She takes it out and taps some keys.  The phone begins to beep madly.  Some of you recognize it as Morse Code.  She smiles.  "Kel's gonna get tickets.  I guess that means we're going."  Her smile broadens.  "I appreciate the offers to help, but I guess we're okay."

Megan looked over at Breanna as her phone started beeping.  “That is really cool.”  She said when the girl understood what the “text” message said from the beeps.  “And that’s awesome that you will be going with Kel.  You should have just enough time to get a dress.”

"Yeah.  My mom will be thrilled.  I'm sure she'll take me out today to get one.  She's very into the dress thing."

"Cool.  Don't forget to get comfortable dancing shoes too."  Sammy idly threads the other pink carnations through the wire spiral of her notebook, since she knows she probably won't be seeing El during the school day.  She does another scan of the cafeteria, then returns to her homework.

“That’s good, tonight is probably as late as you would want to wait.”  Megan said, getting the smile on her face into her tone.  “And dress shopping is fun.”  She then went back to her Seventeen magazine. 

Sarah grimaces at Megan's remark.  "I think shopping is an acquired taste.  Every so often I enjoy it but mostly it's something I avoid.  Probably because I put it off until all my clothes are in shreds and I have to spend all day at the mall.  And it's the mall.  For some odd reason I haven't been all that fond of the mall this year."

She scribbles on the note to Colin.

I'll drop by your place around ten or eleven.  I'll give your cell a call before I come over.

Sammy replies to Sarah's remark about shopping.  "I do most of my shopping in my sisters closets.  I get the hand me downs anyhow, so I just speed up the process sometimes.  This sweater, for instance, is a Stephanie reject."

Megan doesn’t look up from her magazine at Sarah’s remark, just shrugs.  “Depends on the mall.  Like anything else, shopping takes practice.”

So much for that becoming something we share in common.  Megan though in regard to Sarah's comments.  For awhile it had seemed like the two old friends might really start reconnecting, but other than talking a few times about some things, neither had really made a concerted effort to spend more time together, other than that involving heroing.

"Shopping isn't so bad."  Breanna says.  "I love to listen to all the people chatter.  People say the craziest things at the mall, like it's somehow private because of the noise.  Watching them with my friends was a favorite past time."

Megan looked up from her magazine and over at Breanna before looking at Sarah and Sammy in turn as she said, “see?  That is part of the fun of shopping.” 

"Not when you don't look as good as the people you're shopping with," Sammy says, "or desperately want something that you totally can't afford and know that the Target rip-off doesn't look or feel half as nice.  Then its a real bummer, Megan.  But hey, there's nothing wrong with shopping if that's what you really enjoy, or if you're really good at it.  Its a science for my friend Heather.  Somehow, she always smells the sales and has a real knack for putting stuff together.  For me?"  She shrugs.  "Its something I have to do, and when I do get lucky and find something I really like and looks good too, it makes me happy.  Its a lot of work though."

Megan looked over at Sammy for a moment, she had clearly missed the point that even though shopping could seem like a chore, there were ways to still make it fun.  “I am sorry you find it so difficult Sammy.”  The blonde teen said

She then looked over in Breanna’s direction.  “So, Breanna, you said it was a favorite pastime?  Do your friends not like shopping anymore?”  She asked, wondering exactly about the other girl’s choice of words.

I'm already looking forward to it.

He reaches for one of her cookies, and quite unusually for him, he seems relaxed. As if things could actually be looking up.

"Oh, we moved.  We've only been here a little while."

Sarah suddenly looks worried.  "Shoes!"  She smacks her forehead.  Turning to Megan she asks, "Um, what color shoes would go with a green dress?  I mean ah.. what color is it.. Chartreuse green!  I think that's it.   Only it's more shiny.  You know this stuff inside and out don't you?"  

“Well, if you ever want to get out to a mall or Michigan Avenue sometime, give me a call, odds are good I will be up for going, if not there already.”  Megan replied. 


Megan looked over at Sarah as she started to seem to panic about shoes.  “Yes, I remember the dress we found for you when we all went out shopping a month ago.”  She thought a moment, then replied.  “I’ll think about some ideas and email them to you if you want.”

Donnie stares back, trying to discern the meaning behind John's intensity. "I'll take them. I was acting foolish then. I may still act foolish in the future, but perhaps with more aplomb."

He reaches out and takes then, tucking them into a new notebook.

Sarah let out a quick sigh of relief.  "Thanks Megan.  I mean I know I could have found some eventually but I would have looked at five or six hundred of the wrong shoes first.  Asking you is a super short cut.  The only thing better is dragging you along with me but I can't do that for a stupid pair of shoes.  How helpless am I?  I'm going to web search all the shoe places in the area and try and focus in on the best spots.  Should hopefully save me some time."

She puts her head in her hands and groans softly.  "Oh god.  I'm being girly.  And organizedly girly.  Is that even a word?"  Sarah head swings up and she gives Colin a dirty look.  "You did this to me!  I'd still be playing video games and banging around in geeky tees if it weren't for you.  Now I go home and think, gosh what should I wear tomorrow."  The last words are spoken in an airhead tone. 

She pinches the bridge of her nose like a sudden headache.  "Sorry Colin.  I'm not really mad or anything I'm just a," idiot?  jackass? "little over caffeinated this morning."  

She grabs a cookie and says, "I'm gonna go clear my brains for a couple minutes.  If I don't make it back before the bell I'll see you in class Megan."  She stands up and gives Colin a kiss before heading out the door. 

Sarah heads for the bathroom because it's the place to go right?  Where all the cool kids hang out?  Something like that.  Better not be a line.

“Shoes for Homecoming is noy quite what I would call stupid, so if you want company, I’d be happy to go with you.”  Megan replied. 


Megan was smiling a bit through Sarah’s “over-caffeinated” rant.  “See you Sarah.”  She said as she finished up Seventeen and put it in the middle of the table.  She then opened her backpack again and took out the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report and began reading from where she had last gotten to.

Sammy shoves her homework into her backpack and dumps the lot by her chair.

"I'm going to get rid of this garbage."  

Sammy gets up with what's left of her lunch and quickly walks away in the direction of the big trashcans by one of the far exits.  On her way back she stops to chat with a couple of kids she knows from band, who engage her in lightweight conversation.  She sits down with them, and somehow looks a whole lot happier and much more relaxed over there. 

Elrod appears in the cafeteria doorway and looks around for Sammy.  He spots her and makes his way over to sit with her for a couple of minutes before the bell.  "Hey.  Sorry about that.  Little sister got into a spot and so with the folks out of town, the principal called me up to chat about it.  This being an adult thing sucks."

Sammy seems both sympathetic and disgusted.  "Aw, man, I'm sorry you have to deal with that.  They left again, already?  Or did they never come back like they were supposed to last week?  I wish you could just, I don't know, quit.  Say you're done, its somebody else's job now or better yet, she's 18 and legal right?  Let her deal with her own messes."  

She looks at him and gets an oddly serious look on her face.  "How many credits do you need to graduate?  Will you have finished all of the grad requirements by the end of this term?"

"I'll be done in June with the rest of the class.  Unlike Princess I'mAFuckUp' who will be spending summer over at the ivory towers.  It's actually good that the P called me.  He was able to conference call us to Fenwick.  He and the head guy there go way back.  Probably saved little sister from getting a three day suspension."  He stops talking for a minute and flips out his phone, checking the calendar.  He shakes his head.  "Duh.  Duncan Shiel is in town tonight.  She was probably trying to get kick out so she could get to the concert."  He chuckles.  "Okay, so we are sort of alike."  he laughs some.  "I wou;dn't ditch to see Duncan Shiek, but I get the drift."  He gives Sammy a kiss on the forehead.  "The folks were here for a couple days then headed out, this time it's business.  Should be back Wednesday, which leaves me plenty of time to get everything squared away form Homecoming.  Which reminds me.  I know that the Usual Suspects are kinda your friends, so do you want to invite any of them to ride with us.  Gonna have a limo, it'll be styling?"

Sammy thinks about it for a moment.  "I dunno... maybe Sarah and Colin?  Sarah wants to carry your bags on your next vacation, but she might settle for a limo ride as a consolation prize.  I can't guess about the others." 

She starts ticking off names on her fingers.  "Megan and John probably would prefer to go in their own vehicle; I'd bet they're probably going with some of the other cheerleaders or football players.  I don't know for sure if Donnie and Sylvia are going with each other anymore; I know Donnie has tickets, but that whole thing has been weird.  Kel got asked by Breanna just now so maybe them... I don't know.  You can go over there and ask them yourself if you like." 

"I have to go back over there anyhow to get my stuff."

"Or, we could just have the limo to ourselves.  with your mom, since I'm sure she'd appreciate a chaparone."

Sammy replies emphatically "No!  No chaperone!  I promise to behave myself, you don't have to be afraid of me.  I'll ask Sarah tonight if she and Colin want to ride with us, then we'll have company and you can relax."

"Just so you know, you're really pretty when you freak out." he whispers to her with a smile before she goes.

Tuesday, November 6th

All through the morning people had seen members of the Science Club walking around dressed in dark suits with sunglasses and earpieces, referring to each other as “Agent Parks” and the like.  At lunchtime, a group of them entered the lunchroom together, and in their midst, was Megan, standing out among the dark sea of suits.

She was wearing a tight red dress with a halter top that left her shoulders bare.  The ends of her blonde hair was curled slightly, and she walked with a bit of an extra “swish”, a faint, coy smile on her face.  Right behind her, one of the dark suited “agents” was John. 

The group made their way across the lunchroom, coming up to the Usual Suspects table.  “Hey everyone.”  Megan said with a smile.

The sea of suits parted once they arrived, and everyone but John made their way to other tables.  "I don't see how those feds do it."  John said, "This is not how I'd want to spend my nine to five every day."

Donnie is resting his big prosthetic and hairy feet on a chair next to him, an unlit wooden pipe in his mouth and a copy of Tolkien's Two Towers resting on his belly.

He smiles at the entrance and looks towards his tray and the remains of his lunch. "Sure didn't taste like soggy paper pulp filled with all the vitamins and minerals a body needs. Did taste vaguely like chicken though. So, how did you buy off the Science Club?"

Megan looked over at John as the two took their seats.  “But you look so good in one.”  She said with a grin as she brushed some lint off his sleeve.  “Though you can probably dress much more casually normally when you are in practice.”

The blonde teen looked over at Donnie with a grin as he made a Matrix reference.  “Buy off?  Why would we have to do that?  I know Brian pretty well from Con Debate, and John was able to help sway them as well.  Sides, I think most were excited about the idea.”

“Like your Lord of the Rings costume.”  She genuinely added.

Sylvia's sitting next to Donnie, trying and failing to slouch in her costume.  "Nice dress," she tells Megan.

She's anchored herself to Donnie, telepathically, so it doesn't take much effort to ask him, and perhaps Smith, Who's she supposed to be?

“Thanks.”  Megan replied to Sylvia with a smile.  “Yours is lovely as well.”  The blonde teen pulled out another stack of magazines.  Yesterday was the teen magazines, today was the normal Vogue, Cosmo and the like.

Scheherazade* glides into the cafeteria.  A minion is sent running to fetch her a bottle of water.  She slowly makes her way through the crowd of tables.



*http://www.groovygamers.com/forum/index.php/topic,4269.msg130389.html#msg130389 (http://www.groovygamers.com/forum/index.php/topic,4269.msg130389.html#msg130389)

Kel walks in, chewing on a pipe and tipping his hat to those he passes.  He arrives at the table and raises an eyebrow at everyone at the table, he sits down and says, "Hello all.  Nice costumes."

Matrix, the movie? Neo and Trinity? Ugh, I need to keep you still enough to watch the first one. She can feel his mental smile.

He does stand up as Sammy approaches the table, bowing and waving his hand in the the triple tiered welcome. "Salaam, I say to you, daughter of the Djinn."  He resists an I dream of Jeannie comment with Sylvia sitting so arm-punchingly near and laughs when Kel makes an appearance.

"I totally did not recognize you until you spoke, Kel."

(ooc hehe, its Sammy, not Kat BB :))

“Hey Sammy.  Great costume.”  Megan said with a smile as the other girl arrived.  When Kel arrived in costume as well, the blonde teen gave him a nod.  “Hey Kel.  Yours is really nice as well.”

Sammy nods and smiles behind the sheer veil obscuring the lower half of her face.  The nameless minion appears with a cold bottle of water and a straw.  He is thanked and dismissed.  She takes a seat between two empty chairs, slides the bottle under the veil and begins to sip water through the straw.  "You guys look good."  Her dangly gold earrings sway gently as if invisible sprites were toying with them.

"I'm volunteering some time for their fund raiser next week."  John says, "Besdes they thought it was a cool idea."

"Sherlock!" Sylvia says brightly when she spots Kel.  "If Kel gets my costume, I may have to declare mad, passionate love for him," she tells Donnie, nudging him with her elbow.

“If they still need more help, let me know, and I can be there as well.”  Megan replied as she started in the current issue of Vogue. 

"Eh, not a good idea.  These guys don't strike me as the type to know how to act around a girl yet, at least one that's not one of their own.  I'll pass along your support though."

“Okay.”  Megan said with a shrug.  “But not exposing them doesn’t seem like the way to change that.”  She focuses back on her reading, leaning up against John’s arm as she does.

Sammy gazes past the edge of her veil at John.  "They did okay with me.  Was that just a reflection of the early onset of the Goo Effect, or am I not scary enough?"  Another delicate sip of water.  "Have you figured out if Bee Guy is part of the Science Club?  Any budding entomologists?"

"Well, they covered up their geekyness pretty well, except for a few."  John says with a smile.  "If bee guy is in the science club, he's not known to be an entomologist.  One guy I was talking to did seem convinced that if someone here were the bee guy, he's likely not be social enough to join any clubs.  The whole bees as my family thing."

Kel smirks at Sylvia and says, "It's been a while since I read that particular one Syl.  But I know The Woman when I see her."

"I am madly, passionately in love with you," Sylvia says, with all the dead-serious earnestness of Walter Cronkite, but then she catches a shred of the conversation between Sammy and John, and her mood shifts from false gravity to real gravity.


Coach me through this? Sylvia says to Smith.  Her eyelids drop to half-mast, and she begins to try to sort through the noise for the buzz of bees or the obsessive repetition of Sammy's name.

You're looking not for sounds, but feelings.  You know the girl, think like someone who needs her.  The thought of her makes you nervous, and your chest hurt.

OOC:Give me a Search Roll DC 20

“So we should maybe be trying to figure some of the people in school that hardlyever interact with anyone?”  Megan asked, looking up from her magazine.

Sylvia searches but finds nothing--a few eyes counting the veils on Elrod's girlfriend, that's all.


Search Roll (1d20+2=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1155339)

Donnie places a hand over his heart looking stricken.  "Oh, the pain. Your big brain and deductive reasoning hath stolen away my beloved, Inspector!"

Kel laughs but doesn't respond as he watches Sylvia close her eyes slightly, and Megan mentions the bee guy, "A social pariah is either going to be easy to find, or really hard.  I mean if they don't talk to anyone, maybe no one notices them?"

Be nice.  Kel is smart.

A lean pirate dressed totally in black, with a bandanna covering his eyes as a mask, a sword at his right side, and a hint of a mustache on his upper lip approaches silently the table and takes a free seat.

Sammy sees the pirate and smiles in appreciation of the costume.  "Nice!"

“Yeah, no one ever notices them, because they aren’t looking, but we would be.”  Megan replies to Kel.

She glances over at Colin as he arrives and gives him a smile.  “Nice costume Colin.”

"Right." Kel says in response to Megan's comment, and then spotting Colin he says, "Impressive."

"Hey, thank you." He smiles. "It's not that much, really. You guys are very cool too. The woman-in red and the agents is brilliant. So is Sharazade. Donnie, I expected no less. Though after Sylvia's exploit at Halloween I was wondering if I was going to see you as a Tauren. Sylvia... yours is very beautiful too, but I'm afraid I don't get it."

He takes out his lunch, and moves as to unmask, but then thinks again. He's got to let Sarah see it first.

"I've been taking wonderful pics today. You all will let me take some shoots of you later, won't you?"

Greg arrives, with Dave.  Dave is dressed as....Dave.  Greg is dressed as Obi-Won as played by Sir Alec Guiness.

"May the Force be with you."  Greg announces as he arrives, and dumps a pile of assorted candy from his bag.

Dave grabs his seat and takes out a book.  "Sorry we're late.  Master Kin-knobhead here needed some help liberating some treasure from the drama room."

Sylvia's still thinking about Sammy's stalker.  Stop me if I'm doing something stupid, she tells Smith and begins very gently to nudge the ambient emotions in the lunch room toward love and romance, on the theory that it'll make an obsessive easier to find.  She tries to use a light touch.  She doesn't want as crude an effect as the love slime or witches' spell produced.

OOC:  Cassie, Cassie, Cassie...  you know I can't leave that alone...

Sammy unfastens the face veil, leaving it to hang loosely.  She pulls a bunch of purple grapes out of her lunch bag and starts biting them off the cluster and eating them one by one.  "Is this the look you want for your photos, Colin?"  She savors the taste of a grape in her mouth and gives him the smile of a woman who is enjoying the knowledge of a very interesting secret.  "Or would it be better with the veil up so you really only see just my eyes?"  She languidly pulls up the veil so that only a pair of dark lashed sparkling brown eyes show.

Donnie sits up a little straighter, kind of wierded out about how Sammy is totally coming onto Colin. What the hell?

Kel notes the flirtation, and then rolls his eyes, oh jeez.

Still thinking of Elrod and his request for her to join his band and go touring with him all! summer! long!, Sammy turns and looks at each of the rest of the folks at the table.  She does have a secret, and she is vastly pleased by it, so her voice matches her expression.  "Well?  What do the rest of you think?  Which is better?"  She's still slowly toying with the veil, and the little breezes are working overtime to run their little breezy fingers through the loose parts of her hair and to flutter the other veiling.

"Strictly from a cinematic viewpoint, veil up.  The eyes should be able to say anything you need."  Greg says, looking at Sammy with what could be thought of as interest, except that he's using his hands to frame the image.

"OK!" she says chipperly, and the expression is mostly dropped.  The pleasure still lingers behind her eyes, but she's not pushing it to the surface anymore.  Her veils stop their gentle floating, but the zephyrs are still having fun with her hair and earrings.  She pulls another grape off the bunch and eats it.  "I just want another good picture to give to Elrod."

“Thanks Colin.”  Megan said with a smile.  “I bet we could gather up all the agents at some point for a group picture and individual ones too if you want.”

As Dave and Greg arrive, Megan is not particularly surprised that Dave is not dressed as anyone, but is glad that at least Greg is.

Her head was still resting on John’s shoulder, and she did not even realize it, but her right hand had started lightly caressing his upper thigh.

Sylvia remains oblivious to the goings-on at the table.  She's searching again, trying to tease out the thoughts of Sammy's stalker.

Still wondering at Sammy's antics, Donnie looks around. "I wonder where Sarah is. If anyone, I expect to see her as a Jedi. She was alway like trying to mentally drag the salt shaker to her hand during lunch."

Sammy smiles full beam at Donnie, happy for her friend Sarah.  She says "Sarah has a secret.  Maybe she wants to make a big entrance."  She pops another grape into her mouth.  They are really good grapes, very sweet and juicy, and she eats them with great pleasure.  "I showed the island to her last night."

Donnie's eyes dart towards Sylvia, who looked like she had a headache or something, her eyes closed. "That's cool. Perhaps it can be our secret base. Shhh, don't tell the bad guys."

Sylvia's efforts come to naught.  She presses her fingers to the spot between her eyebrows and tries to wall off the psychic noise again.  "I could use some fresh air.  I'm going to step outside," she tells Donnie.  "Nice costumes," she tells Colin and Sammy.  "Take pictures of Sarah when she gets here?"  She unbuttons the collar of her velvet coat and wanders away.

[She heads out to the place where Logan eats his lunch.  They probably don't say anything to one another, which is exactly what she wants for the moment.]

“Later Sylvia.”  Megan said with a  wave as the other girl got up to leave.  She had finished Vogue and was on to Cosmo now.

Sammy's eyes cloud over.  Was Donnie making fun of her?  "It wouldn't work unless Megan and John  can walk on water.  Then maybe there'd be some way for everybody to get out there.    'sides, I like knowing it'll be empty if I want to go out there alone."

Wednesday is decades day.  Megan and the girls from the squad could be seen in their poodle skirts and cardigins, while the boys from the football team were in their t-shirts with slicked back hair.

At lunch Summer Nights from the Grease soundtrack begins playing over the loudspeakers.  The boys come in one door and the girls the other side of the cafeteria.  There are some extra faces in the crowd, the reason for which soon becomes apparent as a young man and woman break into song.  The cheer leaders provide the dancing while the roles of Danny and Sandy from Grease are played out during the number by two very talented members of the drama club.

The song ends with a flourish and the cafeteria is filled with applause for the brief show.

Greg makes his way over to the table after the show, and Rob and Dave give him some pats on the back for his off stage role.  The three make a point of congratulating Megan when she arrives, for having come up with the idea.

Sylvia, one of the back-row dancers in a skirt Mitzi thoughtfully Bedazzled, goes to sit next to Donnie.  When will the humiliation end? she asks him, while keeping her pep-squad smile plastered on her face.

[Is Sylvia still listening to mental static?]

Sammy shows up in an 80's  "Flashdance" style outfit based on one old photograph of her mother.

(http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/allposters/45/1800066045p.jpg)

“Thanks guys.”  Megan replied to Greg, Rob and Dave as she arrived with John, the blonde teen sitting across his lap after he sat down.  There was an energy to her step and just looking in her eyes, anyone could tell she was really enjoying the build up towards Homecoming.  “Wouldn’t have happened without Greg and the drama club though.”

"Heck, those guys will perform at the drop of a hat."  Greg says.

OOC: No.  Today's lesson how to listen to everything, but only hear what you need to.  Stlvia has had her attention grabbed by guys checking her out.  A teacher thinking the girl next to her might have cheated off Syl's English test, and a few of the football players advising one of their own that they've seen Donnie fight so he should give up his ideas of trying to move in on Sylvia.

“Nothing wrong with that.”  Megan replied with a smile.  “Tell them to get me a copy of all the music for the routines and a time for us to meet to discuss ideas for choreography and I can get to work on that.”  She added.

Then, she hopped back up to her saddle shoed feet, reaching down to take John’s hand.  “Come on ‘bad boy.”  She said with a smile, pulling on his hand to get him to stand.  Looking back at the others, she said, “We’ll see you all later.”

OOC:  Did Sammy's parents say yes or no to the idea of her joining Elrod's band and going on tour next summer?

OCC: The matter is under advisement.


"We're gonna be over with the team.  Give a yell if anything comes up.  Oh, and Sylvia.  That thing you asked me about yesterday.  I telked to him and he took care of it."  John sais as he and Megan made their way towards where the rest of the team and some of the cheerleaders were seated.

"Thanks," Sylvia says, and as Megan leaves, the pep-squad smile turns off like the stadium lights two hours after the final touchdown.  "Is anyone up for a session at Jack's tonight?  Sweat, bruises, pizza?  Or maybe a little--"  She gestures as if to suggest more.  "--walk through the mean streets of Chicago?"

This is something I must watch.

Sammy looks over at Sylvia, yesterday's happiness replaced with stoic resignation.  "Sure."

You'll love it.  We put on our costumes and have a little fight song.  It's like cheerleading, but we get to beat the stuffing out of bad guys while we shake our pom-poms.


"You don't have to," Sylvia says.  "I just want to not be here for a while.  Get some exercise, maybe, something that doesn't involve counting to eight a million-billion-trillion times."

Kel had slipped in some time during the musical performance.  He was in a zoot suit, complete with large floppy hat and spats.  He leaned back in his chair chewing on a tooth pick and then said, "I was planning on going for a sparring session anyway, and I'm always up for a good romp through the streets you know that."

"You're on.  Your kung fu is no match for mine.  I beat your master, and I can beat you, too."

"No.  My dad got on my case last night about wanting me to do some different things, maybe try seeing some different people.  If I call home and say I'll be out running around with you, it'll get me out of the house and nobody will b*tch about it.  My mom approves of your moms, and therefore you get approval too."

"Different people?  Is he hassling you about us or about Elrod?"

Once they were over at the very crowded table the football players and other cheerleaders were at, Megan sat on John’s lap once more as they began talking with everyone about the game and the dance, one arm around behind his neck.

At one point, Megan leaned in towards John as she quietly said, “so, how about you come by later tonight?  We could study a bit, and watch a movie.”

"Sounds good."  John says.  "Sevenish okay?"

"Elrod.  Dad likes him, and so does Mom.  They're just... concerned... that maybe I'm spending a little too much time with him, not... what'd he say?  Not 'diversifying' enough.  Maybe neglecting other areas of my life.  El asked if I wanted to join his band, so we'd be practicing together a lot and there would be performances and he said something about me taking a shot at singing if I wanted to try, and then next summer doing some travel on the  road.  I asked if it would be okay and they freaked a little.    They want to think about it for a while, and in the meantime I have to prove that I'm 'responsible' and 'thinking things through'.  It sucks.  Mom went to California, she saw he's got my best interests at heart, and they were really grateful about the way he took care of me last week when he got me to the hospital, but me just mentioning something this... long term, it set off alarms."

Donnie is dressed in classy 20's outfit. Not as stylish as Kel, but vest, coat, spats and a hat tipped back on his head.
Humiliation? You look snazzy. Maybe you can wear the poodle skirt regularly..
He shrugs. "Sounds like a plan to me. All I had was a spanish paper due on Friday which I will happily procrastinate another night. My 'friends' are wondering when I will call them back."

He listens to Sammy's concerns. "Parents worry. At least the good ones do. They are just worried about their fourteen year old daughter going off and traveling with a band. Lord knows my mom would freak out if she knew about some of the stuff we've been through."

“Perfect.”  Megan replies with a smile.

Sammy looks at him and Sylvia.  "I know.  That part of things doesn't make it any easier."

Sylvia's struggle with the concept of parental restriction is plain on her face.  She takes a stab at a reasonable response.  "That's rough.  Maybe they don't know El well enough."


It won't work unless you wear a bowling shirt and cuffed jeans.


"Not to backpedal or anything, but with Superman pretty much off the streets we might have a hard time coming up with something to do out there that won't involve mashing people who're doing something illegal, but maybe not immoral.  How do you guys feel about, I dunno, humanitarian work?  I mean, not tonight, but maybe there's something we can do sometime.  Good deeds.  I just don't know what."


"We could ask El along, if you want to spend time with him.  Or, you know, you could just go do something with him if you want.  We'll cover for you."

Have you never gone bowling?  Ah, right.  No bowling alleys in Azeroth.  She flashes him a sequence of deliberately loud, painfully personalized bowling shirts (http://www.2t2t.com/store/images/BowlingShirts.jpg).  We should go sometime.

A tiny groan escapes from Sammy.  "He's giving them what they want.  He wants me to be able to join the band and come along on the road trips next summer, and he doesn't want to screw anything else up either.  He said we'll just have to make the best of the time we do get together until they come around, and reminded me about Homecoming."   She sighs.  "Steph told me the surest way to get them to see things my way would be to quickly date a bunch of losers all in a row, let them see how good I had it, how good a guy he really is.  God help me, I'm  thinking about it."

"If we were evil, we could have a bunch of illusory losers show up at your door."  Sylvia's eyes sparkle, but she's just playing.  "Alas, we have chosen poorly and decided to stand for truth and justice."

"Who is this 'we' you speak so strangely of?  I'm all for cheating and deception under the right set of circumstances."

"Seriously?"  Sylvia wonders suddenly where Colin is, voice of morality.  "I mean, I'd do it.  No pushing, though.  I'm afraid that's where I draw the line between good and evil."

I like her.

Out of the blue a guy comes over and sits down next to Sammy.  "He looks at her for a moment, then looks around like he's lsot.  "Sorry.  I , I must have thought you were someone else."  He gets up and leaves, apologiing again.

Careful there, a little control of the wishful thinking is in order.

Sylvia realizes she had glanced at the boy only a second while chatting about the losers.

I have a better idea.  Two actually.  One is she dates someone that is involved in criminal activity, someone we make sure to expose.  The parents realize the rich kid wasn't so bad.  My other idea is we drop by the house and I change the parents minds.  The flaw with plan two is, what if this elrod guy is really a jerk.

Sylvia shivers and probably looks, for a split second, stricken with horror.


Plan Two . . . are you serious?  Would you do that to your parents?

"Pushing?  Oh, you mean making them think what I want them to think even if they don't want to think that way.  No, I wouldn't ask you to do that.  I hated it when it happened to me."  She pauses.  "But thanks for offering to produce the others.  Maybe I'll take you up on that."

Sylvia nods, and her smile flickers a little like a fluorescent bulb powering on--sporadic at first and then, at full power, still wan and artificial.

Sammy sort of notices that the smile isn't felt.  "What kind of losers would you produce?  My dad hates guys who don't knock at the front door when they come to pick up his daughters.  Says its rude.  He's also sort of prejudiced against goth boys, and boys who 'can't pull up their go**amn pants or buy a belt -- who the hell wants to see another guys underwear?'"  She does a fair imitation of her father.

What'dya mean would I.

Sylvia has to reengage and refocus.  "I'm not sure who my parents wouldn't like.  Litterers?  Bigots?  Carolyn has this thing about chauvinism and domineering men.  But sure.  I bet, by the time we get to the guy showing off his Calvin Kleins, your parents till be inviting El over for dinner every Sunday."

Did you?

Hope begins to glimmer in Sammy's eyes.  "How real are your illusions?  Can they walk through my mom's flower beds and crush a bunch of flowers?  That would not make her at all happy.  Or would we have to recruit a real boy to carry the illusion around with him in order to do something like that?  I mean, a real boy, or a girl with big enough feet to leave the same sized prints as a teenage boy.  The devil is in the details, and getting caught fooling them would almost definitely be worse than just riding this out.  Somehow I don't think I'd get points for creativity.  I like it as an emergency reserve plan though."

"Surely we could find a conspirator with manly feet."  Sylvia's eyes sweep the boys at the table.

"Oh, pick me."  Rob says holding up his hand, bits of twinky stuck to his upper lip.


I had a different growing up experience then you have.

"Elected," she says, with a nod to Homer Simpson.


Her imagination fills in the details:  a fat old man in a wife-beater, a sullen woman in hair rollers, an early escape to the Army.  At some level she doesn't want him to be lonely, so she sketches out the possible future:  a nice house out in the quiet country, a pretty woman with an honest smile, a friendly dog.

Hey! those shirts are pretty cool in a retro-seventies sort of way.. Yeah, we should go bowling.

Close.  She chain smoked and he was good with his fists.  Not in the ring, but at home.  She filled him with bullets one night to see how tough he was.  Then, when what she'd one hit her, she turned the gun on herself.

Now that I've depressed you enough.  Ask yourself the question I asked myself for twenty years.  Did I make her do it?

She has no answer for that for a minute.  The very possibility makes her want to cry.

How old were you?

Kel having lapsed out into his own thoughts for a few moments and completely lost track of the conversation.  He looks about for Breanna, and if he doesn't see her around, he gets up, bids his farewells and heads off to search for her.  Swinging a small chain as he goes.

Fifteen or so.  Cheer up, the story gets better from there.  Just look at me now!

Sammy quietly picks away at her sandwich, then looks up.  "Do you think the school is ever going to tell me about the stalker?  Or do you think they're in a quiet conspiracy with my folks, letting them know but none of them telling me so that I don't worry?  That could explain some things."

She looks around and counts how many teachers are monitoring the cafeteria, and checks to see if any of those teachers are watching her.   

Teacher, teacher, what do you see? (1d20=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1159028)  +2 for Notice

"Have you ever wondered if any of the kids here are really undercover cops?  How would you know?"

Sylvia, who must be suffering from a mood disorder the way her happy light keeps burning out, says, "Wouldn't you look kind of old if you were an undercover cop?"

Sammy notices a few extra staff faces in the cafeteria, and a few of them seem to be looking her way.

A little persuasion over the phone convinces the secretary that Sarah's mom has called her in sick today. 

"Oh lookie-lookie!  There are extra teachers on duty.  They're on alert and watching me.  And they're not telling me I might be in danger.  Bastards.  Should I be nice or should I give them a scare?"

"Scaring them might result in an explanation, but it could alert the stalker boy to their presence."  Dave says, looking up from his book.

Colin, in a rather sober mood, stays at the library working on some sketches, and skips lunch time.

"Bleagh."

"Hey, Dave -- if I do try to sing with El's band, it might be nice to know if I can sing first.  Do you know anybody who will be, well, brutally honest yet constructive at the same time -- sort of in the "you're awful now, but you've got potential" way, or the "promise me you'll never ever try that again" way?

"Besides myself?"  Dave begins, "The music teacher knows talent, but when she finds it she hovers over it.  Greg here is honest, as only a director can be, but not really a music guy.  Other than that you can record a song and give it to me and I can pass it on to the music heads I know and see if they have an opinion.  It's somewhat confidential and you don't have to stand in front of strangers to get results."

"OK" Sammy replies.  "I'll figure out a way to do that.  Maybe if I hear a recording of myself I'll get the answer before I even have to push it to anybody else.  Thanks."