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((OOC: Everyone not in the Lawson Labs thread except for Matt is probably gathered at the lunch table as usual.))

Matt and Rory have been having lunch together since they first met.  Matt is happily suprised that although Rory certainly is a geek, you've managed to have stuff to talk about every day.  Neither of you probably goes into your home life in much detail but you do talk about it some.  Rory has a sister, shelia, that is a Sophmore.

Everyone else is at the lunch table when Kirby comes in.  He explains he was absent the last couple of days because he got sick in class the other day (the day the principal made his announcement about the hole in the wall)).

KIRBY: "My mom kept me home, she thought it might have been the flu."

Sarah's friend Rob is the only regular other then the field trip kids that isn't there.

Sylvia wanders into the lunch room engrossed in her notes about the upcoming carwash fundraiser for the girls' tennis team.  It's not a complicated story.  The problem is that she has to put together enough of a story to fill twelve ominously empty square inches on the paper's sports page.  "The girls' tennis team will hold a--no.  The tennis-playing association for females has announced its intention to conduct a fundraising activity that involves the lavation of automobiles. . . ."

Then she stops, realizing she's standing next to the table Matt shares with Rory.  She gawks for a few distended seconds and then manages to remember what she was supposed to tell him.  "Hey, uh . . . Colin Crow wants to talk to you sometime."

Timmy greets everyone friendly but his face lights up when he sees Kirby. "Kirby! Good to see you! We were all puzzled about your sudden disappearance." He looks around at the table and turns back to Kirby with a smile. "The others are on the field trip to Lawson laboratories. My Dad works there." He adds on proudly.

He then lowers his voice. "So what are we going to do about your experiment." He asks excitedly.

KIRBY: "I'm not sure." Kirby says in a low tone, "I'm still trying to figure that out.  I've made up my mind that I'm gonna decide what to do by Monday though."  He smiles weakly.

Matt had just been sitting quietly, geeking away with Rory over that imaginated or not superhero battle and who would win when suddenly he looked up into Sylvia's eyes. He froze completely for a few seconds, thinking Whoa she is really cute, and what's she doing here talking to me again, I should ask her out or something like that probably, that'd be the correct thing to do probably, or would it, would it be akward to just go "hey, it's you! Yea I've been meaning to look you up and talk to you, I felt we got cut off completely the other day at the tasty dog, and I'm really sorry about that by the way, I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking running out like that, I'm sorry if I caused you any distress it really was unintentional and wow that outfit is just awesome by the way, totally cool, did you make it yourself or order it special, in any way it's awesome, makes you look like a punk-rock-superhero-princess or something, hey would you like to go have a bite or something?"

Instead, he said "Ehm, hi... uh, yea, hi, you, tasty, um, outfit, was, punk, bite?" then he went all red, stood up, gathered his things and started slowly backing away. "I, uh, run, yea, uh, Rory, uhm... bye!"

Only after all that did what she actually say go halfways through his head. "Huh?"

Sylvia watches Matt back away from the table.  "I swear, whatever you think I have, it's not contagious."

"Ehm, huh?" Matt looks surprised at her for a second, then his eyes open wide. "Oh, no, I, uh, no that's not what I meant! I don't think you're contageous, though you probably think I am by now, I-I-I mean I'm not of course, I'm just--" he starts talking, his face keeping his previous shade of so red he'd look like he had a heart attack if it was redder.

Then he just lets out a deep breath and seems to calm down a bit. "I'm sorry, I'm not any good at this shit... life that is. I just can't seem to be able to even talk to someone straight for a few minutes unless it's about one spandex-clad moron beating up another spandex-clad moron, and when some cute girl comes up to me and even looks at me funny I go into a bunch! Gah, I'm sorry, I'll just go. Rory, I'll talk to you later dude. And I'll look for-- Colin was it? Who's that by the way, he some quarterback friend of yours that's going to flush me down the toilet? I mean, not that I don't deserve it after this..."

Kel slides in, jotting down some things in a small hand-held notebook, anyone with good eyes will see what looks like a random jumbling of notes and phrases.  He slides it into a coat pocket as he plops into a chair, chuckling a bit as he notices that Sylvia is once more trying to talk to the anti-social guy and the results are nearly as disastrous as before.  Kel then looks over at Kirby and says, "We actually went looking for you too, and the whole time you were at home." He shakes his head as he finishes his sentence.

KIRBY: "Sorry."  He looks a little embarrassed, "You guys went looking for me?"

About this time Gretchen Ross comes into the lunch room, she slides into a chair and leans over so she can be heard, "I just heard that there was some big explosion and fire at Lawson Labs this morning.  Some of the kids on the field trip were there when it happened.  They're at County General in Chicago, but I don't know who yet.  The rest of them are on their way back now."

Cute girl?  Sylvia wonders briefly who the hell he's talking about.  Mom and Momda have not prepared her for boys except to put her in rape-prevention training and to warn her not to jiggle.

"Quarterback?"  She shakes her head, unable to imagine Colin on the football field unless he's going for an action shot.  "He's the guy who keeps zapping people.  Camera?  Bike?"  She hopes that's enough to jog Matt's memory.  "I don't know why he wants to talk to you."

Matt thinks for a moment, then realizes who she's talking about. "Uh, right, him. Yea I know of him. Ehm... thanks. I, uh, I really gotta go. Yea... uh, see ya?" His previous calm evaporates instantly and he heads out of the lunchroom, thinking that he'd probably not see her if she saw him first judging by his stellar performance today... Man, why couldnt things be more like in the comic books?

Sylvia stares after Matt and lets out a long-suffering sigh.  She carries her bag lunch over to Kel's table and takes a seat without saying hi and without asking permission.  Maybe she can catch up with what Gretchen's been saying about the field-trip kids.

Gretchen repeats herself for Sylvia after she sits down.

"They didn't say who was hurt or how bad, but I was gonna go see who didn't get off the bus.  Kel and Sylvia should probably ask some questions, it is a news story after all."

Sylvia looks at Kel.  "Colin went, didn't he?  We should find him.  Maybe he got pictures."

T.J stands up when Gretchen tells them the news. "Really? Geez, my dad could be hurt or worse." He gulps and looks up sadly at Gretchen. "Do you have any idea what caused it?"

"They didn't say on the news, they did say some staff were injured so maybe you should call him."

Kel nods confirmation at Sylvia, "Definitely should ask Colin."  He then watches TJs reaction and says matter-o-factly, "I'm sure your dad is fine, if he was hurt they would've notified you."

Sylvia looks into her lunch bag and wrinkles her nose when she sees the sandwich her mother made her--soy loaf and homemade peanut butter.  "You know what?  I'll go look for Colin now.  If we don't hurry, someone will probably send him home before we can ask him what happened."

Sylvia (and anyone that goes with her) is easily able to intercept the students that arrive from the field trip.  They don't see Sarah or Colin. 

((OOC: Anyone questioning students from the trip make a Gather Information check))

Gather Information check. (1d20+4=10) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=601240)

Sylvia is able to learn that Calvin Stewart, Megan Howell, Colin Crow and Sarah Rollins were the students that were sent to the hospital.

She is also able to learn that there were several employees of Lawson Labs injured in the explosion and taken to the hospital.

She also learns that the Chicago PD sent one of the PCD-High Threat teams into the building and that there was a rumor that some super villain or ultra-terrorists might have been responsible for the explosion.

Sylvia does her best to find Kel.  She tries to talk with him in private.  "Kel--"  The expression on her face is earnest and intense as if it's life-and-death that he go along with this.  "--can you get us to the hospital?  Colin and a few of the other kids were taken there.  Big explosion."  Then her eyes widen.  "Ultra-terrorists."

Kel who had been standing right behind Sylvia, having finished his lunch before following after her jumped a bit as she turned around on him.  He then thinks for a moment, "County General in Chicago, yea we should be able to take the train, it won't be very hard, will just cost a bit of money for the tickets.  Luckily it's kind of a down hour.  Hope you like to walk though, 'cause we have to to get to the train station at least."  He then unceromoniously starts heading off, not even concerned that school is still techinically in session.

Sylvia is less confident about ditching school.  If Carolyn and Mitzi find out, she's dead.  But her feet carry her after Kel, and her blood's beating through her body with this crazy exhilaration that has less to do with leaving school and more to do with a growing instinct to find out.

"What happens to us if they catch us?"  She figures Kel knows.

Kel shrugs, "Detention, maybe gettin' grounded from your parents."

"So basically death and dismemberment."  It's not that Sylvia's parents are harsh.  It's that she generally does what she's told.  The prospect of having to tell them she ditched school and took the El into the city so they could chase an ultra-terrorist story makes her queasy.

T.J curses to himself. "Damn I need to get a mobile. I can't ring him." He looks at Kel and smiles. "Thanks. You're probably right. I'll just wait till I get home to find out what happened." With that he sits back down and watches the others go. "I hope they're all right. I wonder what happened. Probably some experiment exploded or something." He finishes his lunch but he looks a bit shaky as he eats.

Seth walks in late. Again. This kid is always walking into the conversation 10 minutes into it. "Hey. What's everyone up too?"

Dave looks up as Seth sits down, "Apparently there was some mayhem at the lab where they were taking that field trip today.  Kel and Sylvia went to go find some stuff out."  Dave looks at Seth a moment.  "Dude, do you sleep at night?"  Dave touched his own face under his eyes, "You got bags guy.  Try sleeping some, might help."  He finishes with a smile and goes back to eating his sandwich.

"I had...trouble sleeping. So i went for a walk to the end of my street. There's a little park. And some thug picked a fight for me. It got my adreniline pumping. I had trouble going to sleep after that. A lot of weird stuff is happening."

DAVE: "I'll say.  Rob missed lunch today to spend time with a girl.  Sarah is in the mddle of a super-villain thing, so she's got to be stoked.  To top it off I passed a math test.  That's just listing the wierd for today."

GREG: "You passed a math test?  Maybe the fabric of the universe is unravelling."

KIRBY: "You were in a fight Seth?  I hope you weren't hurt badly."

"Beleive it or not, scrawny old me won. But it shook me up something weird."

KIRBY: "Well, it's a good thing you weren't hurt."  He checks his watch, "I almost forget TJ, Mr. Heep says we're off the hook for the Drama project until next week.  Something about a creative dispute or something."

GREG: "HA!"  Greg says, setting down his pen and leaning back in his chair, "That's an understatement.  Head of the Drama Club wants to have total control of the casting, music teacher says she should have it, since they're doing a musical.  The coach for the Dance squad wants them to make her the choriogrpaher and neither of the others is willing to do that.  So, I've been asked to figure out how many musical numbers they need, how many dance numbers, and break out the scenes.  Problem is, the drama lady insists that I accept the help of her favorite writer.  So, yeah, there have been some disputes.

DAVE (chuckling): "And you want to be a big Hollywood director.  Get used to this kind of thing dude."

"I'm totally thinking about auditioning. You should let me know what's going on with the project. Do you have my cell phone number?"

Greg digs in his bag and pulls out his PDA, "Fire away."  he says, copying down the number Seth gives him.

DAVE: "So, do I get extra credit if I work staff?"

GREG: "As soon as they make a decision I'll give you a call Seth."  Greg looks at Dave, "When you say work, you mean hang around and watch I assume?"

DAVE (smiling): "There is some other definition of work?"

GREG: "I'll see.  I know they're hurting for bodies to do set building and the like, but they have no idea what they're doing yet, sooooo."

"what's the play? It is a musical right?"

GREG: "About the only thing they've agreed on is a musical adaptation of Joe vs. the Volcano.  Beyond that, there is only vauge rumor."

DAVE: "They're gonna make you write it you know, you and the other kid."

GREG: "Yes, and I plan to make a documentary of the entire fiasco."

GRETCHEN: "Are any of you guys going to the game tonight?"

DAVE: "I hadn't planned on it, why you need a ride?"

GRETCHEN: "No, I was thinking of going so that Kel and Sylvia wouldn't have to cover the game alone is all."

GREG: "They will have Colin and I'm sure Colin would totally dig it if you were there."

GRETCHEN: "What's that supposed to mean?"

DAVE: "I think he's trying to say that he thinks Colin digs you.  Although I doubt the poor kid could say it."

GREG: "He's got a great eye though.  If I could get him to learn to use a movie camera like he uses that still camera of his we could make pure gold."

DAVE: "Good plan, exploit and twist his artistic genius to make movies."

GREG: "You are a cinema barbarian.  Movies can be art, and I'm not saying make him never take another still picture.

GRETCHEN: "WAIT!"  Both boys stop talking and focus on Gretchen, "Has he said he's interested in me or is this just your movie maker's eye thing?"

Greg and Dave share a look and Dave smiles

DAVE: "He's said nothing, to us anyway."

GREG: "It's just my intuition, that's all."