groovygamers.com

The weather getting colder has driven more people in to the lunch rooms.  Since the Freshman are required to eat in this lunch room, it's usually pretty packed.  The Usual suspects still have no problem getting their regular table.

Sammy is dismayed to discover the band table has been taken over by some upperclassmen.  Heather announces her intention to eat with the boy who's taking her to Homecoming,  and Janie spots her cousin and her cousin's very cute best friend across the room and goes that way.  "Well, bother! said Pooh" Sammy mutters.  She looks around for Elrod, but doesn't see him right now.  He must be in a music room.  She looks around.  There's still plenty of room at the US table, but... Sammy takes a deep breath.  "Might as well get it over with.  The first time is the worst."

She goes over to the table and sits down as far away from John as she can get.  Blushing with embarrassment, she gives him a tight smile and says something that sounds vaguely like "Heyhow'sitgoingjohn".  She turns and says "Hi!" to anybody else that is there.  She unpacks her lunch to discover a peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread sandwich, an apple, and a homemade chocolate cupcake.  A small pink post-it note is stuck to the sandwich's wrapper.  "Love you!  Make us proud! ~Mom & Dad"

Megan made her way into the lunch room at about the usual time, the gossip around school about her and John was a bit insulting, but, hardly surprising as her and Calvin were declared to be “going steady” just after their first date.  In her view, John and her had equally “pursued” each other, in fact, John was the one who really had initiated things.  She was a bit surprised to see all the people crammed into the lunch room, but figured it was likely going to be this way for several months to come thanks to the cold weather.  The other cheerleaders were where they normally sat, but not alone, several members of the football team and some other popular upperclassmen were all sitting there as well.

Megan swung by them, saying hi to the other girls on the squad and everyone else she knew.  They offered to make her some room, but she shook her head.  “Thanks, I think I might go sit over with John, after all, I have ‘my claws in him.”  She stated with a grin and air quotes. 

Making her way over, she took a seat next to John as she smiled at everyone.  “Hey everyone.”  Opening her bag, she pulled out the latest issues of Teen Cosmo and Teen Vogue.  Opening one as she started slowly paging through it, seemingly just looking at the pictures before moving on.  Then, in a bit lower voice, primarily aimed at John, but loud enough for the others at the table to hear, she said, “well, last night I told my dad about…well, you know.”

Sammy looks up alertly.  "About...?  About," she looks around then whispers "what makes you, uh, special?  I told my dad too.  How'd it go?"

Sarah strolls into the lunch room smiling and humming to herself.  She isn't carrying her usual heavy bag nor running in late from math.  She sits down at the US table, a bit amazed at the crowds in the cafeteria. Glad I brought my lunch today.  That line is a killer.  She buys a chocolate milk and sits down next to Sammy.  "Hey there!  I saw the band table was overrun.  Glad you came over and joined us.  Do you know where we can track down Laticia?  Maybe we could ask at the office... tell them its for a news article?"

Megan nodded to Sammy.  “Yeah.  I told my mom Saturday night, but…my dad was in a pretty bad mood then, so we decided to wait to tell him till his mood was better.  He took it better than I was thinking he might.  He told me he wanted to be kept ‘in the loop’ on any crime fighting I do.  How did it go with your dad?”

As Sarah comes over to join, Megan gave her a smile, "hey Sarah.  Well, I told my dad last night, and it actually went well."

Sarah smiles at Megan, "That's great.  I'm glad.  I thought my parents were going to freak as well.. but they didn't.  What is up with that?"

"Maybe they're just grateful we're not doing drugs."  Sammy turns back to Sarah's question about Laticia.  "I think she might have this lunch period.  I looked up her picture in last year's yearbook, and I remember seeing her around.  I might be remembering wrong though."

Sarah nods to Sammy, "Cool, keep your eye out."

She follows her own suggestion and looks around the cafeteria.

Sammy replies to Megan's question.  "My dad was amazingly good about it.  He's more worried about the fact that I'm going out with a guy who's a couple years older than me."  She takes a bite of her sandwich.  "Looked like you guys were having fun at the party the other night, but you left kind of early, didn't you?  We didn't stay much longer either."  As she speaks, she keeps an eye out for Laticia and for Elrod.

“Yeah, that was one of the things my mother said it was much more preferable too, the other was that I wasn’t out having unprotected sex.”  Megan replied. 


Megan nodded at Sammy’s comment about things going very well with her dad and his being more worried about her going out with a guy older than her.  When Sammy mentioned them leaving early, Megan replied, “yeah, it was a good time, I’m sorry I didn’t really have much time to come over and say hi to you.  First Lisa showed up and then we got dragged outside just after that for a bit with Lisa and some of the football payers, when we got back inside, you and El were gone.  We where there for about another two and a half hours, but did leave a bit early, at about eleven.”  She paused a moment before continuing.  “I had to get back home as the photographer from the girls’ showers was waiting there to try to get pictures of me.  He fell right into the trap Brendan Frye and I set up for him.” 

Seth walked up to the table and kept his tongue closed until a good enough pause in the conversation.

He didn't want to interrupt.

Instead he sat down, nodded at everyone, including megan, and began eating his cafeteria swill.

Sammy, stunned, stops mid-chew.  "You did what?  Who is Brendan Frye?  Does he know about you?  Wasn't that kind of risky if he didn't?  Even if he did?"  She swallows, and turns to Sarah.  "Is this what you were hinting about the other night?"

She notices Seth.  "Hey, Musicman.  Long time no see."  Points to Megan. "Did you know she's insane?  I just found out."

Donnie walks in and looks around at the crowded cafeteria. Making his way over to the Usual Suspects table, he is happy to see all that have made it. "Wow! Sarah's not skipping for Math, Kat is not with the band, Seth is actually eating lunch.. Megan here too? Aren't you afraid the other popular kids will make fun of you?" He says it with a smile to make sure she knows it's a joke.

"Insane? What have I missed?"

Seth throws Megan an off-color smile. "I've known for a while now, yeah." He picked at the mashed potatoes and looked back up. "But humor me, and tell me what exactly is the evident symptom of her insanity today?"

OOC:  Sammy pivots and hisses at Donnie.  "WHOTOLD YOU!  Who told you about Kittykat?  I'm gonna kill them!  You didn't know me then, there's no way you could know unless somebody talked!"   ;D  I think you meant to say Sammy.

OOC: or option B:

"Dude, I'm totally with the band.  I am the band, and the band is me.  And Megan is insane.  She used herself as bait for that freak photographer."


OOC:  Your choice.

Megan just grinned as Sammy gave her a stunned look, but when the other girl looked at Sarah and mentioned Sarah hinting about what Megan had told her, Megan looked over at the auburn haired girl, her eyes narrowing slightly.  Maybe I should just avoid confiding in you anymore.  She thought before she focused back on Sammy.

“Brendan is a Senior and another member of the Con Debate team.  And no, he does no know about me.  And no, I am not insane, this was very carefully planned out.”

She glanced over at Donnie as he came over and grinned at his little joke.  “No, not particularly, and by the way, thank you for the save Saturday.”

Turning back to Sammy, she began to explain.  “The first meeting for the debate team, Brendan gave Brian Parks some pictures from the girls’ showers he had bought, asking Brian to scan them to try to figure out where the guy taking the pictures was standing.  I tried to tell him he should leave it to the police, but Brendan was hell bent on catching the guy.  He knew who was selling them, but not who the actual photographer was.  Later that night, he checked with the seller, and found out for me that they had no pictures of me.”

“Last week, when we had our meeting to prepare for the meet we had last Wednesday, Brian had the analysis, and it showed the guy had to be standing in the showers when he took the pictures, giving strong evidence the guy was invisible.  Brendan was still intent on catching him and was trying to figure out how to find a way to know where he would be.  I suggested that maybe he could ask them for pictures of a girl they didn’t have pictures of already, as Brendan had said they did do that before.  Brendan liked the idea, as he knew that would mean the photographer going into the girl’s bedroom to get the pictures.”

“As I had suggested the idea, I sort of had to volunteer to be the bait, after all, just the week before Brendan had asked if they had pictures of me.  It would make sense for him to come back later and ask for some of me instead of some other girl.  So, we decided that Brendan would ask for the pictures Friday, requesting them on Monday.  That way the photographer would have to come after me on the weekend.  Thursday night Brian rigged my room up with thermal imaging cameras and some other stuff that fed the images through my computer to the computer downstairs in my dance studio, as that was where Brendan would be waiting.  I arranged to stay out late Friday night so we could force the photographer to try Saturday.”

“After the game, I went home and changed, and snuck Brendan in, actually, kinda interesting how easy it is to sneak a guy in.”  Megan thought with a slight grin.  She then focused back on what she was saying.  “Anyway, I went to the party with John and then, thinking, about the close call at the game, asked him to come along as backup just in case.  I had told both him and Sarah about the plan Thursday night.  So, we went to home a bit early, John hid out in the gazebo in the backyard and I went inside.  It turned out to be no big deal.  The guy, who was invisible, did show up on thermal, and Brendan snuck upstairs and burst in when I triggered the house alarm, which calls the cops.  Brendan sprayed him with a fire extinguisher to make him visible and then knocked him out with the canister.  That was that, all I had really done was put on a little striptease, but the guy has been nabbed.” 

"Well as far as bait for a creepy photographer goes, she's good bait," offers Sarah as a sort of consolation.  "Wait that didn't sound quite right."  Directly to Megan she looks apologetic, "I mentioned to Sammy that I was worried you might do something dangerous.  That's all." 

In hopes of diverting the conversation she turns to Seth and says, "It's good to see you.  I was starting to worry that you were off to Hollywood or something."

Putting on his best "Wise Guys" voice Seth leans forward and says....

"If yas wants, me an' a couple a tha guys can go down and get friendly with him." He pantomimes hitting his fist with a bat "Real friendly"


Not yet. There's a lot going on though. But I think I'm going to stick around for awhile. Later i need to talk to the whole group as it were. I need some advice. But now....Chicken sandwich made from 30% real chicken."

He grabs his chicken sandwich and makes a big deal of tentatively taking a bite

ooc: oh snap! totally owned..  :(

Colin arrives at the table and he doesn't seem to be in a very good shape. There are shadows under his eyes, and his hair is more ruffled than usual, as if he had been torturing it since he got to school that morning. He's wearing a hoodie that looks one size or two larger, and his sleeves aren't rolled up as usual, but left down to cover half his hands.

He greets everyone with a nod and sits down on a chair with a silent sigh. He gets out his lunch and his eyes fall upon his photo album.

"Donnie, Saturday I managed to take a nice pic of... Uther catching the pole. Would you mind if I sold it?"

Sylvia drifts in, too, settling in to plant a kiss on Donnie's cheek before she unwraps her lunch.  She has a library copy of Scientific American Mind next to her sandwich, something about the neuro-physiological basis of criminal behavior.  "Maybe you could take a picture of Donnie and Uther and Pip together," she tells Colin.  She doesn't have a picture to tape to her bedroom mirror yet.

"Uhmm... sure. Not for the public though, I guess."

Sylvia shakes her head.  "For my room.  Or for posterity.  You know, someday when we're really old--like thirty--we're going to want to see what we looked like before we were world famous superheroes."

"Behind the Music: The super teens? With interviews from The Police"...

Sylvia flashes Seth a grin . . . which then falters.  "Hey, did you ever make a decision about that guy's offer?"

Seth' smile falters then too.
"Uh...I still haven't made the decision. My parents tried to talk to me about it last night.

I want to talk to everyone later about..."

Sammy blinks, distracted from her conviction that Megan is certifiably insane.  "Offer? What offer?"  This is the first she has heard of the Offer.

Donnie smiles at Colin. "Sure! Uther will probably complain that it's his bad side or something, but I'd love it. You look like crap man. You not been sleeping? Have you been having dreams?" Donnie's smile slipped as he looked at his friend. Stangely he didn't even look puppy-dog lovingly at Sylvia like he usually does. He's concentrating on Colin.

It's a little complicated and private for cafeteria conversation....

After explaining her reasons for deciding to be the bait for the photographer, which no one seemed very interested in listening to or commenting on, Megan went back to slowly paging through the issue of Teen Vogue, looking up to smile in greeting to Sylvia and Colin when they both joined them.  The blonde teen tried not to think much about what Lisa had said about seeing Sylvia Friday night, she wanted to get a chance to talk with Sylvia about it privately before just accepting what Lisa had said at face value.  She would probably do it after cheerleading practice.

By the time Sylvia asked Seth about his decision in relation to the “offer”, Megan was already halfway through the magazine, but she looked up to see what Seth would say, like Sammy, not aware of any “offer.”

Noticing, Megan's sudden interest in Teen Vogue...

Anyway...we'll all talk about my "offer" later. But The last place in the conversation was that was Megan was crazy....We found out that she used herself as bait to catch a perv, i had made an offer to rough him up, but we still don't know what all the ramifications are of Perv guy's deal. So Megan, as soon as you are done with 101 ways to please your man, please...Tell us, what the hell are they going to do to what's his perv?"

Sammy shrugs.  "Please.  This month's Vogue is all about girls empowering themselves."  She looks at Megan.  "Is that why you told your dad -- because you had to after the police were called to the house?  That's rough.  I told mine because I was tired of not telling him."  Looking over at Colin sitting next to Sarah, she comments "Donnie is right, Colin.  You don't look good.  You ought to go home."

Colin would never complain of any kind of pain in the same room of Seth. He hes seen firsthand what happens to his friend, and burning forearms just aren't it, even though they keep him awake at night. He wonders how long will it take for whatever's appearing on his arms to finally settle in.

"I'm fine. I just... I'm fine, really."

Besides, Seth needs to talk, and Megan... well he's not sure what Megan did but it sounds interesting.

Megan was wondering what it was about Seth’s situation that he could not talk about it right now, given all the other stuff the group here seemed to talk about lately now that the other students gave them wide berth, when Seth focused things back on the photographer and her roll in catching him.  She shrugged slightly as she replied, “that’s a nice offer Seth, but I think he got plenty roughed up when Brendan bashed him over the head with a large fire extinguisher.  However, the girls that this guy has sold pictures of might like to hear he got worse.  As for what will happen to him, I don’t know.  I guess it depends on how severely they want to pursue him, something my dad might have some say in, being Mayor, though he might also need to distance himself from the case, considering my involvement in catching the guy.”

Looking over at Sammy as the other girl asked if the event was the reason she had told her father about being Velocity, the blonde teen shook her head.  “Actually, it had very little to do with why I told him or my mom.”  Megan glanced over at John for a moment and then went on, “I was also tired of lying to my parents and hiding things.”

Sammy nods and *gasp, Sarah, don't fall out of your chair* gives a sympathetic smile to Megan.  "Its a tough choice.  At least this way, if something happens, they're not caught by surprise."  She looks back over towards Seth.  Her mouth opens, like she's about to ask something, then she shakes it away.  She unwraps her cupcake and breaks off a morsel, and places it delicately in her mouth.  Chocolate is for savoring.   She looks around some more for Elrod or for Laticia.

 
“That and the fact my dad now wants me to keep him apprised of crime fighting I get involved in.”  Megan replies. 

She then shifts her gaze to look at everyone else gathered around at the table.  “But my little part in the Con Debate team’s sting operation to catch the invisible peeping photographer aside, I got a voice mail from Darla this morning.  Her and her brother met with the attorney I helped get her referred to, and they had a meeting with the DA and police.  Sounds like everything is going to work out fine on that front.”

"That's really good news.  I guess we've made a difference in at least one person's life," says Sarah before munching on a BLT.  After another bite she pulls out her pictures from the game that she took of the crowd. 

"I took these as soon as I thought of it at the game... sorry they aren't perfect but maybe our cheerleader hater is nearby.  If they're hitting the post with acid they couldn't have gotten too far away after it happened.  Then again, maybe they are invisible."  Sarah shrugs.

OOC: Don't know if these photos are worth anything or not?

"Two." Colin says absent-mindedly.


"You're getting better at it." he tells her with a smile. He takes a look at the photos, but he expects no surprises from them. After what the blackbird said, he suspects this is not his hunt.

Sammy takes a look at the photos after Colin is finished with them.  She has been to every game all season, and except for when the band is on the  field, she is facing out, away from the crowd.  She will at least have a subconcious sense of who belongs where and at what time, during a routine game.  She might be able to spot something irregular, if there is anything to be spotted.

Colin spots someting in one of the photos.  It's a girl with a pink hoodie, she's moving away from the camera at an angle.  He remembers seeing her because of the glitter letters on the back of her hoodie.  "BITCH" in big letters, at the game he couldn't make out what they said, but in this photo it's pretty clear.  The photo has her moving along the side of the bleachers towards the pole, and it's seconds before the pole falls.

OOC: This is the result of that Notice Check you made at the game that didn't get explained.

Having provided the update on Darla, Megan turned over towards John, looking to see if he had any reaction to her mentioning speaking with her father last night.  She gave him a warm smile as she spoke in a low voice, “so, did you do much more studying last night after you went home?”

When John arrived he mad a point of saying hi to everyone, and as people got there he makes sure to greet them.  At a lul in the conversation he leans closer to Megan and says quiety, "I'm really glad everything worked out with your folks.  I don't know what I'd do if I had to keep that from my folks."


"Read the notes and the chapters.  Not much else."

“Yeah, it is quite a relief to not be hiding that from them anymore.”  Megan replied quietly as she meets his gaze.  “Thanks for helping make me see there was really no reason to be keeping it secret from them.”


“Well, I am sure being able to read much quicker than normal is helping you get caught up.”  She replied with a grin.  “I was thinking, if you wanted we could meet regularly Sunday night to go over stuff from the week for those three classes.”

Colin is munching on his tuna sandwich, when a girl in a pink sweater walks beside their table. Suddenly something comes to his mind.

God and Great Spirit, I must be really tired if I missed that.

He puts down his lunch.
"Sammy, can you give me back the photos, just a moment? there's something I'd like to check."

As Sammy had them back he spreads them on the table. He picks up a couple of them, inspects them, then puts them down. Third time's the charm. His eyes go wide.

"Sarah, you did it."

He shows them the photo.

"Here. Look at this girl. She's walking towards the pole. Now look at the time stamp."

He picks up another photo, this one shows people panicking.

"Look at the time stamp on this one. 22 seconds later. The pole was already falling. What do you think?"

"I was useful!  I was useful!  Yeah me!"  Sarah grins and adds with false modesty, "I mean... it was nothing really."  She kisses Colin on the cheek and wrinkles her nose at the tuna smell but gives him another cheek kiss just the same.  "Thanks."

Looking at the photo Sarah smirks a little bit and points to their suspect.  "Go figure, a girl wearing a sweatshirt like that has a problem." 

"Hey, I did nothing. You did all yourself." he smiles at her. "Why do you think you're useless? You're always useful." he adds, with nothing but sincerity in his voice.


"This is bigger than a 'problem'. She's dangerous."

Donnie leans over and looks at the picture. "Do you have one of her face?"

He looks flushed, and his jaw is clenched. He's trying not to lose his temper and storm off looking for this girl.

OOC: There are none of her face.

"Sorry Donnie.  All we have to go on is that she's apparently a bitch.  Who can spit or ooze acid.  Oh and she likes pink."  Sarah returns to her BLT. 

Megan had been waiting to hear John’s response to her suggestion about regularly getting together Sunday nights to study when she looked over at the pictures Colin had laid out as he pointed towards the picture Sarah had managed to get of the person responsible for the falling flagpole at the game.  “Good job Sarah.”  She said with a grin as the other girl got excited about having managed to get the picture of the girl, particularly when Sarah began kissing Colin’s cheeks.

Megan looked at the pictures, disappointed like Donnie likely was that there was none of her face.  “Well, I would agree with the bitch part, but do we really know she likes pink?  I would like to think she would be stupid enough to wear something she normally would in trying to crush us with that flagpole, but do you think it would be that easy to identify her?”

John nodded, "Yeah, we could do that.  Shouldn't be too big an issue once I'm caught up, but it sounds like a good plan anyway."

"I don't know that. But I remember I noticed her at the game. And I don't think you can wear that sort of thing without anyone noticing you. We might ask people if they remember her because... I don't know... because we would like to buy a hoodie like that too? Because we want to give it to a friend as a joke? We could make up something, and see if someone recognize her. Probably you girls are better suited for something like that."

“It can always be more fun studying with someone else, that is unless your afraid of getting distracted or something.”  Megan replied with a grin.  “Once your caught up it just means it wouldn’t have to be for as long, not that we couldn't just do other studying after focusing on those three classes.  I tend to like to get ahead for the week and reread the night before we are to cover something.”


Megan looked back over at Colin.  “Well, you noticed her, and I am sure others did too, but she had the hood up.  It wasn’t that cold that night, so she probably did not want to be recognized.  But sure doesn’t hurt to ask though.”

A bigger problem is the acid spit.

Seth perks up in his chair. For it to burn through the Football poles that fast, it's got to be highly acidic, and highly dense/viscous. In all honesty, if that stuff touches us.... We're losing a limb. Quickly.

I like my limbs...

"Might not be a problem if we've got the wind in our favor."  Sarah nudges Sammy.  "Think you can manage that?"

"Yeah, you know me,  I'm full of hot air."  Sammy grins.  "I can put up an air wall too, just for grins.  The air held you guys up as a platform,  so it should hold her off, don't you think?"

"Sarah, you had that run-in with bullets, and tennis balls are pretty much not a problem anymore, but we never tried with a spray or something like that. Would you like to train with that, next time we go to Jack's? And..." he looks around to each of his friends "John, you said you don't get hurt. Does it work only on the football field or it would help you against acid too? ... Donnie, what about Pip and Uther? Does acid hurt them?"

"Yes it would. There are some dragons that are immune to acid, but I haven't become powerful enough to call one yet. I don't know anything else that wouldn't be hurt by acid. We just need to take her out quick."

Donnie leans back in his chair and rests an arm around Sylviw, idly scratching her back.

Megan listens as everyone starts going over ideas of how to deal with the acid girl.  She did not particularly like the idea of possibly being hit by acid that could burn through a flagpole either, but she wanted this, well, bitch, stopped as bad as any of the others.  “Take her out quick?”  She asked with a grin.  “I should be helpful for that.  I was able to dodge that one kid’s weird raygun that melted concrete that one day, thought I would not want to have to keep dodging any spitting attacks for too long.  But we get all of us coming down on her, she likely won’t know what hit her.”

"I've been practicing with some things....depending on how she generates the acid, I may be able to stop it before it leaves her body. Close her windpipe or some such. I can also easily grapple her head...Keep it pointed down.

And I can add a second layer of protection behind the wind screen if need be.

Kel arrives late as usual, saunters up to the table after edging his way through the crowds, "Howdy everybody, lotta people here today."  Settling in and realizing that he had just heard the word acid he says, "Wait, why are we all talking about acid?  Did you find the bitch that's trying to like, kill the entire cheerleading squad?"

"No, but Sarah took a photo. With the benefit of hindsight, she's easy to find." he shows him the pic of the girl in the bitch hoodie.

"Kel, there's something I have to tell you later."

Sarah shakes her head.  "I don't think I could block a bunch of acid.  Maybe if it was one small lump but a spray of it would be impossible.  All I could do is get out of the way."

Sammy says, "I have an idea.  We can fill some spray bottles with colored water to simulate an attack, and then see what does and doesn't work against the spray.  That should be easy enough to do, right?"

"That's pretty much what I had in mind. Only it involved a super soaker too."

"Guys, maybe we are getting away from the facts here. Sammy and Colin found fingerprints in the bleacher damage, as if she was holding onto the poles and burning through them. Perhaps she doesn'rt even spit acid, but just exudes it from her hands. Sammy, you saw the pole after you flung it out into the parking lot. Did it have fingerprints or indication she pressed her hands against it to weaken it?"

"Sure thing, Colin." Kel says, and then listening in, "Why don't we just jump her from behind, no matter what it comes from her hands right?  So we just get the drop on her and just cuff her or something."

"I'm not sure how the pole was melted.  She could have gripped it, I don't know for sure.  It still wouldn't hurt to be cautious of some sort of spitting from her.  We don't know what she can or cannot do."  Sammy eats some more of her chocolate cupcake.  "Too bad we can't get people to grab litmus paper for us.  That would solve the question of who is the Acid Girl.  We don't want to go around jumping people just because they're wearing pink."

Seth pantomimes writing in a notebook "DONT...want...to jump....people....wearing....pink"

Really?

“Sammy’s right, we have to find a way to be sure who it is before we do anything.”  Megan replied.  “But if she needs to use her hands to attack, then that should make things much easier.  One of the things Jack has been helping me work on is to really make use of my speed, get in, make an attack and be gone before they even realized I have hit them.”

Between Sarah and I, we might be able to hold the chick too..

Sarah nods.  "So acid hands.  Maybe we should look around for other signs?  Half melted locker?  That's only if they just got this power though.  I wonder if there is a record of any other acid events or suspicious accidents here at school last year?  Let's meet up with Giles at the library."   

"Not sure."  John says, "It's been pretty generic, but I've never gotten in a situation where acid was a problem before."

"It looks like we have some research to do. Who does what?"

“Well, anything that involves reading or looking through lots of stuff I can get done quickly.”  Megan replies as she holds up the copy of Teen Vogue she had been paging through the last five minutes or so.  “For example, just finished reading this, anyone want to look at it now?”  She looked over at Sammy, Sarah and Sylvia as she spoke.

Sarah considers and nods holding out her hand.  "I'll give it a look.  Donnie is a good researcher as well.  It wouldn't hurt to have more than one head on the project."

"Megan, then you could hit the library and look for acid-related incidents as Sarah suggested, if it's cool with you. Anyone wants to go with her?

We still need "fashion experts" asking around for that hoodie.... hmmm.... Sylvia?"

"I'll go."  John says, "I can help with that too."

Megan handed Sarah the magazine as she looked over at Colin as he suggested she go up the library and mentioned the need for people to ask around about the hoodie.  “Sure, I can do that.  While I would normally feel inclined to get involved with anything that involves the word ‘fashion’, in the case of that thing,” she looked at the hoodie in the pictures, “I wouldn’t be caught dead in that, so probably best if I pass on that.”

Looking over with a smile at John as he says he will go to help with the research, she then looks back around at the table.  “Anyone else for the library?  Donnie?”

"Yeah. I will go through local newspaper stories online see if anything crops up following the same pattern of destruction."

Donnie runs his finger down Sylvia's spine, knowing that it was a very ticklish spot, before getting up and heading to the library.

"That could be another take on it. An article on the worst fashion seen in our school could be a nice excuse to ask around." he says with a tired smile.

Sammy looks at Colin, a smile spreading across her face.  "Mr. Blackwell, you are a Genius.  We just need to put two pictures in the school paper; one of somebody very stylish, and the other of someone way off the mark, like Pinky, with some sort of snarky caption about Fashion Do's and Don't's, and how she should be glad to be Anonymous.  That should make her very angry.  She'll probably come after whoever's name is on the article, or after the Fashion Do, so that should be one of us."  She looks at Megan.  "You're the pro at being bait.  And you're a cheerleader, so you're already on her list.  This would just move you to the top.  Its you or Syl."  She looks around at the others.  "Then we wait for her to make her move."

Megan listened to Sammy’s addition to Colin’s idea about a possible way, smiling as well.  “That sounds like a good plan, like you said, I am already a target.  If we can get her to focus on me it would be very helpful in trying to catch her.  We can’t easily watch all the girls on the squad all the time, not to mention I can better protect myself than the others, save Sylvia.”  She paused a second, the continued, “Borrowing a page from Brendan's plan with the photographer, if you guys time the release of that issue of the paper right, it might allow us to have a better idea when she might try to strike, like say the day before the weekend or something.”

Sylvia's so flustered by the spine thing that it takes her a minute to answer.  Her gaze follows Donnie, and she wonders what the heck's gotten into him today.  "We're going after this girl like we've got no suspects, I take it?  I thought Candice was our perp."

“Well, we do have suspects, but unfortunately nothing else so far that really points towards anyone.  I’ll admit I think Candice seems the most likely, but isn’t also a bit of a jump from protesting against something because you feel it objectifies women and then resorting to hurting the girls involved in the activity in order to get it stopped?  It might be too early to close the book on any other possibilities.”  Megan replies with a little shrug.

"I won't close the book, but I'll start with her."  Sylvia bites her lip, giving the table a thoughtful look.  "I could bait her, try to get her angry.  We could see what she does."

Sammy adds, "I'll also admit that Candace is high on my list of suspects, but we don't know for sure that it is her.  I don't want to go randomly attacking people because they might be bad guys.  That just makes us bullies.  On the other hand, a trap pretty much removes all doubt.  Can you figure out a way of catching Pinky in the act without setting up a trap?  How would you bait Candace, Sylvia?"

"Well the strikes have come during practices and at games.  As long as people keep their eyes out during practices then we still have all week to work on this project.  I'm sure we can find a way to talk with Candice this week and maybe find some answers.  So there's no need to go poking anyone with a stick yet.  Sammy and I are going to talk with Laticia today and we'll have more info.  Either remove her as a suspect or she may even provide some information on Candice."

Sarah thinks for a minute.

"Does this person really just hate cheerleaders or the whole glory of football theme?  The band was on the bleachers that got hit.  Were the cheerleaders supposed to be on them or something or was that where the band always hangs out?"

She shrugs and adds, "And if we don't find anything than Sylvia can run around pissing off whoever she wants."

"C'est ma spécialité!" Sylvia declares, trying to fend off Sammy's awkward question.

Megan listened to the other girls before she spoke again, looking at Sarah.  “Diane wasn’t doing anything cheerleader related when those bleachers collapsed.  You had shown up late, but I mentioned last Thursday that whenever Diane did sit in the bleachers, that area was always where she would sit.”  Focusing back on everyone else, she added, “I think Sarah and Sammy are right, we should try to gather more information before we go around picking fights with people just to see if they can produce acid.  The trap Sammy and Colin thought of is probably the better idea, but we can think about that if we hit a dead end with gathering anymore information.”

"Otherwise you bring me something with Candice's fingerprints, and I compare them with the one at the bleachers."

Megan then got up as she looked down at John, “well, we should probably go catch up with Donnie to help with the research.”

"Sure."  John says, getting up, "If you guys need us just call, I've got my phone."  Then he and Megan headed for the library.

Colin suddenly feels like something has changed. A sense of relief, as if something finally found its rightful place.
It takes him a moment to realize that his arms don't burn anymore. He's about to roll up his sleeve and check what happened, but he changes his mind. He needs some time alone with this before he can show the others.

"Excuse me. I'll be right back." he tells his friends, then he runs to the nearest restroom. He waits to be alone, then goes in front of the mirror and rolls up his sleeves. He looks at each arm, then puts them together in front of himself and looks at the mirror.

The symbols are black, and when Colin looks at them he recognizes what they make immediately.

(http://www.kfaq.net/marvels/2011/Game/Colin_RightArm.jpg)  (http://www.kfaq.net/marvels/2011/Game/Colin_LeftArm.jpg)

The symbol is fairly small, but it looks plenty big on Colin's arms.

Colin takes some time to get used to it, to touch it, to look at it on his arms, divided in two halves, two eyes that wink at him, and at the mirror, back together, ancient and enigmatic. His eyes fall on his watch as well. The day before at the same hour he was trying to help Samantha. It took exactly a day for it to appear completely, to burn its way to the surface of his skin.

"Ok, blackbird, I didn't even complain about this. What about a little explanation?"

When Megan and John reached the library, it did not take them too long to find Donnie at one of the computers in the back.  Coming up behind him, Megan stood to one side as she looked at whatever was on the screen and asked, in a quite voice, “so, what are you working on?  Any suggestion on what we should start looking for?  Or you just want us to help with speed reading stuff your searches dig up?”

Sometime in the near future we need to have a super-hero food fight. I insist.

INSIST!

Done with his food "I suppose I'll see everyone later tonight? after school?"

Kel who's been fairly busy zoning out looks up to notice nearly half the table gone, "Guess so Seth..."

Sammy very quietly says, "Well, if you insist...  I hate to disappoint."  Seemingly of its own free will, a mostly empty carton of chocolate milk sails across the surface of the table and spills the few remaining drops onto Seth's lap.  She hands him a napkin. "I gotta go.  I'm sure I have something very important to do somewhere, if I can only think of it.  Maybe walking around will help me to remember what it is.  Ta!"

It soon becomes clearly evident to Colin that the blackbird isn't going to answer this time. He'll have to look about it on his own. He just hopes it's a good thing. He want to believe so, at least.

He rolls down his sleeves and goes back to lunchroom. He notices several of his friends are gone, but Sarah and Kel are still there. Good. He takes a mental note of asking Donnie about the Eye, when he sees him.

"Sarah... can I ask you a stupid question?"
He shows her part of the tattoo.
"Can you see this?"

As Sammy walks away...oblivious to the world...A muffin from the counter lifts itself up and snakes quickly towards her departing form...Her backpack unzips...and the muffin deposits itself in her bag with silent deadly food fighting ability.

The backpack zips itself up before Sammy is even two tables away.

Seth has a big smile on his face thinking about the "crummy" surprise she is going to get later...

Sarah looks at Colin's arm.

OOC: Can I see anything?

OOC: Yes you can. :) A tattoo made with wide black marks that draw a sort of eye, but only half of it.

"One of you can probably read through the microfiche. This library still has one, and Mrs. (Insert head librarian's name here) keeps up with it regularly. She doesn't understand these new-fangled computers." Donnie grins. "The other one could zip through the school newspaper for the last couple of years, see if anything crops up."

Megan looks over at the microfiche machine and then looks up at John, who was standing next to her.  “I’ll take the fiche, you can page through all the musty old newspapers.”  She says with a grin, nudging him playfully before moving over to the fiche machine and getting out the first reel.  Looking around, she noted that they were pretty much alone and glanced over at John.  “You can also keep an eye out to let me know if anyone is coming near here.”

Putting the reel on the machine she starts advancing it, allowing it to continue rolling forward at a speed that would be far to fast for a normal person to even try to read, but which she could quickly read each page as she moved across the screen.

John went to get the papers and set up on a table so he could keep an eye out.  He began to flip through them, at a casual pace, but it was apparent he was reading each page as he flipped it.

Sarah nods to Colin.  "Your parents let you get a tattoo?  Wow.  Thats pretty cool.  My mom said I had to wait until I was eighteen and my dad mentioned something about hell freezing over.  Where did you get it done?"

Colin sighs and rubs his eyes, then runs his fingers through his hair as he's obviously done a lot in the last few hours.

"I didn't get it done. It got done on its own." he says apologetically.

"It has to mean something, but I don't know what yet. I don't even know what to think about it. It burned."

He can't look at her as he ask this.

"Do I freak you out?"

Megan spent the rest of the lunch period going through local papers in the microfiche, reading as much as she could as fast as she could.  Lunch was nearing an end when Donnie suddenly a message on his phone and got up to go.  Finishing the reel she was on, Megan put it away and went back over to where John was going through newspapers.  “Well, lunch is almost over, want some help putting those back away?”  She asked with a smile.

(ooc Did Megan find anything that seemed relevant

OOC: There were no references in prior years to anything similar.  Same goes for the school paper.  There were a few references on the net, but nothing local.  All pretty standard super villain stuff.

While Megan was helping John put the old newspapers away, she looked over at him and asked him in low voice.  “So John, are you alright with the fact that you are big news in the school gossip circles?  Especially in relation to me?”

Sarah laughs, "That is the least freaky thing I've seen involving you Colin.  It's part of your destiny or something so I wouldn't worry too much.  We'll find out what it means sooner or later.  I'm still jealous that you got a tattoo... even if it was without prior approval.  Now if your tattoo had been some other girls name, then I might have been upset."  She smiles.  "If any grownups ask about them you'd better tell them that its just a rub on tattoo.  I didn't even think it was legal with a parents permission to get a tattoo before you were sixteen.  Which makes sense because otherwise there would be all these kids running around with YuGiOh or Pikachu tattoos and that would be cool for about two months but then you are stuck with in unless parents are willing to front the cash for the laser removal surgery."

"Ah, it's not a problem."  he says with a shrug.  "We'll be old news in a week or so anyway."  He grins.

Megan returned his grin as he arched an eyebrow as she teasingly asked, “oh?  Is that because of the gross exaggeration of my practice of flipping through boys?  Or just that people will get bored when there is nothing new to talk about?”

He leans into her shoulder to bump her slightly, "Yes."  he says, his grin even bigger.

Colin looks at Sarah, and three words burn in his throat looking for a way out. He promised not to say them anymore, not until they'll both be ready for them, but it doesn't make them any less true. He just takes her hand, gives it a gentle squeeze, and holds on to her for a while.

"Thank you." he says. "I've got half of it on both of my arms, so it comes together if I do this." he puts his arms together, and shows her the Eye of Horus for a moment, before rolling his sleeves up again.
"Isn't it the eye of that Egyptian deity?"

Megan turned from John after he gave her the slight bump, trying to put on a serious face as she finished putting away the last of the newspapers, but could not help but have a hint of a smile at the edges of her mouth.  “Well, then you had better enjoy the ride as much as you can before you get left behind.”

"It could be.  I'm not sure I know enough about that stuff to tell you for sure.  I mean... is it just a picture or a hieroglyphic?  Or both?  If it's a hieroglyphic then can you read it?"  She grins at him.  "Maybe it says 'Left' and 'Right'.  Sorry I can't help being a goof sometimes.  You might find a list of common Egyptian images online or in the library sometime.  Man I'm sending everybody to the library today."  

"No, I can't read it. It was a good idea though."


Colin can't help chuckling.

"Left and Right. Useful. Hehe. Well, I guess I'll have to look for it."

He looks at her green eyes this time.

"Do you think you can get used to it?"

"What's to get used to?  A couple of pictures on your arms are no big deal.  I mean if that eye had been on your forehead it would have been a little weird but whatever put those on you at least had a little bit of taste or common sense.  You are who you are no matter how many mystical marks you get on you.  I've thought about a tattoo from time to time.  I like the idea but I've never thought of anything that I would want permanently on me.  Hey maybe there's a symbol for An' Zhanti.  I'll have to have a chat with Morpheus."

Sarah runs her fingers over Colin's tattoos with a smile.  "Better wear long sleeves when you come over to my house.  My parents might think you're trouble if they see these."

"Wasn't it An'Zhanti High Lightning? Maybe it's something with a lightning bolt. Where would you make it?"


Colin grabs her hand playfully.

"Maybe they'd be right." he says mischievously.

Sarah just smiles.  "Maybe...  Oh and Morpheus called one.. the uh singular I guess an An' Zhanti.  High Lightning was the whole group together."

Sarah stops and thinks for a moment.  (gasp)
Hey Morpheus... you out there?  Kind of a trivial question but is there a symbol for the An' Zhanti or the An' Zhanti High Lightning?

There have been many, depending on the culture the An'Zhanti comes from.  It's as much a personal choice as anything else.  The High Lightning themselves have a lightning bolt symbol, often made part of the individual An'Zhanti symbols.

"A lightning bolt huh?  Maybe I can find some way to work that in."  Sarah shrugs. 

With the last of the newspapers put away, Megan turned around to face John as she raised her arm to look at her yellow gold Quadra Mini Omega watch.  “Hmm, looks like we have a couple minutes to kill before the bell rings to end lunch.”  She lowered her arm as her eyes came up to look into John’s.

Colin takes a mental note of the lightning idea for his costume sketches.

"About coming to your house, maybe for a movie, what about later this week?"

"Sure.  You can come Wednesday night if you like. Is there anything you don't like to eat?  Like asparagus or is there something you are allergic to?  It will probably be meat lasagna and assorted vegetables on the side.  Oh and my little brother doesn't know about my abilities and that's the way my parents want it.  He's too little... or at least that's what they say.  Besides he might try and throw himself off a roof... again... but this time he wont have a mattress underneath because he'll think he can fly or something."  Sarah shakes her head at that last thought. 

She crumples up the bag of her lunch and drinks down the last of the chocolate milk. 

"Wednesday would be lovely. I don't think I'm allergic to anything. I don't like mushrooms, but that's about it. Lasagna would be great. Just great. And don't worry about Mart. My lips are sealed. Though... it wouldn't do him harm if we taught him too some of the rolls Jack made us do. That's what they taught me as well in my first cyclo-crossing lessons. How to fall without hurting yourself too much."

Sarah laughs, "Don't worry about Mart.  On his own he's no Kel but he can take care of himself.  He took Kung-fu while I took gymnastics.  I call it his Jackie Chan phase.  Plus he's got a slew of his own friends.  Right now he's more into extreme sports.  When he gets here he'll probably end up being a king of the school, and that's without any powers." She smiles thinking about her little brother, "He's a good kid.  And thanks for thinking of him.  I appreciate that."

John glances around, then looks back into her eyes with a smile.  "Not nearly enough time, but it'll have to do."  He said, taking her into his arms to spend a few minutes with her in a world that only contained the two of them.

Colin just smiles.

"Remember: your place, your movie."

Tueaday, Dave and Greg are taking notes and chatting as people arrive.  Once most of the US are there, Dave speaks up.  "Elrod Janush wanted me to arrange for some special effects for the Halloween party, and Greg and I were making a list of some stuff.  I know this is a ridiculous thing to ask, but would you guys be interested in helping out.  Obviously I mean, in non-conventional ways."  He has a grin that most people understand as his mischevious look.

Sammy grins back.  "Like what?  I'll already be playing Hide and Seek, so what do you need?"

Megan was sitting beside John once more.  Yesterday was Teen Vogue and Cosmo, today, it’s the real deals for Megan, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Glamour.  She appears to be thumbing through them as Dave and Greg bring up the special effects at the Halloween party.  She still pages through the latest issue of Vogue as she replies.  “Not sure what all I could really do, unlike say Sylvia.”

"Well, doors that close and open themselves, strange breezes, ghostly appiritions, all that sort of thing."  Dave looks over at Megan as she spoke.  "I'm sure that your talent for getting around in a hurry could help with all sorts of things like that.  If you don't feel like you'd be much help in the FX department, how's your screaming?"  His grin could be mistaken for madness, and it might not be a mistake.

Sammy sends a breeze to riffle the papers in front of Dave.  "Like that?"  A very tentative breeze brushes the back of his neck.  "Or that?"  She looks at him, brow wrinkled.  "I hate to be the one to ask the obvious question since somehow I came to lunch one day and discovered I'm dating the guy, but... EL wants you to arrange special effects.  How much does he know about this, or is he just asking because of your theatre connections?"

Sylvia blinks at Sammy.  She knew there was some chemistry between Sammy and Elrod, but that much, that soon?  It is true, what they say about band camp.  "You know I'm game," she tells Dave.

"Well, he asked Greg last year to do some stuff, bleeding cake type stuff, food gags mostly.  This year he wanted to go a bit larger, I told him that I might be able to get some people together.  If you're asking me if he knows about you guys?"  Dave shrugs.  "He might, he seems to know about everyone and everything that goes on at this school.  Has since the first day of Freshman year."

Seth comes up to the tail end of the conversation and is surprised to see that he's one of the first people to the table. It was quite the hike from the music room, and normally he wasn't here yet.

He might have made an ass out of himself yesterday, he didn't really know yet, so he decided to play it ...playfully.

"I'm game....There could be a whole floating muffin room...What do you think Sammy?"

“My screaming?”  Megan asked, looking up from her Vogue issue.  “Not something I have particularly practiced at, but I am sure I can see what I might be able to do.”  She grinned and went back to paging through the magazine.

"Just remember" Greg began, "the key to good suspence is quick and inexplicable.  As cool as a room of floating muffins might be, too much time to check things out might ruin the fear factor.  I was actually hoping you'd splice some music together for me Seth.  Stuff I can play through hidden speakers, something with some eire high-lows and that's hard to hear, but gets into your head.  Ya'know?"

"He might...ok."  Sammy mentally notes that.  Maybe he wasn't distracted by the snake man on the night of his party.  He hadn't given any clues since then.  How am I going to figure this one out?  "Well, I told him I wasn't planning on telling anybody about my costume ahead of time, and he suggested a hunt game where he tries to find me in the crowd, so I'm going to be moving around a lot anyhow.  It could be entertaining to provide extra entertainment.  Do we have a script, or is this free form?"  She raises an eyebrow at Seth.  "No muffins.  I'm no good at juggling pastries.  They keep falling apart."

"I'm thinking free form for the most part, but some scripted stuff.  I'm working out a way to signal people when to do certain things.  If nothing comes to mind, then we'll just do freeform and see how it plays."

"Yeah...That sounds....Crummy" Bad pun alert...woo woo.

"And I think I can help out with the music thing Greg...There's all kinds of stuff you can do with wind instruments that just stick in your craw."

Hey, I'm playing a show tonight. My Set, MY actual set, of my music starts at 8:30. It's at the Fox & Hound. Is anyone coming?

If Donnie's there, and he might not be, Sylvia looks at him to see what he'll say.  She's got business with him, business that might involve a lot of running and crying (her own, she thinks, but she could be wrong), and it'll preclude catching Seth's show.

Sarah just shrugs, "I don't have any useful talents to add to that batch so...I'll just be busy enjoying the party for the rest of you then okay?"

Megan glanced over with Sarah with a smile, “I plan to enjoy the party plenty myself.  Hopefully it will just require some recordings of screams.  Sides, we need to be ready if Donnie is going to make his move against the witches there.”

Sammy responds to Seth's question.  "I'll try to be there."  She tries to remember if that's one of the businesses owned by Elrod's dad.  Maybe El would like to go?  I should ask...

"I've got something for Donnie whenever he shows up.  Just a little process of elimination work.  It's weird not being the last to show myself at lunch,"  says Sarah.  She pulls out another pile of fresh homemade cookies and offers them to all of US. 

Donnie, who had been scanning through one of his dog-eared and worn notebooks (which everyone at the table recognize as his magical notes) as he sits down looks up and over at Sylvia. He mouths silently to her "You want to go?" If she says yes, he will tell Seth that they'd be there.



"Damn straight."  he says, voice trailing off to barely intelligble cursing against the witches.


He closes the notebook, giving the table his attention finally. "Sure, what's up?"

Sarah fishes the drink out of her pack and hands the sealed baggie over to Donnie.  "Think you or one of your mad scientist friends can get some prints off of this?  They're from one of the two suspicious cheerleader tryouts.  I'm ninety-nine percent positive its a dead end but might as well get it out of the way right?  They are Laticia's, the girl who lost a leg and tried out for cheerleading?  There's really no reason for her to be doing any of this stuff.  But she could just be lying."

She looks at him, doesn't say a word, but if he doesn't fight it, he'll see a thought bubble over her head that says, "We need to talk.  Can we get together beforehand?"

Focusing over on Seth a second, Megan nodded at his question.  "Yeah, we were planning on being there."  She replied, having called John about going last night.  She then turns another page in Vogue, already halfway through the thick magazine.

Donnir looks above her head and his eyebrows raise. He nods and looks around, but no one else seems to see it. He smiles.

Donnie looks at the cup in the bag. "Hmm, I can ask around. I am not sure who I will talk too, but I can find someone. Do we still have the melted metal piece with the fingerprints on them to compare?"

Sammy speaks up.  "No, the police have that now.  Mr. Heep might have a copy of the prints in his lab though.  He's been helping the police with some analysis work."

Colin expected another awful night, and the faces of Leland and his mother to haunt his dreams. Instead he got a restful night, with no nightmares. It didn't improve his mood, but it was just what he needed. In the early morning, he felt good enough to go through his paper route, on time as usual, and the cold wind on his face made him feel even better. The only think he wanted was to clear his mind, and don't think to anything.


He arrives in the lunchroom last, he had some catch up to do at the library, since hasn't studied much, lately.

He waves at his friends, but doesn't look very talkative. He's wearing a dark blue sweater with a very high neck, and a black beanie. He gets out his lunch and eats silently.

No questions. No strange looks. No nothings. They don't know. Donnie hasn't told them. He looks at his friend, thinking he'll have to find a way to express his gratitude.

Done with his lunch, he makes an effort to ask "What's up today?"

“Vogue.”  Megan said with a smile, holding up the magazine with some famous starlet in an incredibly expensive outfit on the cover.  “Just finished it, anyone?”  She asked, glancing around the table as she got ready to start reading Cosmopolitan.

“That and discussion on how to help make Elrod’s Halloween party seem haunted, Sarah has possible fingerprints from Laticia and Seth has a show tonight that he wants as many of us as possible to show up at.”

Colin picks up Vogue and takes a look at it.

"Mpf. Not one of their best covers. It lacks a little magic. I've seen better things by them." he says, giving it back to Megan.

He takes out his current notebook, and picks from it a paper with some purple fingerprints.
"Here, Sarah. I made some prints of the mold I took from the bleachers with Sammy's dad putty. If you take a lens, you should be able to compare them. You can take it, I have more copies."

He also asks for info about Seth's show, but can't promise he'll be there.

“Well, covers are nice and all, but it is what is inside that is far more interesting.”  Megan replied as she motioned with her head for Colin to put it out in the middle of the table if anyone else wanted to look.  “A couple sneak peaks at some Spring stuff and a very nice spread on some of the top Winter picks.  I think I need to go to Neiman Marcus later this week and pick up a few of them.”  She added while reading through the “Ten things to do in bed tonight” article in Cosmopolitan. 

"For you, probably." he says with a feeble smile.

"If you read them so fast, what do you do the rest of the month?"

Megan grinned as she looked up from the magazine, having just finished the more risqué article.  “There are always plenty of other magazines to read.  Now that I am getting the hang of making it just seem like I am paging through them, I will probably do a lot of reading at the bookstore and just by the ones I think I might want to look through again.  Such as these.”  She indicated the ones she had before her.  “Besides, just provides more free time for other things.”

"Like shopping for all the things inside."  John says between bites of his sandwich.

Megan gives John a sideways glance and playful smile.  “You know, I can always use a porter.” 

Sotto voce, Sammy smilingly says to no one in particular, "Haw Mule!  Giddyup!"   In a louder voice, she adds "Good thing you're strong.  Remember, lift with your knees, not your back."

"I'll try to remember."  John says with a smile.  "Mule indeed."

"I'll go make photocopies of this Colin and return it to you so you can keep your notebook unblemished." Donnie gets up and after a quick kiss to the top of Sylvia's head, heads to the library.

Sammy keeps on smiling, and shrugs an "Oh well" at him.

Sarah had been off tossing out her lunch and glancing over the throngs of students.  She returned to find Colin at the table.  Sneaking up behind him she gives him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.  "Hey there!  How's it going?"

"Donnie, wait. I've already made copies, don't worry about that. Besides, photocopies lose too much definition for these things. I just printed them on several sheets. Here, take this. Anyone else?"


Colin grimaces as the burns on his neck and shoulder still hurt, but does his best to hide it and his mood. His best is not much though.

"Hi, wondergirl. I'm fine, just had some catching up to do. What about you? I'm told you got some fingerprints. Take, these are Pinky's."

Megan looked over at Sammy with a grin and shrugged.  “He’s far cuter than a mule.”  She said before looking back down at the magazine.  “Sides, I don’t usually buy all that much, if anything, he would likely have more trouble carrying around all his textbooks to keep himself busy while waiting outside the changing rooms.”

"Even with his enhanced vision?  John, good boy!  Have a cookie."  Still grinning, Sammy starts to slide a chocolate chip cookie across the table, then pauses, fingertips still resting on the baked goody.  "Or would you rather I go up to the salad bar and get you a nice carrot?  I mean, I know Megan has lots and lots of sparkly carets, but probably none of the good crunchy orange kind.  The yellow tinged ones aren't nearly as valuable."

Colin raises an eyebrow at John.

"Man, your life is pain. I feel for you."

"No not Pinky's at least I don't think so.  Just eliminating an option."

Sarah notices, possibly because of her self-absorbed little world mindset, that Colin isn't doting on her in his usual fashion.  Or maybe she notices the brief look of pain. 

"Is something wrong?  Are you okay?"

Donnie exchanges a look with Colin at Sarah's question, but looks back down to his lunch without saying a word. He tucks away the cup and photocopy that Colin gave him into his back pack.

Megan kept reading as she showed no reaction to Sammy’s teasing.  “Not like he hasn’t already had the opportunity to watch my little strip tease for the peeping photographer.”  She replied matter-of-factly.

For her, he manages to find a smile somewhere on his face. But, being the awful liar he is, he can't look at her or the sadness in his eyes would give him away.

"No, I'm fine. I just... had... a kind of bad dream. It's nothing, really. Have you chosen the movie? Or it's gonna be a surprise?"

Wednesday there is some tension at the lunch table waiting to see what the outcome of Donnie and Sylvia's fight migth be.  Greg and Dave didn't seem too out of sorts, but it was obvious that John was a little on edge.

Elrod leaves Sammy a text message just before lunch Missed you last night, raincheck?

Megan was sitting beside John, trying to give him a reassuring smile, though she was feeling really wondering what was going to happen as well.  Though all she had done was tell Sylvia that things could get out, she still felt a bit responsible.  She kept trying to tell herself that if it had happened another time, say the Homecoming Dance, it could have been worse, maybe.  In front of her was a new pile of magazines, People, Rolling Stone and some other celebrity magazines, but she was paging through People much slower today, apparently not that into reading quickly as she waited to see what might happen.

Sammy surreptitiously sends back   :)  ok! , and pockets her phone before a teacher spies it.

Megan leans over towards John, hoping to distract him some from the tension that is there.  “Hey, think you could take a night off studying a week from tomorrow?”  She asks with a smile.

"You have something specifi in mind or just hanging out?"

Sammy shows up, gets in line and buys a lunch.  She makes her way over to the table, notes the absent parties without commenting on it, and sits down.  She looks tired.

“Something specific.”  Megan replies with a smile.  “It’s First Thursday, art galleries in town have these open houses and receptions in the evening.  I usually go with my mom, particularly as I have an ownership interest in a couple of galleries through one of my trust funds.”

"Is this something I have to dress nice for?"

Colin finally bought the tickets for Homecoming. He planned on giving it to Sarah that evening. The samurai costume was coming up well too. Colin drew it, and Mama Walters has been happy to offer to work on it, after remarking that Colin should eat a lot more if he doesn't want to look like a skeleton for Halloween.

His hair got a better, but he's still wearing his beanie and high neck sweater. His mood improved somewhat too, but he's worried for his friends. He greets everyone at the table but keeps looking around for either Donnie, Sylvia or Seth.

"Sammy, did you find Donnie?"

Donnie comes in to the lunch room, looking morose. "Hey guys. Sorry I never made it to the club. Has Sylvia shown up yet?" He looks around, looking worried and perhaps a bit..scared?

He sees Colin. "I'm sorry I never returned your call. It just got too late." He most certainly did not look at Sammy when he said this, but glanced at her afterwards.

“Define ‘nice?”  Megan says with a grin.  But she does not wait as she looks at his typical blue t-shirt running a hand on his shoulder.  “Sadly your rugged look would not quite qualify.  But you don’t need a tux or even a suit.  Business casual?”  Her grin widened.  “We could look for something this weekend if you wanted.”

When Donnie came up to the table, Megan looked over at him, offering him a smile but then sadly shook her head.  “No, she hasn’t yet.”

Colin is relieved to see Donnie. He looks at his eyes, as if they could tell him all about his friend.

"Hi. Too bad you couldn't make it. Seth was great. How are you?"

"I'll have my mom do it.  she's been dying to buy me nice cloths since I started, but there hasn't been a really good reason yet.  She'll be tickled to have one."

Sammy meets his glance with a slightly uncomfortable look of her own, then randomly takes one of Megan's magazines from the table.  "Yes, I found him, Colin.  He's right here!"  She opens the magazine and starts flipping through its pages.

John leans over to Sammy, whispering to her "Thanks for going after him last night.  I appreciate it.  Seems like I'm always putting you in uncomfortable situations.  Sorry about that."

With a resigned sigh, she replies, "Don't apologize.  I would have gone even if you had not told me to go.  You just sped things up a minute or two, that's all.  Thanks for covering for me with Elrod.  I did feel bad about just getting up and leaving."  She pauses.  "You did cover for me, right?"

"Oh yeah, I told him you'd made another date with another guy and had to go spend some time with him too."  John grins

“Well, I am happy to give her a reason.”  Megan replied with a grin once more.

Sammy relaxes.  "That's all right then.  He needs to know his place in the man harem."

Donnie answers Colin. "Alright. Can I come over after school? I'd like to talk about things, if it's ok."

Donnie nods to Megan. "Thanks."

"Sure. I'm supposed to go out for dinner, but I have always time for you."

"Don't worry about it, Colin. We can get together after school tomorrow. I don't want to butt in on any previous plans."

"No, Donnie, come, it's not a problem really. I've got plenty of time. I already gave Gretchen all she needs for the newspaper, so I was planning to go home early and work a bit on ..." he looks at Sammy "... a side project. But I'm nearly done with it anyway. If you want we can do some homework together. Or whatever you like."

Sammy looks at Donnie.  "Did you get home all right last night?  I didn't have to worry about waking anybody up after all.  My dad was, um, having trouble sleeping, so he was there at the kitchen door to let me in."  She leaves out the part about nearly getting grounded and her sister giving her a high five as she walked past the other girl's bedroom door.

"My mom was too out of it to notice what time it was. She had somereal.. pleasant things to say to me, but I controlled my temper. My dad is out of town again."

Sammy nods in acknowledgement.

She stifles a yawn and actually looks at the magazine in her hands.  Prom dress previews?  Already?  She puts the magazine down and rests her head on her folded arms.

(OOC: new from here down)

After a minute, she reaches into her pocket, pulls out her phone, and sends

raincheck - dinner&movie ok?  or do you have different idea?

Busy Friday with party prep for Sat.  How about Thursday, you look tired so you should sleep tonight!

r u looking at me?  where r u?

Sammy looks around.

Saw you in the hall.  See you tomorrow night?

Donnie looks at his tuna-fish sandwich with disdain. He gets up, pitches it into the garbage can, and comes back with two slices of greasy pepperoni pizza and numerous bags of cheetos, which he tosses into the middle of the table.

He sops off some of the grease and begins eating stoicly.

An invisible "hand", a light breeze really, strokes the back of Donnie's head.  It has a familiar feel to it.  Sammy'd like to say something like "She already made you feel bad.  Don't make yourself feel worse by eating "bad" food to punish yourself just so you can feel horrible about something ELSE later on" but she keeps her mouth shut.  It wouldn't help right now.  She just gives him a sad smile.

Donnie looks around, then his eyes settle on Sammy. Some of the hardness around the edges of his eyes soften, and he finishes his food quickly.

"I'm off to the Library. Anyone still need homecoming tickets? I won't be using them."  He tosses them on the table and leaves.

Sammy's eyes go big and round.  She stares at the tickets in horror, but is loathe to touch them, almost as if they are contaminated with something vile.  "oh snap..."

Megan looked up as she was just about finished with another magazine to look at Donnie and then the tickets as he threw them in the middle of the table.  She let out a sigh as he walked away, glancing over at Sammy and then back at the tickets.  “Looks like this won’t be easy anytime soon.”  She said in a whisper, fully expecting John to hear it.

John picked the tickets up and put them in his pocket.  "If he asks for them back, tell him I have them."

Megan nods, speaking in a normal voice.  “Yeah, they probably need a bit more time to really sort though what happens next.”  She hoped it would be that simple, but the look on her face seemed to indicate she was not counting on it being that way.

"how many pairs of tickets is that now?"  the silent Seth finally chimes in.

"That have been tossed on the table?"  John looks around, "Have there been others?"

Seth just looks at megan a little oddly, but says nothing more

Sammy just looks from one face to another and another.  She's very confused, and is fighting back an urge to chase after Donnie once more.  She grabs the magazine she earlier discarded and examines hair styles as if her life depended upon this information.

Megan saw Seth’s look and replied.  “He is just obtuse sometimes.”  Finishing her current magazine, Megan tosses in into the middle of the table and started on another.

"You girls went after them tonight, didn't you? Can you, like, explain to me what happened?"

Sammy looks at Colin, pain evident in her eyes.  "I'd like to, Colin, but there are some things I'm not sure are mine to tell, so there will be big holes in what I tell you.  They had a fight.  She told him she was seeing another boy, had gone to a dance at Fenwick with this boy last Friday when she told him she was spending the evening with her sister.  He got upset because she has been lying to him.  His anger went to her, she got angry... and probably psychically dumped her own anger, all of it, right onto him.  He overloaded and... lets just say he lost control too.  He said some horrid things, she said some horrid things, he summoned a dragon and flew off in a fury...  I found him on the roof of a museum in the City.  He was very upset.  I stayed with him until he was calm again."  She hugs herself.  "What she did, what she made him feel, scared him a lot.  The atmosphere between them has been very... intense.  Now he feels betrayed by her, disgusted with himself, more than a little bit scared...  it's a big mess."

Megan listened to Sammy and sighed, the other girl had mentioned a lot, but mainly from Donnie’s point of view, which was not unexpected or really her fault, as she had gotten her information from Donnie.  She looked at Colin as she added, “Like Sammy, there are probably things I can’t really say, but as for what happened last night, when I found Sylvia, she did not want to talk to me about it, said she ‘needed to be alone’, which I think is tied to what Donnie told Sammy about her effecting his emotions.”

She paused and then went on, a bit more carefully.  “As for her ‘seeing’ this guy from Fenwick, when I talked to her about that on Monday, she did not really view it that way, likening it to hanging out with you or Kel.  When Lisa told me Saturday night about seeing Sylvia the night before, she had said that Sylvia, ‘had not really seemed into’ the guy.  But Sylvia did feel guilty, particularly about the lying, and said she would come clean with Donnie.”

Things start falling into place like pieces of a puzzle. Sylvia's doubts, Donnie asking him about Dylan, that dizziness at the game. And probably also Sylvia being at Mentano.

He has to talk with Donnie, but maybe even more he has to talk with Sylvia.


"Well, that's pretty much what happens when people try to keep too many secrets."

And immediately after he bites his lips, since he's in no position to say that.

I'm gonna worry about that later. Now Sylvia.

"Is Sylvia at school today?" he asks, reaching for his phone.

Sammy says, "I don't know."  I don't want to know.


(OOC:  Added material from here down.)

After a moment, she puts the magazine down, again.  She gathers her belongings and stands.  "I'm sorry.  I'm really tired.  I'm going to find an empty practice room and lock the door behind me.  Or something.  I don't know.  I'll see you guys later."

"Get some sleep Sammy, you look like you could use it."  John says.

I've got some homework. I need to go grab a book from the library... Later....Seth says.

Seth doesn't exactly follow Sammy. But once they are both out into the hall he kinda modulates his walking till he's next to her.

"I know a good practice room for that. They keep it locked, but...I have a key" And Seth's eyes look towards his forehead.

"I'm not going to ask you about it. I'm not going to force the issue, but since i know absolutely nothing about anything that's going on. I'll listen and sympathize if you need it. And that's all I'll say on the issue." Seth offers.

"Well, I'm going to look for Sylvia. Megan, if Sarah drops by, tell her what I'm doing and to call me if she needs me, ok? Thank you."

He takes his backpack and leaves for the newspaper room.

"Thank you, Seth.  I'm just feeling... overwhelmed.  After I got home last night, I couldn't sleep because I was so stirred up, and now I'm a zombie."  She winces as she remembers something.  "I'm sorry about cutting out on your show.  What I saw was good."

"Your welcome. And forget about the show. I have a feeling there will be others. Lets go get you the proper amount of whelmed.

Seth leads her to the music room, and back to the instrument room. Seth whispers shhhh. Closes his eyes,  Takes that upraised finger and points it at the door. It unlocks with a click...He twirls his finger around in a circle, and the door opens.

He walks in and opens up a black box next to the tubas. He pulls out a large blanket, and hands it to Sammy. "You need anything else? I can stay for a while if you need...some...thing to talk to."

"O, K. So I'm a little awkward. But.." And he shruggs.

"You can stay.  At least I'll be talking to someone else instead of yelling at myself.  That goes nowhere real quick."  Sammy wraps the blanket around herself, and sits down against a wall.  Yawning, she says "It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel like I saw the whole thing with Sylvia and Donnie coming and didn't do anything to stop it."  She quickly adds, "I didn't know she was lying to him about things.  I just kind of got the feeling early on that she was, I dunno, settling for him until a better offer came along.  Only I expected it to come from Kel, not from an outsider."

Seth's head kind of piques to the side. "I really don't know the whole story, and i don't want you to have to like repeat it for no real reason, but you sound awful responsible for two other people's actions?

Is that fair to you? Are you being fair to yourself?

"No.  I know its not my fault.  I just feel bad for Donnie and the stupid part of me that wants to protect my friends is yelling "I told you so!"  Its dumb."  She shakes her head in disbelief.  "I even offered to kick her butt for him.  Me, kicking Sylvia's butt.  That's so wrong on so many levels, I can't even begin to tell you how wrong it is.  But I would have done it if I really believed it would make him feel better."  She looks sidelong at him.  "I'd kick your cancer around too, if I could, but even I'll admit that's a little bit past what I can handle.  And I'm making myself not feel sorry for you, since you probably need pity like an eskimo needs a freezer.  I can't help feeling sorry for Donnie.  I think it comes from having older sisters who tormented too many boys."

Yeah, your gender has a lot to answer for come the rapture. Seth says dryly.

As for me and my pity. It's nice to hear every once in while. I didn't tell anyone when it first happened, so i think i missed out on my maximum milking of cookies, brownies, and well-wishing.

And for what it's worth. You'd kick my cancer's ass.

I think your heart is in the right place. But you head needs some direction. The part of you that wants to protect your friends isn't stupid. It just may be overactive. You're talking about all kinds of private matters that weren't your responsibility or even your right to interfere in. And you saw them happening. ANd you wanted to help, but you didn't know how to without hurting someone. So now, you're kicking yourself all up and down the court. Why? Cause you care?

I'd be proud of myself if I were you. You kept everyone's confidences, and you were there to pick up the peices for Donnie when he really needed you.

Sing songy voice...Sounds like you were a pretty good girl.

"I guess."  She rocks her head, thumping the back of it against the wall.  "If you want milk and cookies and get well cards, that can be arranged.  But... I might be able to get something better.  My boyf... the boy I'm seeing, Elrod?  His dad owns most of the stage venues in the area, but doesn't know it since they're all bought through some kind of board.  Elrod was there last night to hear you perform.  If he thinks you're good enough, he might be able to fix it so you can have a bigger stage to play on, bigger than a coffee house, a place where real bands come to try out new stuff and new bands get their big breaks.  I guess the question is, do you think you're ready for that?  'Cause I won't push it any further if you don't want it right now.  My mom has a mean brownie recipe, so you'll win either way."

Hey hey hey......Hey

Not that i don't appreciate the art of a good topic change. But Damn.

I meant every word I said. I don't really go in much for the lying. So you should probably take my word on that. I have no reason ,to like, beef up your ego. It's tearing you a new one right now, so the last thing it needs is an extra set of arms. But instead of doing the girly thing, and blowing off the compliment, take it, and digest it for alittle while.

Awkward silence...awkward silence....

"So I like brownies."

"OK, brownies.  You got it.  And as far as taking compliments goes," deep breath, "Thank you.  I just have a hard time believing them.  There was this bunch of girls in my old school who used to give me hell about how I looked, how I dressed, how I walked, you name it.  There were days I begged my mom to let me stay home just so I didn't have to face it.  She kept telling me to ignore them, I was smart, I was beautiful, blah blah blah. But, everybody's parents tell them that, and my one sister who could have stepped up was just embarrassed by me, so she left me to the wolves more often than not.  These girls were loud too, and there were some boys who joined in to impress those girls.  Last year I got so I could finally mostly ignore them;  I made a lot of friends in middle school band who helped a lot.  The bitches are all at Fenwick now, so I don't have to deal with them anymore, and its a whole lot better, but I still have trouble... believing.  So you'll have to forgive me if I change subjects when somebody tries to compliment me.  Its 'cause I don't know what else to do with the words."  She closes her eyes.  "Now you know why I try so hard to protect people.  I don't want them to hurt, and I can't stand a bully..."

"OK"....Seth filed that info away.

Now she just needed something to distract her...Bingo...

Seth took a pen out of his pocket and threw it into the air...where it held immobile between them..."Tug of war? Something else. Pen dancing? Between the two of us, we put david blaine to shame."

"Rolling Stone magazine cover contest" she says, as she causes her hair to flutter around her head.  "I have a built in wind machine for my hair and clothes.  What do you have to make a photographer smile?"

"A winning smile and good skin? I thank my mother for both of those"

Seth thought for a moment. He knew that his hair got all fluttery when he got angry. But he didn't feel angry....

"Ive been taking dancing lessons. I could probably strike a pose. And i could balance this pen on the end of my finger while i did it."

The pen moved to to tip of his out stretched finger while he pointed it up. It clearly violated the laws of physics or something.

"Oh.  That's good.  That's very, very good."  Her eyelids lower a bit.  "Magician's tricks.  Hmm..."  Yawn.  A stack of sheet music is hit with a sharp burst of wind and sent up into the air.  A spiralling wind catches the flying paper, and gently restacks it, not perfectly but definitely a rough stack.  "Not in order though.  No fine object manipulation like yours.  Just" another yawn "a lot of hot air."  She gestures at a closed instrument case.  "Bet between the two of us we could play that horn without touching it.  That would freak people out at the halloween party, wouldn't it?"

"Holy yeah..."

Seth says suddenly excited.

That would be great. We would need to practice. I'm totally for it though.

What would you play? Could you do it if I moved it around...all creepy like." Questions were overloading him. It might be because it was a way for him to use his two favorite things...His powers and his music together.

"I don't know.  We can try.  I can play most wind instruments, just not all of them well, if that's your question.  I don't know how well I'll be able to push the air through a mouthpiece either, but its worth a shot.  Don't do anything but move the valves on that trumpet... I'll see what I can do about the air."

Ok...Class is about to start... So I'm going to go do that. But I'll catch up with you later and we'll practice that.

In the mean time, get some sleep. Seth says, and to punctuate that, the lights switch off with a mental flick.

He finds his way around in the dark just fine, and some light creeps into the room when he opens the door. He stands in the doorway for a second. "You gonna be ok?"

"Yeah.  Thanks."  She slides down the wall to lay on the floor, and pulls the blanket up around her head.  "Call me in an hour, and make sure I don't stay in here all night ok?  I'm already in hot water at home for getting in late last night."

About an hour later, the alarm on her cell phone goes off, and she wakes up and leaves the practice room.

1 Hour and 5 minutes later Seth calls to make sure you are awake.

When he hears that you are, he says, Ok good, then awkwardly ends the conversation, and says goodbye.

Sarah skips lunch and works on Math after class.  Guilt, guilt, guilt.. ugh.  I should just wear a hairshirt instead.  I think they sell them at that hemp shop...

Thursday Dave and Greg hand out a timeline for the Janish party for Saturday.  It has a few items marked that are mundane and a few that are FX.

"I'll be texting people to let them know to do something spooky, those who have volunteered.  I'll be letting everyone know when stuff I have set up is going to happen, so remember to out your phones on vibrate."  Greg seems to have an intensity you realize must belong to his movie making side, the part of him that really gets into the direction and production.

Sitting next to John as she has been all week, Megan looks up from the textbook she had been reading (yes, she has no magazines out today) when Dave and Greg hand out the timeline for the party and begin talking.  She smiles slightly at the intensity he is showing for the directing of the event.  “Okay.”  She replied before going back to her textbook for one of her afternoon classes.

Colin and Sammy receive the same text message on their phone during lunch.

N LIB IF NEED

Colin receives this one seperately:

DUDE, U WONT BELEVE WUT HAPP. CALL AFTR SCHOOL

u ok?  i have brownies...


Sammy sets a big tin in the middle of the table.  She opens the lid to reveal it is full of brownies.  After a long late nap the evening before, she arose feeling much better and decided it was time for double doses of chocolatey comfort all around.

"Dig in!"

I do love brownies Seth offers as he hurls his backpack from aroound his nexk to the floor.


Grabbing one, Seth takes a bite, and takinga rediculously long time to chew it, finally adds a "Thanks, Sammy"

Megan glanced up a moment to look at the brownies Sammy put out and gave the other girl a warm smile.  “Thanks Sammy, but I think I’ll pass for now.”  She then focused back on her textbook, turning another page.

"No big deal.  These are 'sorry you're feeling bad' brownies anyhow, and you look happy enough already."  She looks around.  "Speaking of happy and unhappy,  has anybody seen Sylvia?" Sammy mentally adds 'the dragonslayer' after Sylvia's name.

“Not since practice yesterday afternoon.”  Megan replied, still reading her textbook as she turned another page.

Sammy leans forward, and in a very low voice says "I'm going to try to get"  she makes quotation marks in the air with her fingers "That Girl's fingerprints this afternoon or tomorrow.  Sylvia said she wanted to be nearby.  Of course, that was before... she might have changed her mind.  She might not feel like doing anything right now."  She looks around conspiratorially and adds "I'm going to lift prints from her locker too, just to have a backup.  We can check them against the prints Pinky left in the metal."  She sits back in her seat.  "Megan, did you ever check with Lisa to see if she found her pink shirt?  I forgot all about that until now."

Noticing something that shook the foundations of reality to its very core....


"Megan, you're weirding me out....

What's with the not magazines?

Seriously...It's like up is square over here."

Megan looked back up at Sammy as the other girl started talking about trying to get Candice’s fingerprints today.  She nodded in approval and then shook her head when Sammy asked if she had found out if Lisa had found her hoodie that matched the one worn by whomever had melted the flag pool at the game.  “No, I didn’t get to calling her last night.  I’ll try her today for sure and go see if I can help look for it if she hasn’t.”

When Seth asked about the absence of magazines, Megan shrugged slightly.  “Things should be back to normal tomorrow, just needed to do some reading done for my classes this afternoon that I didn’t quite get to last night.”  She then focused back on the textbook, turning another page.

"Man, I wouldn't want your workload then...If even you can't get everything done...." Seth says after a bite of the tuna surprise dish....

“No, nothing extra hard about my class schedule or extra curricular activities really, more just there were some other things last night that prevented me for doing all the homework I wanted to.”  Megan replied mater-of-factly, without looking up, or blushing, or glancing over at John.

"Hi guys and ladies. Oooh, brownies! Can I?"

Colin arrives and takes a seat.

"Sammy, I'm sorry but I haven't finished working on your photos yet. I can't quite get what I want, there's something missing... Or maybe I still have lots to learn. I'll try to get something done today after I come home from Jack's. If I'm not too sore, that is."

"What's the word of the day?"

“Happy.”  Megan replied while reading.  “Or at least that is Sammy’s commendable goal in providing brownies today, getting everyone closer to that state, if they are not there already.”

Turning yet another page, the blonde girl looked up as she continued.  “While I don’t really want to do anything to counter Sammy’s goal, I did want to ask if you had gotten those letters you talked about sending to…the boys who attacked Darla yet?  I sort of remembered last night that we haven’t discussed what was going on with that all week.”

"Err... no, I haven't been working on them. I mean, I tried, but... I wasn't too sure about that anymore."

Megan gave Colin a quizzical look.  “Why not?  Everyone felt something had to be done about them?  Have you come up with something else?”

"It might be that he's waiting until the police investigation into the disappearance of one of them cools off some."  Dave says, not looking up from his book.  "Maybe they'll chill out some now that one of them has gone missing."

Megan looked over at Dave with a surprised look.  “One of them disappeared?  When?”  She paused a moment and the added.  “And who cares if they will chill out now, that doesn’t do anything about what they have already done.”

"Yep, few days ago, one of them went missing.  It's presumed he's dead, but the cops are pretty mum about that part.  And, to answer your question about who cares if they chill out now I was simply offering a posdsible reason Colin hadn't sent the letters in question and then offered the comment as a post script to perhaps indicate you might have more time to act before they raped again.  But, since we're on the boat to that subject now, what about the girl with the fire powers?  Is she gonna press charges against these guys.  Or did you have some other idea about punishing them that you wanted to share?"

“The entire purpose of the letters was to get at least one, maybe more to turn themselves in and turn on the others.  Thus it would be easier if Darla does press charges, which hopefully she will.  I want to see them punished under the law, not with some vigilante eye for an eye style punishment.”  Megan replied to the Senior boy.

The look Colin turns toward Dave is more of shock than surprise. He was quite sure there was nothing in the newspapers connecting Leland's disappearance with the rapes. He sends some angry thoughts at Donnie and his big tongue. This is exactly what he didn't want. Dave likely has friends in the police and the word got out. Now getting to the others won't be easy.

"I-I just wasn't sure the letters were the best idea, after all. Who disappeared? How do you know? "

Colin is also sure he showed no one the names of the other four. He wasn't sure he could trust Kel or someone else not to go after them on his own. How does Dave know?

OOC: It's Dave, not John.


Dave looks up from his book at Colin, "I know many things little freshman.  The kid's name was Leland Palmer, he went to Fenwick.  Got a call on the phone, told his mom he'd be back and the next thing she knew the cops were telling her that her son may have been killed.  Tragic."  Dave returns to his book.

Sammy offers Dave a brownie and smiles.  "Here, Dave, have a brownie.  They're homemade, my mom's recipe, with the good cocoa.  So, how long have you been a cop?  The undercover gig must be tough, with all the "14 will get you 20's" like me running around."

OOC: Sorry. Duly edited.

Colin starts to sweat.

"Tragic indeed. How do you know it was one of the rapists, though?"

Dave takes a brownie without breaking eye contact with his book.  "Ha."  he says as he munches the brownie.


Dave looks up from his book, his expression is slightly sour.  "Because I'm a member of the disenfranchised youth, and I spend entirley too much time chasing tail and drinking warm beer.  Who got the names of the witches?"  Dave points to himself, "Who hooked you guys up with invites to the Janush party?"  He points to himself again, "Who knows just about everyone at this school?"  He repeats the pointing motion.  "It doesn't take super powers to figure this stuff out Colin.  Just a little time and charm."  He reaches over and grabs another brownie from Sammy, "And I have buckets of charm."  He begins to eat and goes back to reading his book.

Megan frowned slightly as her response about what to do about the rapists was ignored as Colin began acting a bit strange and asked Dave how he had know this kid from Fenwick who had disappeared was one of the rapists.  Looking back down, she began reading as Dave when into his little rant about what all he was able to do for them.  “I got my own invite to the Janush party, thank you.”  Megan said rather curtly, but did not look back up as she was reading once more. 

Sarah comes in and sits down wherever there is room left.  Preferably near Colin but second choice is Sammy and the stack of brownies.  Ideally between Sammy and Colin.  :) 

She grabs a brownie and bites it, "Mmm good brownie!"  she turns and kisses Colin on the cheek, "Mmmm good boyfriend.  Now all I need is a glass of milk."  She wanders in on Dave's last comment.  "Buckets of charm?  Really?  I've been over to your place and I never saw any.  Are you sure?  I mean I know that the VanGo just oozes charm.  Or is that oil?"  She shrugs, "But I've never seen any buckets of charm."

She snaps her fingers, "Oh!  You're mom had those buckets of stuff in the greenhouse!  Was that what you meant?"

Dave waves his fist, "You mock me."  He looks over towards Megan, "Yeah, you got an invite on your own, I sometimes forget that you're not one of the unwashed masses.  My apologies.  As a token of friendship, have a brownie."  he smiles for a moment, then goes back to reading his book.

"Well, if one of those guys is dead, maybe the problem is taking care of itself and we won't have to do anything at all," Sammy says.  She's still focused on Dave.  "Are you feeling left out or something? 'Cause if you want to be more than just Prince Charming, I can probably think of things you could do just as well or better than I'm doing them."

"Wait.. what?  Who's dead?  What happened now?"  she looks around the table.  "I hate being late for lunch, its the most important class I take!"

Megan looked back up and gave Dave a return smile.  “Very big of you Dave, offering Sammy’s already offered brownies.”  She said with a joking tone.


The blonde teen then looks over at Sammy as she replies.  “I am not sure about that Sammy.  Doesn’t it matter who might have killed him?  We just going to sit back while all the others are killed by someone?  Is that really justice?  I thought part of going to Darla was to keep her from doing just that.”

"Well, I'm nothing if not big, and generous with other people's things."  he says.



Dave shakes his head, "As much as it goes against my principals to agree with a cheerleader."  he looks around, "Where are Kel and Sylvia for this put down."  he smiles, "She's right.  Bad people getting killed is still technically wrong.  No matter how bad they are the system still has to get the opportunity to do what it's there to do otherwise it's anarchy."

Sammy isn't so sure she totally agrees.  "Well, yeah, but since we're speaking technically -- we're not part of the system either.  Isn't it just as bad that we're doing what we're doing on our own?  Isn't the unchecked activity of a bunch of vigilantes a form of anarchy too?  At least this way the cops have their attention pointed to the boy.  They'll be looking to see where he might have gone, who might be out to get him.  This might put light on the other boys.  The system gets control again."

“I wouldn’t say we are unchecked or completely outside the system.”  Megan replied.  “I have worked with the PCD a couple times already, Colin has connections with them as well.  If anything we are working with the system to help deliver criminals to it.  I mentioned Monday that my dad wanted me to keep him apprised of crime fighting I might get involved in, that brings in the system as well possibly.  The PCD has stated that they would work with any ‘vigilantes’ who worked within the law as well.  It would be great if the police catch whomever might have killed the boy, but that doesn’t mean things about what happened to Darla or the other boys will come out.”

Seth had been running possibilites in his head...he did it from time to time, a simple relaxing excercise...Mostly.

This one wasn't exactly relaxing....

"What if He's not dead? In all probabiliy he is, or will soon be....But If i were raped...Death right away probably wouldn't be good enough for the rapists, not for me...and certianly not for my father. What about this girls friends and family...Have any of them gone missing? Where is she?

Not that the guy doesn't deserve it...But he could be getting slowly fried at this point in some basement...

"I didn't mean... I'm sorry... You are perfectly right... I was just... Do you know the other rapists too? Do you know if they... if there have been other girls besides Darla?"


Despite his worries, Colin can't help but smile.
"Good morning, wondergirl."


Colin looks at her for a moment before answering.
"One of those who raped Darla is missing and most likely dead."


"Yeah, that would be great." he says absentmindedly.


"He's dead, Seth. If one of Darla, or another girl's relative was out for vengeance, he would have caught them long ago. This is something different."

Megan glanced over at Seth as she shook her head slightly.  “Seth, didn’t you here us talking about Darla on Monday?  We helped her Saturday, Colin helped her get rid of the rage that was building up in her and she turned herself in for the arsons and we got her legal counsel to make sure she gets a good deal from the DA.  I really doubt she went out and killed one of them.  Her only family that we know of is her brother, and unless she told him, he wouldn’t know about the rapists.  None of us do but Colin and Darla.”

As Colin replied with a good bit of certainty that this Leland was dead, the blonde teen focused her gaze on him as she asked.  “You sound very certain of that he’s dead Colin.”

"And Dave."


"I know he's dead. I was just a bit surprised that Dave knew. You're right, Dave. We could have saved time asking for your help. Next time I'll remember."

Megan gave Colin a curious look as she asked, “what gives Colin?  First you acted like you didn’t know this guy was gone, then you said he might be dead, now your saying you know he’s dead.  Big shift in a matter of a minute or so.”

"Meg, I told you I was just surprised Dave knew. Not because I thought he couldn't find out, just because I didn't know he too was investigating about it. And I do have weird ways to know things. Sometimes I talk with dead people too. So I know he's dead. That's about it."

Megan gave Colin a suspicious look as she replied.  “No Colin, that’s not what you said.  When Dave first mentioned he was missing, likely dead, you asked ‘who’.  When Sarah just came up now and asked what was going on, you stated one of the rapists was missing, ‘most likely dead’ and now you say you know he’s dead.  Are you saying his spirit is here and you have been talking to him?  Or is there something else.”

"Am I before a court of something? I was surprised that Dave knew about the rapists, I repeated Dave's words to Sarah, and I just received confirmation that he is amongst the dead. And no, I didn't kill president Kennedy either."

Megan frowned, not quite buying Colin’s explanation, but finally just replied.  “Okay, whatever Colin.”  She then focused back on her book to get her reading done.

"I'm sorry my brain isn't one hundred times faster than normal and able to always choose the perfect words. You think I'm lying?"

Sammy shakes her head in disgust and pushes her chair away from the table.  "Why does everything always have to turn into a fight with this group?" she complains.  "Colin said he talks to dead people, which frankly doesn't surprise me since he seems to talk to lots of things I can't see.  But oooh! he makes one grammar mistake and boom! the hunt is on.  I'm so tired of this.  Sarah, I'll see you later in the news room.  I need to take a walk."  She takes her brownies and leaves.

Megan glanced briefly over at Sammy as she jumped in for Colin’s defense before focusing back on Colin as Sammy was gathering her things.  “I didn’t say you were lying, you really seemed to be changing the story Colin.  If you say you just were able to learn now that this guy is indeed dead, okay.  But you didn’t happen to also learn who killed him did you?  That way we can stop whoever that might be before they kill any of the others.”

"If he knew."  John begins, "I'm sure he told the police, and that might be why he's less than eager to talk about it.  So, let's respect that and move onto another topic, before someone says something they'll regret and emotions get enflamed."

Megan glanced at John as he finally spoke up, at least acknowledging that Colin seemed to know more than he was saying, but slightly annoyed he was giving Colin an out as well that still made her look like she was being the bad guy here.  “Well, that is easy enough to say.”  She replied before she returned to her reading for her afternoon classes.

Colin has a deep frown, and eyes low on the table.

"I only know he's dead. I don't get told everything. I don't even know if he was killed. What if he killed himself? What if it was an accident? Sometimes bad things happen to bad people too. But John's right, if I knew who killed him, I'd tell the police right away."

He looks at what remains of his brownie, since Sammy took them away and he had only one.

"I can tell you now, though, that there will be things I'll know and I won't be allowed to tell you. For reasons you probably won't understand. This is not one of those times, but there will be. If that's gonna ruin our friendship, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it."

"People have secrets."  John says.  "It's our nature.  It's the hardest part about being a social animal."

Megan looked back up once more as Colin talked about times he might know things that he can’t tell people.  “Colin, knowing things you can’t or shouldn’t tell others is something that just comes up in life, and I guess will even more for you.  I don’t think anyone will begrudge you for being in that position.”  She the focuses back on her reading as she turns to a new page.

"Bye Sammy," offers Sarah.
---------

Sarah puts her hand on Colin's shoulder.  "I think you need to start getting more mystical.  Whenever they start prodding at you just say 'It will all become clear in time' or 'Events will unfold as they are meant' think David Carradine.  We'll work on your kung fu later."

She nods towards John, "Amen to secrets.  I have some and so does everyone else.  It's a good thing.  It's like saving interesting pieces of your life for yourself or maybe for someone you really trust or care about.  Then there are the bad secrets that are better left buried.  I think at least some of us have those."
She shrugs, "I'm sorry, I'm rambling.  I think my brain must be disconnected from watching Sammy take the brownies away.  I suppose that means I should eat my lunch."

Sammy trudges off in the direction of the library, and comes up sharply just as she gets to the doors.  Crud.  Donnie's in there.  He's going to think I'm checking up on him.  Woo hoo, lets hear it for Nanny Sam.  "Argh!"   She stares at the wooden swinging doors.  Its go in there or return to the anger-fest in the cafeteria.  No where else to go for a freshman without a hall pass.  Swearing softly to herself, she pushes her way through the doors and enters the library.  A casual scan reveals his location. 
If I don't go up to him, he'll think I'm angry at him or avoiding him.  If I do go up... aw hell.  I can't win either way.

She walks up and collapses into the chair next to Donnie.  "Hey.  I'm running away from the lunch table.  They're bickering again and I'm sick of it.  Can I park here?"

*snip*

We all have secrets...Seth says, his voice trailing off into the apple sauce he was stirring without much effort....

"Speaking of? John...Any word on doctor's appointments?"

"That depends on weather you want to go to him or have him come to you.  If you think you can make an excuse to go to Seattle, then he can see you this weekend.  Friday night if you want, you'd be back in plenty of time for the Janush party.  If you don't think you can make an excuse to go there, then it may be a few days before he can come out here."

How would i get to Seattle? Seth had some frequent flier miles saved up. But he liked having those miles. It made trips to Germany to see his grandmother easier...It made First Class easier...

Seth couldn't handle coach. It wasn't a class thing. It was too loud...To crowded. It gave him headaches...And with what happened now when he got headaches....a pressurized cabin over the atlantic wasn't the best time to go exploding.

"They'll handle the travel arrangements, you just need to be able to go."  John explains.

"Just go, Seth. This is more important than anything."

Well...I'll be sure to drink some coffee while I'm there... Seth said...

He was going to seattle

"Take lots of pictures and watch out for grunge bands," offers Sarah.

Seth grabs a pen and a pad of paper out of his bag, and after scribbling something down pushes it across the table to John.

It's his cell phone number.

"That's my cell. Give me a call later tonight. And we'll talk all the logistical stuff we need to."

Theres one more thing scribbled at the bottom of the note. It reads "Thanks...really. More than I can say."

Friday Greg's excitement about Saturday is almost to a fever pitch.  Dave seems more relaxed then the last couple days, but still has his head buried in his book.

John is reading a medical journal as he comes in and sits down, navigating through the crowd with little trouble.

Megan made her way into the lunchroom, swinging by the table where most of the other cheerleaders were sitting, some of them choosing to sit in less crowded lunchrooms lately.  After discussing costumes some and plans for a shopping trip for tonight after practice and a movie, the blonde teen makes her way over to sit down next to John, giving those there so far a warm smile.  “Hello everyone, hope your days are going well, yours sure seems to be Greg.”

Reaching into her backpack, she takes out an assorted stack of magazines and newspapers; USA Gymnastics, a cheerleading magazine, the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and the main page and money & investing page of the Wall Street Journal.  As she starts reading the front page of the Journal, she leans over towards John and quietly says, “so, got everything figured out with your costume yet?”

Sarah is sitting at the table reading a book when Greg and Dave arrive.  "Hey guys.  What's going on in the world today?" 

When Megan makes it over from the cheer table Sarah eyes the stack of magazines.  She stuffs her own book in her pack and fishes cookies out of her otherwise empty lunch bag. 

Sammy walks up to the table, but she doesn't sit down.  "Hey, Greg -- script for tomorrow?"  she requests, reaching out her left hand.  She raided her mom's jewelry box last night and the fingers on both hands are sparkling with costume jewelry rings.  Big flashy '80s earrings adorn her ear lobes.

"Adequate."  Dave replies.  Greg is a little more pleasant with a smile and a hello and even one of his shoulder hugs.


"Certainly is."  Greg replies.


Greg hands a copy of the script to Sammy, grinning at her jewlrey.  "You look very 80s.  Trying out for a band?"  he says, the comments drawing Dave's attention from his book.

"Sweet."  is Dave's response, holding his hand up to Sammy for a high-five.

John turns his head slightly at Megan's question, but doesn't break eye contact with the journal.  "I think so.  I just hope it's not too lame."

Sammy high fives Dave with a grin while answering Greg.  "Nah, no band.  Just playing."  Still standing between Greg and Dave, she peruses the script to make note of her parts. 

Megan smiled as she replied. “I am sure it is fine.”  She then paused and asked.  “So, am I going to have to wait and find out more?”

Colin arrives with a very big grin and a copy of the Chicago Tribune folded under his arm.

"Hi everybody!"

He kisses Sarah on the cheek from behind "Hi wondergirl!"

He sits down with an extremely satisfied look.

"Sammy, I finally got your pics." He slides on the table in her direction an album and a cd.

OOC: I'm not sure if Sammy wants to show the photos to the others, so the description is hidden below.


"And guess who's on the front page today?"

He unfolds the paper and in the bottom right corner, where there are usually news about the city and it's surroundings, there's a nice color photo of a red dragon moving a metal pole. Almost invisibly, beside the pic, there's a small note: 'Photo by Colin Crow'.

"Greg, Dave, I've been quite busy this week, but I can help someway for tomorrow, just ask and I'll do my best."

His eyes drop on Megan's newspapers.

"Ooh, the National Geographic. Can I borrow it?"

“Hey Sammy, Colin.”  Megan greeted the other two as the arrived. 

She looked over at the Tribune that Colin held up, showing the picture of Donnie’s dragon knocking aside the flagpole.  “Nice.”  She said with a grin.

When Colin asked her about the National Geographic, she gave him a smile.  “That’s why they are out there.”  She said teasingly before focusing back on the Wall Street Journal and waiting for John’s reply.

Sammy finishes looking at the script, then she picks up and opens the folder with Colin's photos.  Her eyes grow wide with amazement as she looks at one after another beautiful image.  When she's done, she looks over at Colin, speechless, and tears fill her eyes.  "These... they're... they're beautiful... thank you..."  Then the tears really start flowing.  Embarrassed and overwhelmed, she tries to flee from the cafeteria in the direction of a nearby girls restroom.  She forgets the folder holding the photos, leaving it lying open on the table between Dave and Greg.

Donnie swings by the cafeteria, dropping a stack of papers in front of Greg. "Here's the copies you wanted, dude. I kept one for me for my parts. Hi everyone." His eyes linger on the bangle-wearing Samantha and his eyebrows raise, but says nothing. He smiles slightly at everyone at the table and heads off to get his daily dose of caffine before retreating to the library.

Samantha is gone by the time he gets back to the table, and his jaw drops open at the sight of Uther careening through the air on the newspaper. "Holy Crow, Batman!" He picks it up and marvels over it. "Dude, Uther's gonna pretend to be pissed that he looks red, but he' ll be secretly pleased over this, let me tell you. Awesome shot."

Sarah grins at Colin and hands him a cookie as his kiss reward. 

After Sammy puts down the pictures Sarah looks at them and whistles softly, "Wow!  Those are totally amazing!  Sammy, you look... wow." 

Looking up she realizes Sammy went bye bye.  ?

Donnie looks over Sarah's shoulder. "Damn Colin. I knew you were good, but these are just incredible. You ought to submit them to a Photography magazine. Seriously."Donnie looks around. "I hope Sammy comes back to see these."

Megan folded the front page of the Wall Street Journal and sat it down as she looked up at Donnie.  “She did look at them and seemed a bit…overwhelmed by them.”  She replied as she stood up and looked down at some of them.  “She should be really proud of how they turned out.  I’ll go try to check up on her.”

Weaving her way through the crowd of people with impressive agility, Megan is soon out in the halls and makes her way towards the first place she would think to go if she had been worried about tears running any makeup. Walking into nearest girls’ restroom, she calls out, “Sammy, are you okay?”

"Yep."  John replies.

His attention comes up from the journal he's reading when Sammy leaves, then again as Megan goes to check on her.  That's when he goes to look at the photos.  "Wow Colin.  These really are impressive."

I'll say...Seth says as he walks up behind John. "Photography is definitely your strong suit, Colin"


Just 3 more hours...Just 3 more hours...

"I can't. It would be to give away Sammy's secret. Actually, you should give Uther my thanks. I had these ideas in my mind, but every time I tried it, it looked very lame. Then the check for the photo came in, and I used it to buy myself a tablet and a new editing software. It made my job a lot simpler. So it's only fair to offer you all, especially the girls, a session too, if you'd like it. It should be easier now, but I still need to exercise."

He bites Sarah's cookie with a big smile, and thanks Megan for the magazine. Many true artists work for National Geographic, there's usually something stunning every issue.

"Donnie, about the rhymes-with-bitches, is it gonna be tomorrow?"


"Well, Seth, I wish I was as good with photos as you are with music."

If these were any indication...I'd say you were...

Seth grabs a seat, and begins to absentmindedly doodle on the table with the pen in his hand....Just a little circle he keeps thickening over and over again. He's not eating. He doesn't want to have a lead stomach when he flies later...

"Nah. You're being kind, I'm still nowhere near you. But I'm working on it." he says with a smirk.

Man just take the compliment, Seth thought to himself...And then quickly banished said thought.

It wasn't fair to Colin for Seth to take out any stress on him, even mentally.

But damn take the compliment...

He continued his circle....

Donnie responds to Colin. "Yeah. God I hope so. I am so tired of looking over my shoulder for them or their bat-wielding thugs."

Sarah gives Colin a curious look after his comments with Donnie.  She eats one more cookie and crumbles up her empty lunch sack. 

Sammy is in the bathroom, wiping at her eyes with some tissue.  "I'm fine," she sniffles.  "I'll be fine."  She tries to smile and look like everything is completely under control again, but the effect is ruined by a crying induced hiccup.  "I just need to clean up.  I'll be back out in a couple of minutes."


She returns to the table about 10 minutes after she left, a little puffy eyed but fine.  She stops next to Colin and gives him a huge hug.  She whispers in his ear "Thank you for making me so beautiful.  I never imagined anything like that.  It took me by surprise."

Megan comes up next to her and gives her a concerned look, but accepts her statement that she is fine.  Giving her a warm smile she replied, “okay, I think everyone was just wondering why you left and wants to congratulate you on the awesome pictures.  I’ll tell them you’ll be back in a few.”

Making her way back in, she sat down and stated, “Sammy’s okay, she will be back in a few minutes.”  The blonde teen then looks through some more of the pictures before going back to the Wall Street Journal.

OOC: You have one hundred times ranks in perform than I have in craft art. And ultimate effort: perform. You're in a totally different league, and the 300 $ I got for the dragon pic you likely get every week.

So take the damn compliment yourself!  ;D


"Do you need any help with that?"


Colin whispers in her ear "Don't you remember? He'd like to get even with the bitches at the party, assuming they'll be there."


Colin welcomes her hug.

"Hey , it was only a small thing. I'm glad you like it. It suits you well."

OOC- LAST WORD!   :)

Sammy pulls away from Colin -- no making Sarah jealous! -- and says more loudly,  "Thanks.  I really like them."  She turns and acknowledges Megan.  "Thanks for coming after me.  You didn't need to; I just needed to pull myself together.  The photos... they are more, a lot more than I expected.  They are an amazing gift."  She steps over between Dave and Greg again, picks up the folder, and stands there hugging it to her chest.

Megan looked up from the newspaper, already finished with the front page and onto the money & investing section, as she gave Sammy a smile.  “Well, just had to make sure, sides, everyone was being blown away by your pictures, didn’t want you to miss too much of that.”

Colin just smiles, a bit awkwardly. He was proud of his work, but didn't expect such a reaction. Maybe he'll ask Sammy about it. She'll let her have the photos for a while before, though.

"Sarah, I have a weird question. What are your favorite colors? Which ones you think suit you better?"

Sammy's stomach makes a rumbling sound.  She had forgotten all about getting something to eat, but she doesn't want to risk messing up the photos.  She puts them down on the table again.  That's when she notices the photograph of Uther.  "Oh my gosh!  This is perfect!"  She looks over at Donnie and beams a smile. "He's gonna love this!  I bet Althea will want one done too.  She's a sweetheart, Colin, you'll like working with her."  She does a happy little hop, and the bangle earrings swing merrily, sparkly bits playing with the light.  "I'll be right back, guys.  Keep a seat open for me."  Her gait is so light and happy that she almost dances over to the lunch line.

Sarah shrugs, "That's not a weird question at all.  It's a pretty good one considering Homecoming is fast approaching.  Natural and earth tones beiges, browns, dark and olive greens, orange reds and gold all work for me.  I can show you my dress sometime if you like.  I'm sorry I didn't think of it last night."

"Oh, don't worry about that. It was just a curiosity." he says with a little smirk. He's obviously planning something.

"Althea is the new one, Donnie?

"Yeah. Gorgeous blue  Longwing. Sweet as a happy five year old."

Sammy moved quickly through the lunch line; it was later in the period, so most people had already been served.  Unfortunately, that left very little to choose from, as the best offerings had already been picked through.  She returns to the table with a pair of apples, a pre-packaged blueberry muffin, and some chocolate milk, and sits down between Seth and Donnie.

"Hello Sammy..."

Seth continues his circle... without looking up.

Content with his thick walled circle, Seth finally does look up. And his tray slides on top of it. He grabs the 20 oz coke he purchased earlier and grabbing it to drink...the cap twists itself off and falls into seth's other hand as he begins to drink...

He finishes the whole thing in a single breath defying feat. Kind of looks around.

He grabs his backpack and leaves.

"Bye..."  Sammy watches Seth leave.  "Is he okay?  He didn't say much."

"Does he ever say much?"  John asks, glancing around.  "He always seems kind of quiet."