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On her way to lunch Megan finds a single white rose in her locker.  with it is a note that says 'You deserve all the attention a man can offer and more.  Take this rose as a symbol of my affection until I have the courage to reveal myself to you.'

After Sammy sits down Heather tells her that someone asked her to the Halloween party, and she's not sure if she should accept since she's hoping Jim will be able to go with her.  she needs some advice.

Greg is absent today from the Usual suspects table.  Dave says he's meeting with the Drama teacher and her 'favorite writer' to go over the script.

At first Megan was flattered by the rose that had been left for her in her locker.  Though the fact the guy did not have the courage to face her directly was a bit disappointing.  She did not like to think she was overly intimidating, though she was often around several of the other cheerleaders, who were all upper classmen, so that could be a bit imposing.  But others had found the opportunity to approach her alone, like Seth and Kel had. 

Putting the rose and note in her pack and starting towards the lunch room, she then recalled Colin’s notes about Sammy’s friend who had been left a flower and note from a secret admirer after the bizarre attack by bees on her a few days earlier.  The blond teen could not help but wonder if this might not be the same person.  The idea was rather creepy, all the more so with the knowledge she was going to be the target of the peeping photographer come Friday. 

As she entered the lunch room, Megan made her way over towards the cheerleaders’ table as normal, her typical smile on her face.  As she went, she looked over towards the Usual Suspect’s table to see if Colin was there.  She also looked over towards the band table to try to spot Sammy.

Sammy is sitting at a table with Heather and some of the other band kids, playing a cutthroat game of Hearts.  When Heather shared her concern about going to the Halloween party with someone who is not Jim, Sammy just shrugs and says "It sounds to me like you really want to go with Jim.  I'd wait for him rather than go and spend the whole night with one guy and wishing you were with someone else.  It's not fair to you or to that other guy.  It'd be better to go alone, or with friends, than to do that.  But that's just my opinion." 

Megan sees that Sammy is with many of the other band kids, so decides to wait to see if the other girl gets up anytime during lunch.  Sitting down at the cheerleading table, she says hello to the other girls and joins in whatever current gossip or fashion discussion they hare having.

Sammy is laughing and declaring that her table mates must be ganging up against her.  How else could she be losing so badly at cards!  What is this 'skill' and 'intelligence' that they speak of?  They start a new round and she chooses to sit this one out, offering to bring ice cream sandwiches back from the lunch counter for anyone who wants one since she's going up anyhow.

When Megan notices Sammy get up from her table, she tells the other cheerleaders she is going to get a bottled water and gets up herself, making her way over towards where Sammy is heading.  Coming up alongside her, she says in a low voice.  “Sammy, when you told Colin that a friend of yours had gotten a flower with a note after being attacked by bees and before the guy who asked her to Homecoming was attacked, did you get a look at the note?”  Reaching into her pocket, Megan takes out the note that had been with her rose and held it out towards Sammy.  “Did the writing look anything like this?”

OOC:  handwriting analysis (1d20=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=801567)

Sammy looks at the note, wrinkles her brow in concentration and says "I can't remember what the writing on the other note looked like.    Can I have this?  I can compare it to the other one, or I can just show it to Heather and see if anything about it looks the same to her.  I won't tell her who got the note."

Megan was a bit disappointed that Sammy could not immediately tell if the note was the same handwriting or not, but understood that it might not be so easy to tell the difference.  “Yeah, you can take it to compare.  Thanks.” 

Though she had sensed Sammy had been a bit uncomfortable when they had been out Sunday, the blond teen figured she should try to talk to the other girl a bit more, after all, they both had the common fact that they had powers to set them apart from other students.  “I heard the band was getting a lot of business yesterday with your flowers sales for Homecoming.  Was it only that one day or will you all be out making more sales in the coming weeks?”

Sammy puts the note into her pocket.  "I'll let you know what I am able to figure out."


"Yeah, we did all right yesterday.  We will be going door to door after Halloween to take orders for Thanksgiving turkeys and pies.  If we make the Thanksgiving and Christmas sales goals, most of the spring trip to Disneyworld will be paid for."

Megan smiled as Sammy mentioned the band’s trip to Disneyworld in the spring and the other fundraising they would do for that.  The cheerleading team did not need much in the way of fundraising, both because they did not enter any competitions that required them to travel, not to mention there were a lot less of them than in the band.  Besides, many of the girls were from very well off families, so could easily pay their own way to such places.

“That’s cool.”  The blond teen replied.  “I’ll have to mention that to my parents so they look for you’re guys’ fundraising stuff.”

"That would be great.  Thanks!  I'll see what I can do about this note."  Sammy gets the ice cream and takes it back to her table where it is divided up between the other teens.  After a moment, she pulls out the note and quietly shows it to Heather.  "Do you remember, does this handwriting look like the writing on the note you got?"

Heather looks at the note and shakes her head slowly.  "This looks a little fancier then the one I got."

Sammy nods and shrugs her shoulders.  "OK, no problem then.  Somebody heard about the note you got and the bees, and was a little bit worried, that's all.  Hey, did I tell you that Mr. Heep, you know, one of the science teachers, he has been able to figure out some stuff about those bees.  They weren't natural; they were genetically engineered to behave the way they did.  Do you know anybody who likes bees, or who might be really good at biology, or even somebody who is into 70's supervillains?  He's trying to help the police to figure out where the bees might have come from, and I'm trying to help him to do that.  He says it reminds him of something that happened in the 70s, that's why I asked about the villains thing."

Donnie comes into the lunchroom and reaches the table ahead of most. Surprisingly he is in a chipper mood, despite a bruise along his left cheekbone, going yellow as it heals.

"Hey Dave, what's happening?"

"Dude, someone used your face as a door stop."  Dave says with a smile, "Other then that I'm trying to spread rumors that the site of the Halloween party is supposed to be haunted."

Donnie grins. "Naw. I just tried a risky manuver during practice at the self defense class and got clocked for it. Haunted sounds fun. Par for the course on the Janush parties so far."

Sylvia has sneaked up to the table and inserts herself into the conversation as smoothly as if she'd always been there.  One moment, no Sylvia.  The next, right up next to Donnie like a skin growth.  Welcome to the girlfriend zone.  "I could so help with that."

"Just remember to be vauge, since we don't have the actual location nailed down yet.  Subtle is better then flashy, since people never recognize subtelty unless it's their stock and trade.  So mention you heard someone say that some people died there, or they found bodies under the foundation which is why it's abandoned.  Little stuff."

"I mean," she says with all the seriousness of a good conspirator, "I could help with the haunting."

Dave smiles.  "Greg has some ideas, between the two of you it should be a wonderful Halloween."

Donnie jumps slightly at Sylvia damn near teleporting into the seat next to him, but tries to play it off as if he were stretching.

"I've got the 'strange shapes flapping through the trees' thing taken care of, if you want."

Sylvia rubs her hands together, hunched like a crone.  "How delicious to use our powers for evil."

Donnie places his pinkie at the corner of hs mouth, doing a Doctor Evil impression. "Mwuahahah, Mwuahahaha, Mwua, Mwuahahaha."

Sammy excuses herself from the table and goes over to the Usual Suspects' table.  She raises an eyebrow at Donnie's Dr Evil impersonation,looks at him like he has grown a third eye, and in that special tone that only a teenage girl can truly master, she says, "Oh.  My dad does that too."  Then she blinks, smiles, and continues.  "I'm going to take something up to Mr. Heep to look at.  Anybody have anything that needs to go up there?"

"What are you taking?"  Sylvia, news girl, likes to know what's going on even when it's none of her business.

"Meh... my friend got a note, and was worried that it might be from the Bee Villain.  I'm going to go look at the handwriting on the other note.  That's still upstairs with TJ's stuff in Mr. Heep's lab."

Colin arrives and sits absentmindedly at the table, clearly absorbed in today's newspaper, which displays a color photo of yet another fire. Since his vision, this kind of news make him nervous. Only after a few moments he seems to notice he's not alone in the world.

"Hi, folks! Anything interesting today?

Sylvia, Donnie, are you going to cover the Constitutional Debate Team meet tonight? Are you going to need a photographer too?

Hi Sammy! Oh, I have the photos of the band for you."

He rummages as usual through his oversize backpack and gets out a bundle of pictures and a cd.

"I hope you like them."

He rummages some more and gets out his notebook, scissors and glue, and starts working on the articles about the arson.

Sammy looks through the photographs of the band.  "These are nice!  Have you shown them to the band director?"  She looks around at the others.  "So I guess none of you have anything for Mr. Heep?  Anybody any good at comparing handwriting?"

Kel pops in from nowhere, and takes a look at the gathered assembly, Sylvia looks all tangled up right now, so he makes a simple nod and then looks over at Sammy, pricking up slightly, "Sammy, good, I was looking for you.  I don't got anything for Mr. Heep but I've been meaning to talk to him about some stuff."  He then gestures for her to lead on out of the door, then follows out after her, and once out in the hall away from the others he says, "You hear about these fires?"

"A little bit, but I don't know anything special about them."  She fixes a keen gaze on Kel's face.  "Why, do you?  Are you going to do something about them?"

Kel smirks and raises his hand showing two fingers, "Not a clue yet, but I wanted to dig into them.  They've been all over the place and I've been meaning to take a crack at them but for a while the lead just ran dry.   Now we got another recent one, so I figured, why not head out there."  He then fixes his gaze on Sammy, "Would you be in?"

"Getting involved in another problem is fine. I would like to finish the business with the bitches though. It has been going on long enough. Hopefully many of them will be at the Janush party, since they all have become exceedingly popular because of their magic-use to make them more charismatic and popular. Unbelievable they would use such potent and dangerous paths just to make themselves more attractive, popular, and get boys." Donnie's face hardens in pent anger.

Sammy damn near jumps out of her skin at the sound of Donnie's voice.  She hadn't noticed him coming up behind her and Kel in the hallway.  She turns to him, face flushed, and sort of laughing, sort of not, says "You scared the crap out of me.  You shouldn't sneak up on your friends like that!  At least not me!"  She turns to Kel and says, with a tilt of her head towards Donnie, "We shouldn't be discussing this apart from the others.  Who knows, they just might want to be a part of the fun.  At the very least there'd be somebody to call the rescue squad if we didn't get back by a certain time."

Donnie smiles. "Sorry. Sylvia did the same thing to me earlier. I was just heading to the library. You should ask Colin about it. He has a mind like a steel trap and he likely has cut out newspapetr articles about the fires. He seems to be a natural trouble-finder." Donnie nods to them both and heads into the library.

*note: this happens prior to Donnie talking to Sammy and Kel*

"I will go to the debate. I haven't done much for the paper lately, and I need to earn my letter for the school jacket so I am not a complete reject.."

He kisses the side of Sylvia's head as he gets up. "I'll call you after classes let out. I need to get to the library for a bit." He waves top the table and heads out of the lunchroom.

Kel shakes his head, still a bit surprised that Donnie was able to sneak up on them, he continues, "We can't take everybody on this it'd be to noticeable, though I do need to talk to Colin so that might draw all this out into the open anyway."  He murmurs something under his breath about touchy feely people and says, "Plan's not gonna change no matter who we tell anyway, you in or not?"

Sammy shrugs.  "I'm just saying, remember how they got when they found out we went out without them the last time?  But, yeah, if you want my help, I'm in."

Kel nods, and speaks, "I'll keep it in mind.  I'll call you later for when and where, we'll all meet.  See you later."  He then wanders off, heading off towards presumably his locker.

Sammy waves at  Kel's retreating back.  "OK... see ya..."  Confused by what she can only categorize as something that must be a testosterone thing, she moves along to Mr. Heep's lab.  Once there, she pokes around in the "TJ pile" trying to find the note to Heather so she can compare the handwriting on the two notes.

OOC: Not difficult to distinguish them as written by two different people.

"Thank you. No, I finished working on them just yesterday. Show them to him yourself, and let me know if he likes them or if he would like something different. Something with daylight, for example."

He finishes pasting the articles to his notebook.

"I have nothing for Mr. Heep." he looks at her curiously. "And I'm not better at comparing handwriting than anyone else, but if you think I could be useful, you only have to ask, OK?"

When she's gone he reaches into his bag for his lunch, but can't find it and he realizes he forgot it in his locker.

"I'll be right back."

He goes back to the corridor where he sees Donnie, Kel and Sammy talking. He vaguely wonders if they're planning another night out patrolling the streets. If they are he's glad to see they're talking with Donnie about it.
He opens his locker, retrieves his bag, and goes back to the lunch room. He takes a look around for Sarah. She has been quite busy with her homework lately, and he... he shakes his head, because it's silly but he already misses her.
He sits back at the usual suspects' table.

"Oh, Sylvia, I nearly forgot it. Before moving away, T.J. had Mr. Heep do some research. This is what he found out. It's quite interesting." he passes her the folder with the test results.

Since it is obvious that the handwriting on each note is by a different person, Sammy goes back to the cafeteria if there is time.  If there is not time, she'll hang around in the lab until it is time for the next class period.

Megan saw you early enoug there is probably time.

Sammy goes back to the cafeteria.  After entering she deliberately passes near Megan's table and flashes her a smile and an "OK" hand gesture.  She goes back to her regular table.

Megan spots Sammy when she comes back in and catches her smile and “OK” gesture, nodding and smiling back.  It was reassuring to know the note was not left by the same person, but it still left the question if it was from a real secret admirer, that she might want to be seeking her attention, or some other weird, maybe even older, guy.  For the rest of lunch, she keeps an eye on Sammy, and when she gets up to leave, takes her leave as well to follow the other girl out to get back the note, just in case she had need of it in the future.

Sammy doesn't get up from her table for the rest of lunch.  When the class change bell rings, she gets up, saying so long to her friends, and heads off towards the exit.  She tries to intercept Megan at that point to return the note to her.

Megan and Sammy manage to intercept each other as they head out from the lunchroom with the rest of the crowd.  As Sammy hands the note back, Megan speaks in a low voice, “thanks for checking that, at least now I know I don’t have to worry about bees attacking me or any of the boys I have recently dated or will be dating.”  Putting the note back in her pocket, she walks along next to Sammy while she adds, “now I will just wonder if this is from a secret admirer I would want, or if the line ‘all the attention a man can offer’ might not be literal.”  She managed not to shudder at the possibility some adult man might be watching her.

"I don't think you can 'choose' the secret admirer you'd want.  It just sort of happens.  The only thing you can choose is if you want to like them back, and until they drop the secret part of the secret admiration, you're kind of stuck with it.  Unless you have some idea who might be sending you notes like this?  Maybe the guy who's 100th on the list of guys you plan to date this year -- maybe he wants to be moved up to number 20 or 30?"  Sammy shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head.  "Guess you'll just have to watch to see who is watching you.  If you make a point of pulling out the note and reading it a lot, maybe he'll get his nerve up and show himself."

Megan nods her head at what Sammy said, all of it true, but not quite what she was thinking about.  “Yeah, that is true.  But I was meaning what if it’s a forty year old janitor or something?  Anyway, it is likely just another student and I will just have to wait and see.  Thanks for checking on that again, I’ll talk with you later.”  She gave Sammy a smile and then headed off towards her locker to get her books for next period.

Seth had been vomiting in the bathroom....

He thought about going home today. His head hurt something fierce, and he had been starting to see aura's in the frames of his vision. He had taken some of the "illegal" medication in his locker, but that was barely stemming the tide at this point.

If he went home, it would just cause a big fight with his mom. She wasn't working at the current moment, and so she was pretending to do the martha stewart thing at home. She would curse at him in spanish, and then demand that she take Mr. Fortune's deal.

That wasn't a conversation he felt like having, especially when he had a headache. So he just shuffled through the day. By the time he got to the cafeteria, it looked like most everyone else was leaving.

So he grabbed a tray of what passed for food, and sat alone.

His head hurt, he really didn't feel like talking to anyone.

Colin notices Seth walking in and taking a seat. He doesn't look quite well, and Colin can't help but feel a pang of guilt. Form where the blackbird and his friends look at the world, everything must seem quite easy, necessary even, and everyone's destinies probably form a great fabric that shouldn't be messed up with, but it's Colin who has to see his friend suffer, his newfound talents useless to help him.

He finishes his lunch, then excuses himself from Sylvia and goes near Seth's table.

"Do you play chess?"

stab of pain the right temple and then the left as the sound travels into his ear...

"Hey...

Yah, I play chess. Have since i was a child. I enjoy the game. Do you play chess?

Seth responded to the non-sequitor calmly. He stopped picking at the food and pushed his tray to the side.

"I do too. I mean, I'm just an amateur, but I have a little magnetic chessboard in my locker. If you'd like a friendly match when you're done with lunch, I'd gladly shake the dust off of it with you."

I'm done now...

Seth took one last look at the plate of food.

"Yeah, I'm really done. Why don't you grab that board and we'll shake off some dust. Maybe focusing on something will be the trick."

"I'll be right back."

Colin goes to his locker again and comes back with a chessboard that is, well, quite dusty indeed.

"Told ya. It's been some time since I last used it."

He puts the pieces in position.

"Black or white?" he asks with a smile.

OOC: Is a chess match is a straight INT roll, or there's something better for it?
Colin is good, and sometimes he can remember the smart moves from the games he studied, but he's not that good. Seth, with that big brain of his, is likely vastly better. I think Colin can put up just enough of a struggle to make it interesting, but the final result is not much up to debate. :)

"Black. I'll let you go first."

"Speed chess or do you want to take your time?" Seth asks?


(OOC- Quoted for truth, however, Seth has that -1 due to headache. It could go either way...

If he loses that's what he's blaming it on...")

"No, please, let me take my time, at least this time."

Colin has a nice knight play, and builds elaborate strategies around his pawns. In the end though, it looks like he's unwilling to sacrifice his pieces, and that leaves him open to some rather nasty surprises.

Colin wasn't a bad player. In fact, for someone who probably didn't play competitively, and was mostly just going on skill, he was really quite good.

He was really concerned about losing pieces, and almost every piece on the board was backed by another piece. Taking them wasn't going to be fun.

Seth was actually having some fun, so he started playing not based upon the competitive chess maxims...He passed up obvious lines of advance, in order to make a truly frightening vanguard. He left the first major move to Colin.

And at this point, the 3 most obvious moves would unleash a cascade of piece swapping that would virtually wipe out the board on both sides.

It was going to be fun.     

Sarah stumbled into the lunchroom looking tired and worn.  She had been invisible the last few days.  Her homework had been piling up and she was skipping lunch trying to catch up with it.  What made matters worse was that every time a class got a little boring she started day dreaming about her powers and what she'd do to that little witch when she got her hands on her.  Lunchtime was nearly over and she almost went over to the usual suspects table but saw that it was rather quiet at this point.  Colin and Seth were hunched over a game of chess. 

Sarah tucked herself at a table out of Colin's view.  She didn't want to distract him from his game and really she just wanted to swallow some fast food and put her head down for a minute.  Emotions would just get her revved up again and she was feeling too worn out.  Why couldn't I have superspeed to?  Just a little.  Enough to get all this stupid homework done and have time for my life. 

She'd head over to say hi at the end of lunch.  She felt like it had been a month since she'd seen anyone. 

Colin notices the traps behind the first two most obvious moves, but the ones behind the third take him by surprise. In the heat of the battle his queen, bishops and a knight fall, along with several of Seth's pieces. The remaining knight and the rooks put up an amazing defense though, and only when Seth finally breaks his lines with a vicious bishop fork, Colin's white forces are truly defeated.

Colin's forehead is beaded with sweat and he's panting as he was physically part of the action for the last moves.

"Well, this was really good. That nasty bishop! You should call him Richelieu."

Hah

Checkmate

Seth offers his hand

Thanks for a good game. We'll have to do it again some time...

Seth starts to collect the pieces when all of a sudden a spike of pain sends his hand trembling and his fears skyward...It hadn' been this bad in a while...

His shaking hand sends a knight towards the floor. He quickly bends down to pick it up, but the sudden motion sends another, larger spike of pain through out his left temple...And then his powers burped. The table shook, and the pieces scattered all over the table and the floor...

The act of speaking unbearable..."I have to get out of here. I have..." Another spike and his knees buckle.

He manages to stand and then begins to move for the exit...

The next few minutes are harrowing as he makes his way through the hall. Colin may have been following, but Seth was in to much pain to tell.

His eyes began to aura, and suddenly everything took on bright and sinister color. IT began to warp and Seth found himself nauseous.

Seth had to get out of the school Had to get away...before he exploded...

Colin leaves everything behind, pieces, checkboard, backpack... and focuses only on Seth.

He reaches him in the hall, grabs his hand and takes his arm around his shoulder to help him walk, since his knees keep buckling and he's not sure on his feet, but Seth doesn't even seem to notice, he's in too much pain.

Colin gets him through the door, and gently tries to make him lie down.

"Take a deep breath, Seth. Breathe deeply."

He digs with his fingers in the grass and dirt, while with the other hand he strokes Seth's forehead.

OK, I cannot cure him, I know it, but there has to be something I can do! What about taking some of this pain away? It's too much for him. Give it to me too. Give it to me.

Consider it done.

There is a wave of heat that washes through Seth, and with it's passing so goes his pain, ebbing in pulses until it's all but gone.

Sarah notices Seth taking off holding his head.  Wow did Colin play that well?  But then she sees Colin taking off after him with a look of concern.  Oh... maybe Seth's getting a doozy of a headache.  Go Colin!

She gathers the scraps of her lunch and heads over to the table and picks up the pieces from the game along with everything else left around.  Oof... maybe some superstrength of my own would be handy too.  What do these guys carry in their packs, rocks?

She tucks the game into Colin's bag after counting all the pieces and zips it up.  They'll be back soon enough and I've got more homework.  Sarah sighs and drops her head before digging out her notebook and a pen. 

Colin braces himself for the pain he expects coming... but it doesn't come.

"Seth? How do you feel now?"

Stab....

and suddenly the pain was vanishing...like a cycle slowing down...


And he thought about it and he did...

He blinked a few times and looked around and realized that he didn't know what hallway he was in...

"Yeah. I do. I think I'm going to go to the nurse now.

Thanks for whatever you did. Thanks."

"Hey, no need to thank me. What are friends for?"

Colin helps him to slowly get on his feet.

"Yeah, you'd better see to the nurse. I hope it's gone for now, but I don't know how long."

"Do you think it was the match? I was hoping to distract you, but maybe it was just a bad idea."

It wasn't the match.

It just comes and goes...(Sotto Voce) CANCER!...

Seth snorts. Rubs his temples using his hand like a visor, and for a moment you can't see his face... Then he's all smiles... "Im going to go check into the nurses office, ill give you a call later...we'll hang out or have that rematch...

"Sure. I look forward to it."

He watches as Seth goes away with his new mask on his face, and when he can't hear Colin anymore, he whispers only "Take care."