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Dave secures a table, and is already on his second sandwich before anyone else arrives.

Samantha sits down with her usual group, the note from Elrod in her hand.

Bemused, she shows it to a friend of hers.  "I just got invited to a party by Elrod Janush."

Samantha is bombarded with questions as to how she managed to score an invite to Elrod's party.  Most of the other band kids know his sister is the head cheerleader, so the schools in-crowd is certain to be there.  Jessica and Heather, two Juniors, are more then a little jealous.

JESSICA: "You two aren't an item are you?"
HEATHER (Laughing): "Pleasssse.  Elrod isn't exactly the type to go after a Freshman.  He's not the type to go after anyone actually."

Sammy smiles.  ""I don't know!  I guess he just wants somebody in his band who can play a horn."

JESSICA: "Yeah, not much call for the claironet in a rock band I guess."
HEATHER: "Is this a secret that we have to keep from Steph or is it okay to be happy for you in her precense?"

"Don't you think Steph will be invited?"  Sammy taps the piece of paper against the table.  I don't think this is a date.  This is just an invitation to play music at a party.  If I have to, I can probably ask Steph if she'd like to come with me.  That's one way to be absolutely sure Mom and Dad will let me go.

HEATHER: "Yeah, but how do we go?"  she nudges Jessica and laughs.
JESSICA: "Uh, uh, we can carry her trombone case.  We could be your entourage."  She almost squeals with delight at her idea.

T.J walks into the lunch room and sees Dave has secured a table. He sits down and looks around. "Wow, I'm the second guy here. That's new." He shrugs and takes out a bag of bacon sandwiches. "An interesting day today. These ninjas just get more and more interesting."

"Well, they're ninja, so I'm guessing mystery is one of the club requirements."  Dave hands TJ a section of the newspaper he was looking at, "Check this out.  Guys try to jack an armored car at the mall, and they have a gun that shoots clean through it.  Where can I get one of them?"

The picture is of an armored car which has a single hole through both sides.  It's an impressive site to behold, even in black and white.

"Maybe he doesn't know he needs clarinets?  If I see him, I could ask him if I could invite some other musicians along!"

Heather and Jessica both hug Sammy, "That would so rock."  Heather exclaims.

Colin arrives and sits near T.J. He takes out his lunch, consisting in two huge sandwiches and some pie. He feels like he hasn't eaten in weeks. He actually did skip lunch or part of it, after what happened to Rory. Today though he feels totally cheerful. Something good must have happened to him.
He greets his friends and looks absent-mindedly at the newspaper in front of Timmy.

Then he notices the photo. his eyes go wide. He takes the paper and looks for a moment at it carefully. He start to rummage in his bag and gets out the collector where he keeps the photos for the newspaper. He gets out the one with the hole in the wall, and puts it near the newspaper, to better compare them.
After a few moments, he looks up to T.J. and Dave, a very worried look in his eyes.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'll see what I can do.  I bet he won't mind.  Have you seen him in the cafeteria today, or did he take off for some Tastydogs?"

DAVE: "The scale on the photo is all wrong, those holes are from a gun with big bullets, not Kirby's death ray.  It punched a hole a half inch or so across going in and a soda can sized hole on the way out.  The article said it was a 12 guage slug with a spent uranium core.  Pretty cool, but totally custom."  He pulls another part out of the paper and shows the photo to Colin and TJ.  He points to a post on the ground where the gun is laying, "Very custom, like doesn't actually exist custom."

Greg sits down at the group tabel with a look of total shock on his face.

GREG: "I think Rob has been abducted by aliens and replaced with some kind of doppelganger."

DAVE: "Dude, he's been talking to girls, not plotting world domination.

GREG: "Have you seen him today?"  Greg's tone is strangely excited, "He's lost weight, and has had a bit of a makeover.  Leatehr jacket, slicked back hair and a babe on each arm."

Now DAVE shares GREG's look of shock.

DAVE: "Wow, that girl must have really given him a confidence boost."

GREG: "Yeah, to say the least."

Colin Sighs in relief, feeling a little stupid too. He looks at the photo Dave shows him but he doesn't know much in the way of guns. That is surely a very big gun.
"Where do one gets uranium bullets? I mean, they're on sale? Aren't they dangerous to use, gulf war syndrome and all that?"
As colin thinks about it he realizes that it's the robbery that Sarah was involved in. And this gets him quite angry. He feels very happy that there was a superhero around to stop them.

This reminds him of something else Sarah said.
I saw the new superhero who actually stopped them.  That part... well it's not my story to tell.
What did she mean? I'll have to ask her...

DAVE: "Not really.  Spent uranium is just super dense stuff.  It's not like radioactive.  As for getting it, that's a little harder.  Now, if you want to worry, check this out."  He digs in his bag and hands Colin what looks to be a cheaply printed magazine, like the kind you find in front of the supermarket.  There is a picture of a building, inside a fence.  There is a definite hole in the wall, a round hole about four feet across judging from the people standing near it in the picture.  The photo is very grainy, and obviously taken from a good distance away.

Colin resists the urge to comment on the photographer's skill.

"Where's this place? And how did they do this one? Wrecking ball?"

He still has the photo of Kirby's hole on the table.

DAVE: "It's the Chicago PD evidence storage warehouse.  The cops don't know what made the hole.  That's a shot from a phone camera according to the caption."

The name of the paper is "Urban Truth" and it's apparently dedicated to uncovering teh truth of what goes on in Chicago.

Colin doesn't like this thing one bit.
"Does it say when this hole appeared? Has anything been missing? My mom's boyfriend is a detective there. I'll ask him about it."
Colin thinks for a moment.
"Can I take this page?"

DAVE: "Really early Sunday morning I think.  And yes, you can have that."

Sylvia's been sitting quietly at the table, going over her notes on the cheerleader-slacker story.  Her ears prick up when Dave mentions Rob, and it takes her a while to figure out the right question to ask.  "What's this thing about Rob?  What girl?"

Sammy looks around for Elrod.

OOC: Search for Elrod in cafeteria (1d20+1=12) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=621179)

DAVE: "Rob started talking to one of the girls in his math class last week.  Now he's becoming some sort of chick magnet."

It ain't much of a lead, but by god, it's something.  Sylvia grabs her whipped-tofu dip and crudites and heads off to find Rob.

No sign of Elrod, but he's likely over at the Tasty Dog.

"Really? On Sunday? S&%t. We got it back on Monday. On Sunday it could have been anywhere. And we pretty much destroyed any evidence there could have been at the gym."
Colin thinks of the door and the lock, and cringes. But...there is still a witness. He wonders if his testimony could be admissable in court... Oh well, it'll be a starting point if nothing else.
Colin gets out his notebook and thanks God and the Great Spirit for his photographic memory.
He gets out his notebook and starts to draw the two guys he saw in his vision, the ones that stole the deathray.
Once he's done, he quickly finishes his lunch.
He's about to go, then he thinks again. He takes another sheet, and quickly scribbles something with a black marker.
"Dave, I've gotta go xerox a couple things. I'll be right back."

He rushes to the photocopier, and makes several copies of the identikits and the flier.
As he returns to the lunchroom, he stops in the boys' restroom on the way. In each one he puts up a sheet saying: TO THE NINJA - THE SCHOOL PAPER WOULD LIKE A PRIVATE INTERVIEW WITH YOU - YOU DECIDE WHERE AND WHEN - YOU CAN FIND ME AT THIS NUMBER - 3492238672.

When he returns to the lunch room he gives each of his friends a copy of the identikits.
"These are the guys that stole the death ray. Look out for them, they have some interesting things to answer about."
He makes sure to save a copy for Chris.

OOC:  Is there a fairly reasonable way of sneaking out?  If not, then she'll wait by the entrance he used to return the last time.

Slipping out is tough.  You'd have better luck waiting for him.

OOC: I forgot to paste the roll on my drawings: Craft Artistic check (1d20+4=18) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=621237)

This one instead is to look for the two thieves: Search roll (1d20+1=15) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=621316)

Sammy parks herself by the entrance and pretends to read Demian , this month's assigned book for English class.  She keeps a sharp eye out for Elrod.

((OOC: You haven't seen them anywhere on campus yet.

Sylvia returns to the table the gang shares after having sauntered off to talk to Rob and the two new adornments hanging off his ears, Amber and Gina.  She's moving with the hip-swaying sass of a seasoned flirt, and even when she climbs into a seat near Colin, she's all languid limbs and easy smiles.  "Colin," she murmurs in his direction, "there's something weird going on with Rob."

Colin had returned to his seat after looking for the death ray guys with no luck.

There's something weird going on with you too, Sylvia. he can't help to think seeing how she moves.

"Weird as in "my new gf is brainwashing me"-weird or "zap and puke"-weird?"

[Oops.  My bad.]


"Weird as in I got near him and felt attracted for a second or two.  Yuck."

Colin's eyebrows take flight.

"Oh. OH. That kind of explains the girls. But... you suspects him to be involved with what happened to Fern and the other guy? As if he was... some kind of Cupid?"

OOC: I just realized we messed up with the continuity. I forgot the lunch thread was supposed to happen before the meeting with Mr. Monnitoff thread. Is there an easy way out of this?

[OOC:  Your call, GM.  I'm willing to pretend none of it happened.]

((OOC: Don't worry about it too much.  We're bound to have continuity issues.  Just chalk it up to secretly thinking about talking to the ninja even before the meeting.))

"Hey all," says Donnie, putting his tray down and flinging his bag under his seat. "Colin, is that your number up in the bathrrom about the ninjas? Dude you are so going to get pranked for the rest of the year."  He sits somewhere in the mess of people and looks around. "Where's our werehorse?"

(OOC-prior to Sylvia returning.)

He sees her walking back to the table and quirks an eyebrow at her saunter, but says nothing. When he sees her whisper something to Colin, he looks down at his tray and concentrates on eating. After a few momnts, he pulls out his cell phone and shows it to Dave. "Lookie. New phone. Now I can record the ninjas if they make a jock attack again."  He slides a sheaf of printed matter over to Greg. "I am totally wasted today. I was up till 3 AM writing a new story. I got inspired yesterday and just totally had to get it out. Read it and lemme know what you think."

For his newest short story attempt. (1d20+6=18) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=621536)

(OOC:Having a homeroom newspaper meeting may take care of it all. When I was in high school, the newspaper staff got to use the newsroom as their 'homeroom.' We totally abused it, of course, but why not?  :))

"If they're willing to spend their money to make some prank at my expenses, I'll be perfectly happy to block their numbers."

"Donnie, Sylvia, I should have done this before, but these are the guys who stole the death ray. I'm afraid the ray was used out of the school, so it's quite important that you look out for them." he hands them the identikits.

POOF: Consider the newspaper meeting before 1st bell.

"Hmm. Maybe they are students? Unattended adults wandering the halls of a high school would trip some bells in the faculty."

DAVE: "Unless it was late at night.  I've been in here plenty of times over the last three years after hours."

GREG: "We filmed a short in here a couple years ago.  After hours."

"That's what I thought as well. I couldn't find them anywhere though. They likely go out to lunch. We should look for them when the older students are around too."

DAVE: "Or have Gretchen ask her friend on the year book committee to go over all the photos."

"Or have Gretchen ask her friend on the year book committee to go over all the photos." Colin repeats, taken aback.
"That's a great idea, Dave. Thank you."
He looks at Dave as if he was the smartest man in the world.

GREG: "If this were TV we'd know someone that could scan them into a computer and run them against the school's admissions database."

Quite a bit later than most Matt finally enters the lunch room, with Sheila Burns next to him, having made sure previously to wait for her before going in. He walks up to 'the table' and nods hi to everyone. "Uh, this is Sheila, uh, Rory's sister. She, uh," he looks at Sheila, "wondered if she could hang out with us and, uh, she can right?" Yep, Matt is as always a master wordsmith.

DAVE: "Hey, we let Greg sit here, she's more then welcome."

GREG: "Very funny.  See if I make you the next Tom Cruise."

DAVE: "Threats will get you no where.  Please, join us."

That'll make talking about Rory tough, but Sylvia ventures a little smile at Sheila.  "Hi.  I'm Sylvia."  And then she points around the table, naming everyone she can name.

Shelia smiles, but is pretty quiet.  Her trauma seems to have drained some of the color from her, but after a few minutes of the joking that is common at your lunches she seems to become more animated.  She tends to lean on Matt from time to time, especially when she laughs at something funny.  By the time lunch is over she seems to have become comfortable with the group, if not familiar with all the names yet.

At first Matt looks slightly uncomfortable in his regular twitching way from Sheila leaning on him for some strange reason he can't possibly figure out, but after a while he decides that she's probably just missing her brother and thinks he reminds her of him and becomes a lot more relaxed with the situation, even if he still finds it quite strange no matter how he tries to reason it out.

Sarah runs into lunch late... practically too late.  She squeezes in at the big table between Greg and Dave, nearly sending both off their seats.  "Thanks for saving me a spot!"  She grins and starts munching.  "Math is evil and the homework assignments accumulate in some rapid fashion that is also mathmatical and beyond me.  I had to explain why I didn't do yesterday's homework which, considering that I'd been witness and nearly victim of a shootout at the mall and following a week of mayhem I was given a pass."  She looks around at the group assembled.  "Matt, hi!  I haven't seen you in a while.  And you brought somebody new to the table?  Nice to meet you I'm Sarah."  She stretches her hand out to Sheila. 

"And where is Rob again today?  I haven't seen that guy at all this year.  Did he transfer?"

OOC:  Will there be any funeral services for Rory or have they or will they happen in a private ceremony?  Any common knowledge on the subject.  I remember Dave offering Matt a ride to the services the other day...? 

Colin shakes Sheila's hand with a little apprehension, but he's sincerely happy to know her, as much as he's happy to see her being friendly with Matt.

When Sarah arrives, he remembers that he had wanted to keep a spot for her too, but then Sylvia arrived with all the weirdness about Rob and he forgot.

"Rob... has got a new kind of company." He nods to her in what in his intention would be a sign for "there's more to that. let's talk about it later.", but he isn't sure he made a good job of it.

Sarah thinks about it for a second and shrugs.  "So the weekend is coming up, whats everyone got planned?"

There has been nothing announced.  Dave's offer was made sort of blind, not knowing what type of service or anything.

DAVE: "Elrod Janush and his sister are having a party Saturday night, consider yourselves invited."  Dave goes back to reading the latest copy of Popular Science

"Wait a second... Party?  Who's Elrod?  Where's the party?  What kind of party?  Dave you can't drop that on me and then go back to reading your magazine!"  Sarah gives Dave the long stare until he puts down the article.

DAVE: "Elrod, he's what you might call the grand master of the slackers here at Oak Park.  His sister is the head of the cheerleading squad.  There's a party at their house Saturday after the game, I'm transporting some refreshments, so I get in invite my close friends.  Bing!, you're all it."

T.J looks at Dave. "Sounds.... interesting. Sure, I'll come. Just to see what it's like." He nods and looks at the front cover of the popular science magazine.

After what seems like hours of waiting, Sammy grows weary of lurking by the door and goes back to the cafeteria to find her friends.

"I didn't find Elrod, but you know what?  I'm inviting you anyhow.  If anybody asks, you're with the band.  The party will probably be so big that nobody will even notice extra people, and if they do, tough!  Come on over to my house before, and we'll all go together, ok?"

"Uh, a party?" Matt looks at Dave with a doubting expression. "I know you're not talking about me, and even if you were, eeh, I'm not too good with crowds. Or, y'know, people."

"A party? On Saturday? Well, it would be nice but, I kinda had different programs, I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the invitation anyway, Dave. You the man."
He looks at Sarah, that seemed so enthusiastic.
Doesn't she remember? She would like to go to the party more? I got the day wrong?
Apprehension is written on Colin's face so clear that anyone could read it.

Sarah looks across the table at Colin and wonders.. Oh my gosh I thought he wanted to go see a matinee!!! Uh oh... um...I can fix this right?  "I'll have to let you know too Dave, though I really appreciate the invite.  I've got some stuff to do.. I thought it was going on in the afternoon but it might run into the evening.  I'll give you a call though okay?" 

Smooth, yeah.. real smooth.  Dope.  Stuff to do, very clever.   

In a matter of mere seconds Colin goes from worrying to beaming.

Then she would rather go with me! Yes!!!

But... she looked like she loved the idea of the party. We could go together there. I'd love to pass an evening with her... alone, but... the movie will still be there, and I could wait. -Hardly- but I could wait. God and Great Spirit, what do I do, what do I do?

I'll ask her. Yes, I'll ask her. So she will see I care. That can't hurt. Or can it?

DAVE: "Donnie, we'll have to skip the game this week.  the upside is you get to go to a party and watch other people get drunk and do silly things."

"As long as I can secretly record it and play it back at the most inopportune moments, I'm all in!"

GREG: "Dude, I wear my button cam to all these things.  I have so much footage from my freshman year I had to get another hard drive to store it all."

Sylvia grimaces.  "What are you trying to do, blackmail people for lunch vouchers?  This isn't going into some kind of Girls Gone Wild! video, is it?"

Greg looks down the table at Sylvia, "I'm a serious filmaker Syl, I don't do 'Girls Gone Wild' videos.  If I do anything with it it'll be a documentary of the secret lives of privledged teenagers in the dawn of the 21st century.  Pfft., girls gone wild, paaalllleeaseeee"

DAVE: "Ah, are you trying to clue us in to something there Slyvia?"

Donnie tries really hard to keep his eyes above the neckline after Greg's comment, but with Sylvia in a tanktop it is quite the challange.

Sylvia's brow rumples, and she finds herself unable to answer.  Quite a bit of what Dave says goes over her head.  Not everything, because she is, after all, a young woman of the twenty-first century, but still. . . .

She dodges the question by turning to Donnie.  "So you're going?  Can I meet you?  Can we go together?"

Donnie looks stunned, pole-axed, and for once his mind totally seizes up on him. He feels the IQ pouring out the back of his head and stutters "Uh, sh-sh-sure. I'd, uh, like that."  He flushes and  looks a bit helplessly over at Dave. "Can you ah, pick us up?"

Ohmygod! Did she just ask me to go with her to the party? Like a date or something? Am I dreaming here? Under the table he pinches his arm hard, just to make sure.

DAVE: "Hey, I can throw rides around, not a problem.  Just slip me your addresses before we split and a number and I'll plot out the whole driving thing."

Sylvia might have asked Kel, if he were at the table.  She might also have asked Colin, if he were going.  But here's Donnie, so everything is all right.  "I'll come to your house?" she confirms.  She's reluctant to introduce Donnie to her parents simply because it would entail a fresh round of explanation and humiliation.

As distracted as he is thinking about how to get Sarah's attention at the end of the lunch to exchange some words in private, he cannot miss what's happening between Sylvia and Donnie.

It looks like he needed no help after all. Way to go, Donnie!

He can't help but look at Sarah and smile.

---

At end of the lunch, as Sarah leaves for her classes, Colin pretends to pick up something under the table.

"Sarah! Wait a moment! You dropped this!" he says as he rushes after her, his hand closed around nothing.

"Huh?'  Opens her hand and is handed nothing.  "Um... thanks?"

Colin takes her hand and gently pulls her further in the corridor.

"I just wanted to talk with you away from the others." he whispers.
"Look, our... our... the movie. I thought we would be going tomorrow because I knew you had your game session scheduled for today, but... if you'd like to go to the party, I don't want you to miss it because of me. I-I... I want you to be happy. What do you say?"

He says, looking into her eyes.

Sarah just grins, "I kinda picked up something like that was troubling you.  I think we had a case of miscommunication.  I thought you wanted to go to a matinee on Saturday.  Would you like to go to a matinee on Saturday?  Then we could still go to the party that night."

A matinee? Well it's not what I thought... But I get to be with her on the morning AND on the evening!

"Sure! Perfect! I was thinking more of a..." he scratches the back of his head in a bit of embarassment.
"The matinee. Good. Then... we go to the party... together?"

Donnie asks for Syvia's phone number and gives her his cell number, so they can figure out when to coordinate getting together on Saturday.

((OOC: I assume this is prior to the cheerleading tryouts, so I won't mention anything about the game.))

"Yep, just you and me... and half of the school.  Seriously if Dave is handing out invites this place is going to be packed!  I better actually find a way to clear this party with parents huh?"   Sarah smiles again.  "Thanks again for the invitation.  I'll give you a call and let you know if my parents give the all clear on all this stuff."

She runs off down the hall with a quick wave. 

Colin just looks at her running away. Butterflies in the stomach.  He wonders if there's a cure.

OOC: I think we can archive this.