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Game days at Oak Park are a time when there are banners in the halls and the air is thick with the teenage enthusiasm for things that half of the students wont care about in ten years and the only thing the other half will care about.  Glory.  Oak Park's basketball team has been doing well enough this season, and the pep squad has managed to not break up, get expelled, or take over the world. 

It's an evening game, at school.  the band and the pep squad are on hand to provide school spirit, and the turn out is more than normal for a basketball game since the last few weeks have been blissfully not dangerous on campus.  The squeak of court shoes and the thunder of running feet are broken by the cheers and screams of the crowd.  The visiting team has a decent cheering section and both sides are behaving well, for stoked teens high on soda and adrenaline.

Elrod and Nick have begun to make it a habit of coming to the games, mainly because Sammy has to be there with the band.  Logan shows up to show his support and apparently see his girlfriend, although most people aren't sure what he sees in her. 

OOC: I am assuming Colin attends to take pictures for the school paper, perhaps Sarah to hang out with Colin, Donnie to see Sylvia.  Anyone else?

The pep squad is peppier than usual if only because Sylvia's elation at having all her friends in the stands and Smith in town is infectious.  Not too infectious--she's getting a handle on that--but definitely mildly contagious.  And with the new squad and her brand-new cleaned-up soul, she's actually losing some of her cynicism with regard to cheerleading.

As Gwen Stefani says, she ain't no hollaback girl, anymore.

Sammy is happily ensconced among her People.  All of the bandies have painted their faces in school colors and are wearing the same "uniform" of matching t-shirts and khaki shorts, in deference to the warm gym.  She knows other people are there (Nick and Elrod are both cheerfully greeted/acknowledged), but she's concentrating her attention on the game and her band duties.

As much as Laney used to enjoy watching and playing sports, the crowds will keep her away from these sorts of events, unless she has the support of people she trusts nearby.   In other words, if she's not invited she's not attending.

Neither she nor John are fond of crowds,  So it's more likely they're using the excuse of a game at school to do something else together, away from the prying eyes of parents.   Since basketball games are indoors, she'll have to test out her shiny, new binnocular camera another time - if she hasn't broken it by then.

Donnie is in the bottom row of the stands, cheering with the rest of them. He has a seat reserved for Colin on the rare occassions the photographer decides to sit down.

He pretends Logan is there to see one of the other cheerleaders.

Alicia is there, although making a point of not looking at all interested in the game. She's lounging on the bleachers, taking up two spots by leaning back on the next seat up, to the annoyance of neighboring attendees. She sips from a bottle that allegedly contains water and gazes calmly through her shades.

The only exception to her lackadaisical attitude is when the pep squad performs, at which point she cheers and whistles, laughing.

Sarah enjoys the games because... she's not really sure why.  She's watched a lot of the home games and still didn't know why the whistle got blown most of the time.  Maybe it was just that everybody was here.  She knew on a game day that Sylvia and Sammy had to show and Donnie was there for Sylvia, Colin was shooting photos for the paper or just for fun.  Dave, Greg and Rob would often make appearances.  There was always something going on.  Laney should come.  She could zone out to the different plays and probably predict the games final score by the end of the first quarter.  Maybe all this action might totally send her over the deep end.  What's her deal anyway?  I still have no clue.  Fragile?  Strong?  Crazy?  Overly sane?  I swear she's operating on another time line in a different dimension half the time.  Sarah pats Donnie on the shoulder and says, "I'll be right back.  Save a couple of seats."

She ducks out the door and in a few moments arrives at Laney's front door.  *ding dong* 

Donnie does his best to save the few seats near him. For some reason, he manages to despite the seat predations of parents, upperclassmen, or bouncy siblings of players or students.

Barely.

The pep band knocks out a few rousing bars of "Get Ready for This" during a break in the action.

Alicia's relaxed lounging on the bleachers ceases when she sees Sarah leading Laney into the gym.

Oh crap, she thinks. She measures distances as she straightens up in her seat. Between her and Sammy. Between her and where Laney is heading to. Between her and the midway point. There's no real surreptitious way to move to a better position; she'll just have to be ready to jump in as needed.

Another break in the action.  The band plays a few bars from "Hold On I'm Comin'"

"Yeah, we can ride the little yellow bus together to Hero High.  Also I'm going to need to use that hand again Laney."  She wiggles her purple fingers a bit.

She waves to Donnie with her free hand and pulls Laney along.  "Thanks for saving our seats D.  I went to the refreshment stand and ordered a latte but got her instead.  I think they misheard me."

Donnie cocks an eyebrow. "If they charged you the same price you got a hell of a deal."

Donnie scoots over to make room.

Laney releases Sarah and squeezes onto the bench, greeting everyone nearby and chattering, "Ooo lattes!  Yum.  Good seats, Donnie.  Maybe they'll exchange.  Thanks! Right up front.  I'm not allowed."   Merrily tapping her toes to the beat with the band, she does genuinely seem pleased to have the ground within reach, although she's staring straight up at the cavernous ceiling.

Sarah smiles at Donnie over Laney's usual oddness.  "So's yer girlfriend shaking her money maker out there?  Driving all the boy's wild?  Distracting the other team and so on?  Wow, how good would she be at fixing the game huh?  I'm so glad they let me skate on the notion of joining.  I can not imagine going out and being cheerful in front of all those people."

Another break, another chunk of song:  "Everybody Wants You."

Donnie takes a pull from his half hidden can of coke. "Her milkshake brings all the boys in the yard." He winks at Sarah over Laney's head, proud of his Laneyesque answer.

He bobs his head to the chunk of song and yells out the chorus with everybody in the gym. "EVERYBODY WANTS YOU!"

Colin's busy taking some random pic of the audience's enthusiasm.

Alicia's returned to her sprawled state on the bleachers, but any pretense of repose is gone. She's preternaturally still, with no fidgeting or random motion. It makes for a marked contrast to the cheering waving throng around her.

During the break of half-time the booster club gives out bottled water with the team logo on it and sells cookies, popcorn, and boxed candy to raise money for the sports teams.  The band plays a series of songs, and there are a few announcements concerning future games.

Gladys makes her way over to sit with Logan for a few minutes, and they hold hands and even kiss a few times. 

Elrod waits for the band to take a break right after half time to slip into the group and kiss Sammy.

Nick text messages her a kiss and waves from the bleachers.

Sammy kisses Elrod right back.  She talks to him for a couple of minutes.  After a respectful interval, she blows an air kiss to Nick.  Then she sits down and looks at the song play book one more time.  She's warm from performing, so she chugs a couple of bottles of water during the band break.

Alicia uses the hustle-bustle of half-time to position herself better, putting her in a vantage point to observe both Laney and Sammy and be able to intervene if necessary.

She declines any offers for water; she brought her own bottle, which she keeps close at hand.

Sarah enjoys the noise of the game and the crowd.  The cheering and good spirits remind her of the game she and Samantha went to in Florida.  Thinking about that reminds her of the weird baseball incident.  She and Sam and a few other people had all ducked at as a foul ball came flying at them.  It ended up landing in some guy's popcorn not far away.  Sarah could have sworn she even felt it touch the back of her arm when she threw them up to protect herself.  She could have blocked it with her staff but she and Sam had already been on the jumbotron enough.

She nibbled her cookie and contemplated. 

She also nudged Laney and said in her ear.  "The game's down here Laney.  You can come back and look at the ceiling tomorrow.  I promise it will still be here.  If it's not I'll try and save you a piece for later.  Cookie?"

She offers the disjointed girl a cookie.

In a cloud of sound, motion, and color Laney is suspended and content to be so - until Sarah happens.

Laney's head drops forward, her ponytailed hair bobs, and she curls her fingers about Sarah's wrist, tugging as if it were the only thing keeping her from rolling right off the bench.   Then she smiles that empty smile of hers and lifts her gaze to her companion's face.  There it's plainly seen, there is no void at all.  There, as close as she now is, Sarah sees herself and only herself, the only thing in Laney's world: a reflection in her eyes sharper than a mirror.   

"The game's in pieces."

Sarah looks over at the court in confusion, then down at her cookie, then back at Laney with the same perplexed expression.  "Um, that's the way the cookie crumbles?"

Sarah glances up at the ceiling before asking, "Do you enjoy patterns like that or just get lost in them?  I mean are you getting off on geometry or sucked into some mental loop?  Also you didn't answer about the cookie.  It has chocolate." 

Donnie looks at Sarah over Laney's bowed dark hair, shrugs and shakes his head as if to say "What are you gonna do?"

He passes two bottled waters to the girls he bought off the band booster salesman.

Meanwhile Sylvia is cheering Jakob on between routines.  The young giant is galloping down the court, ignoring the guard from the other team as if they were no more than flies at a barbecue.

On the major teams, each of the really good players has a song assigned to them.  Jakob has earned his own [tbd] this season.  Years from now the sound of [tbd] will flash Sylvia back to moments like this one.

The last whistle is blown and the game ends with Oak Park winning by a small margin.  The crowds are beginning to begin the journey out of the gym when there is a loud pop from the overhead and the sprinkler system kicks off.  It rains in the room for a few seconds before a bell rings and then stops, then the sprinklers stop as well.  There were some screams as some of the people were startled by the event.  The coaches and staff get the doors open and have everyone file out in as orderly a fashion as possible.

OOC: Alicia would have had about two seconds notice (she could have heard the softer pops as the system primed) she would have been able to get under the bleachers and thus minimize the water she got on her if you so desire.  Sarah could have ported with Donnie, Laney, and Colin if he decides he wanted to be sitting there.  They would also have a minimum of water on them (the event might have stood out a little though).  Sammy could have used her powers to keep the majority of the water off herself (might have stood out) if she wishes.

Sammy is not so much worried about herself as she is about keeping her instrument as dry as possible.  It stays dry, but she gets soaked through, and so she squeals and grumbles and yells about the deluge right along with the rest of her band buddies.

Alicia looks up in surprise, then eels between the bleacher seats to hide from the unexpected deluge. She gets some of it on her from the runoff, but she successfully avoids most of the dirty smelly water.

She heads over to Sammy to see if she needs help, grumbling in Spanish as she goes. "Eh, chica. You all right? I figured with the stuff all..." She pauses as she sees the relatively dry state of her instrument compared to her and grins.

"You got some crazy priorities, nena. Stay right there, I'll go get you a towel." The grin reaches Cheshire proportions.

Colin first reaction is to protect the camera. Then he realizes what just happened and forgets all about it.

"Oh, God and Great Spirit. Not again. Please, let not be it."

He looks around frantically for his backpack, expecting the worst.

Sylvia looks up at the sprinklers, out at the crowds, and sighs.  Great.  What now?

She scans the crowd for intimations of malice.

Doing her best 'Leo Bloom' (from the Producers) interpretation, Sammy grins a drippy, running face-paint grin and says "I'm wet! I'm wet! I'm hysterical and I'm wet!"  She opens her case and puts her dry horn inside.  "El has that stash of clean clothes for me in his trunk.  He might have a towel too.  I'll stay here and help -- oh man, look at the sheet music, its a bunch of spit wads..." 

Alicia chuckles at Sammy's joke and waggles her eyebrows suggestively at the idea of Elrod having a change of clothes for her in his car. "How... convenient," she snickers.


Alicia commiserates with Sammy over the ruined pages. "Yeah. I'm wondering if this was a revenge prank from the other school since we won." Her head jerks slightly as she catches Colin's remark with her sharp hearing.

"Hold on," she mutters as she looks in Colin's direction. "Gotta check something out."

Colin finds a shadow standing behind him. "What's up, Mystic Man?" says Alicia quietly.

Sylvia finds no hint of malice in the room.  She senses the minds of the maintenance staff securing the system.  They're discussing a pressure valve failure, the older man complaining that it was installed in the era of disco, it was bound to fail eventually.  The younger man comments about how it was better to have it go off when it didn't need to as opposed to seize and fail to work when it was needed.  They agree and begin the work to get the valve out and replace it.

The panic fades in a couple of minutes, and some of the wet students are trying to have a little fun with it.  The mood turns from unhappy to amused over the next several minutes as the adults announce there was no fire but a failure in a valve.

The buses arrive to take the visiting team home and the Oak Park team goes to shower.  The band kids are taken over to the auditorium to clean up their instruments before they go home.

Everyone else is generally released to go home.  

Elrod finds Sammy, carrying a tote bag with cloths and a towel.  "You look nice in a wet t-shirt."  he says as he gives her the bag.  "But your dad would flip if he knew I let you walk around without offering to cover you up at least."

OOC:  Totally confused about drama vs character reaction. 
"Awww crap!!!"

The water falls down soaking Sarah, turning her Expendable shirt a dark red and making her jeans weigh twenty pounds.  Donnie and Laney get soaked as well.


OOC: Sorry... I spent so much time pondering what Sarah would do that eventually it became obvious that she'd sit there thinking what to do and get soaked.  D'oh.

"I'm not sure, but we have a bad record with sprinklers. Do you smell anything weird in the water?"

Sammy trades Elrod the instrument case for the duffel bag.  "My hero," she laughs, and kisses his cheek.  "Hold this while I go get dry.  I'm freezing.  But you can probably already see that."  She darts off to someplace nearby with a hope of some privacy to quickly strip, dry off, and change clothes.

Donnie laughs at at the bedraggled hair of the girls and reaches under the bench. There is a wierd magical pulse and he pulls out two neatly folded towels and hands one to each of the girls. They are extremely cold to the touch, but after a moment they warm up to the ambient temperature and smell faintly of Snuggle fabric softener.

He slicks back his hair and watches the band's rowdy, annoyed reaction to getting their instruments and music all wet.

Alicia gives him a "you gotta be kidding me" look. "Colin," she explains wryly. "This water's been sitting in those pipes since they put the damn sprinklers up. It stinks of metal and stagnant s**t. I'm gonna be smellin' it for a week. Other than that, though, nope, nothin' weird."

She cocks her head. "You're suspectin' enemy action?"

Sarah takes the towel with a smile.  "Thanks Donnie."  Sarah rubs her hair off a bit and sighs at the mess.  "Want a ride back home for some dry clothes?  Laney you can borrow some of mine if you like." 

Drying off Sarah realizes two things.  One, she's not really cold from the icy water like so many people.  Must be part of the leftover charm from Colin's paint by numbers.  And two, something bad has happened just about anytime a group of people have been exposed to liquids or gases around here.  Aw crap.

"Donnie.  Do you think this water was an accident or did we just get hit with something?"

Donnie grimaces, not even realizing the possible import of the mass dowsing. "Crap. Uh. I don't know. He looks around for any open container that might have caught some of the water.

He first checs it for magical signatures before carefully picking up the sample. "Only one way to find out. SDid either of you see mr. Heep here at the gkame?"

Laney’s smile is sweetly patient and forgiving, her answer a vague, “Yes.”


She’s delighted and grateful and offers him the other half of the nibbled cookie she’d accepted from Sarah.

After that, sipping from her bottle, Laney seems to be more focused on the game itself than the building in which it’s taking place.  She neither cheers nor applauds, but judging from her shifting expressions, she’s following the score well enough.


Laney remains seated with the others while the teenaged fans crowd their way towards the exits, too disoriented to do much else. 

The brief shower catches her by surprise as much as anyone.  However, after a moment of cringing, she bows her head and closes her eyes in resigned misery.  What is this?  The sixth time?


She looks from Donnie to Sarah to the other students to her checkered bag and stammers, “I- You-  Thanks, D-donnie.  Borrow Heep?  I-   It’s o-over, right?  ”

The thin cotton sundress was instantly saturated and the ponytail became a long, coiling black snake clinging to her back.   Wrapping the towel around her shoulders for decency’s sake, Laney paws through her bag for her cell phone, not at all surprised to discover it was also thoroughly wet, having rested in a puddle at their feet too long.

"Come on before you catch a cold!"  Sarah drapes her own towel over Laney's shoulders.  While she leads her out of the gym, Sarah rings Colin.  "I'm taking Laney to my house for something dry to wear.  Give me a call later.  Thanks again for that tattoo it kept me nice and warm!"

"I might be overreacting, but spreading polluted water through the sprinklers was a tactic of the love goo guys." he says, turning around, looking for any sign of strange behavior.

"Well, it's also a common sign of the approach of Laney, but I'd rather keep my guard up."



"You're always welcome, wondergirl. Uhm, do you think you can tactfully ask her if she thinks the shower was her fault?"

Sylvia looks at the Suspects one by one, getting a read off their panic levels.  Sammy's not flying away, and Alicia's not trying to kill anyone.  All must be well.

She helps to schlep sodden pep gear back to the locker room.

Sarah answers Colin, "Will do.  Catch ya later."

Once they're in a dark spot or out of sight.  "Ready?"  Not really waiting for a response that she might or might not understand or have something to do with the gym ceiling she jumps.  *poit*

Arriving in Sarah's room on a floor clear of clutter.  The one time she'd teleported in barefoot to stand on an old miniature was the deciding point on keeping her room a bit neater.  At least the floor. 

She opens up the closet do to Laney and offers, "Me también es su también."  in her best* Spanish.

She peels off the Expendable and fishes out a soft cotton sweatshirt with a ripped collar.   

OOC: *Sarah is perhaps slightly better at Math than Spanish though she doesn't know it.   
 ;D

"Got it," Alicia replies with a mischievous glint. "So if I have a sudden urge to rip off your clothes and jump you, we'll know something's wrong."


Alicia huffs. "Yeah, although her effects tend to be a bit more... direct." Colin can catch a certain undercurrent of context in that statement.

She cocks her head. "Sounds like Donnie's got some of the sprinkler water collected. Maybe we can have Mr. Heep do his Mr. Wizard thing on it and make sure the water wasn't spiked."

Her eye catches an abandoned water bottle from the ones being handed out during the game and she snags it. She waggles it as she adds, "For that matter, it might not be a bad idea checking this stuff out too."

Virtue unsulllied by peeping Elrod's or stealthy Nick's, a cleaned up and freshly attired Sammy emerges from her changing spot, duffel in hand.  "Thanks," she tells Elrod.  "I'm going to have to shower when I get home.  I hope nothing weird was growing in that water; I don't feel like getting sick right now."

"Either that or the urge to kill me."


Colin sighs in frustration, not to Alicia, but to a world where they can't trust a bottle of water.

"Probably not." he agrees.

The mischief in her eyes spread to the rest of her face as a Cheshire grin blossoms. "There'd be a difference?"


Alicia gives Colin a playful punch on his shoulder. "Relax, Spirit Jockey. Look at it this way. If this is another assault, at least we're prepared."

Mr. Heep wasn't in the crowd, and chances are he's not on campus.  He should be in class tomorrow.

Elrod takes the bag, "Should I be wary of you after the water thing?  Seems like water is the carrier of all things that make people randy here."

Donnie makes it over to Colin and Alicia. "Hey, good job Alicia. Lemme pour this water into your bottle and we'll give it to Heep tomorrow just to make sure, though I don't see anyone throwing themselves passionately at each other or trying to rip each other's hearts out. It may have for once been a fluke accident."

Alicia gives a dark chuckle. "Heh. Well, the term 'accident' gets a new meaning when Laney's in the area. Did Sarah take her home or something? I heard them talking and then poof."

"I didn't think about that."  Sammy pauses, considering his words and possibly her response.  "I feel okay right now, but there could be a delay.  You could lock yourself up away from me.  You could see to it that I am locked down for the night.  You could trust yourself enough to be the one to keep me from doing something extremely stupid if I have been Goo-ed. Or you could put me into the care of someone else who will make sure that if I am stupid,  I am at least safely stupid.  Your choice.  How wet did you get?  Who do you trust?"

"I hope so." Colin nods.


"The hate goo didn't work right away. It started working when someone took a whiff of the trigger perfume. Though I still hope for the fluke accident too."


"Yeah, she did. She just called me."

"Well then," Alicia replies. "Can't do any more damage here. I'm down and gone. Here, Colin," she adds, handing him the water bottle now holding murky liquid within. "You get to keep the evidence and talk to the Science Dude. I'm going home."

She saunters out, casually skirting the remaining puddles on the floor.

"I trust me."  he says, "And if I lock you anywhere it'll be in my car.  I'll face the peril alone.  Noble sacrifice and all that, I'm just that kind of guy."  he says, leaning in to kiss her.  "You taste normal." he says with a smile.

Sammy scrunches up her face and wrinkles her nose.  "Normal with a splash of face paint for extra zest."  She takes a quick look at her phone.  "Nobody sending me text messages of Doom, so I bet its okay and all I swallowed was old, slimy, germy water.  Mmm-Mmm, spice-ay."  She puts her phone away.  "Want to get out of here?  To save them all from me, in case I go into a crazed kissing frenzy or something."

"Hmm, crazed kissing frenzy.  We should hurry."  he says, taking her hand and heading out to his car.  Elrod is in no hurry once they get to the car.  Everyone is still trying to get out of the parking lot, and he has Sammy all to himself here for a few minutes.

Logan is in the hall outside the locker room waiting for Gladys.  He waves to Sylvia as the girls come out.  Gladys seems to brighten when he's around, and she nearly bounds into his arms for a kiss.  He smiles at her enthusiasm.  "You girls all dry and well I take it?"  Gladys nods, but Sylvia knows there is more to what he said than she registers.

Sylvia smothers an emotional reaction to Gladys's glee even before she knows what kind of reaction it is.  "Are you guys headed somewhere after the game?  You should--"  She puts some telepathic weight behind the suggestion.  "--grab a nice warm shower, Gladys.  Take your time.  Check the water, though.  If it looks funny, don't get it on you, for god's sake."  Sylvia's favorite part of pep squad, obviously, is that they tend to do what she says.

"Yeah, good idea."  Gladys says, "Wait for me?"  she asks, and Logan nods.  She bounds off to get a shower.

"Everything okay I take it, since you're here and the rest of the suspects are generally milling about."

Sylvia takes a measured breath before she replies, resenting the fact that she can't pretend the sprinklers' going off was nothing more than a harmless accident.  "I think so.  I scanned the crowd, but no one in the gym was rubbing his hands together and cackling.  Maybe it was just what it appears to be."  She gives him a suspicious, sidelong look, a little smile playing on her lips.  "Unless you know otherwise."

"I admire your self sacrifice.  You're always willing to take a hit for the team."  Sammy chuckles and hands him a cherry flavored chapstick.  "It'll cut down on the friction, just in case.  We don't want any avoidable chapping injuries if I slip into make-out madness."   She snuggles up against his side and waits with him.  I wish it had been El with me when I got gooed the first time... I bet things would be less complicated now.

"Other than the school district has been cutting funds for replacement equipment on any system that passes a county inspection, so unless it's a conspiracy of fire equipment manufacturers it was probably just an accident.  You might want to get a shower too.  Just in case."

Sylvia nods.  And then she can't help herself.  "Big plans tonight?"

"Gladys wanted some help with her econ homework.  Other than that nothing remarkable.  You?"

Econ homework.  Sylvia feels some squirrelly relief and then feels guilty about it.  "I don't know.  We usually just sort of stand around until someone says, 'Let's go to Tasty Dog.'  We're lame that way."

"Nothing wrong with that."

The pair make some small talk until Gladys comes back (or Sylvia retreats for a shower).

OOC: small talk for these two though is usually heady stuff.