Reach High

[eli_gone_crazy]

The girl trudged down the hallway, music blaring through her headphones. Scowling, she shoved the door open to the detention hall, settling herself into the back of the room, tapping out a beat with the eraser end of her pencil.

“Yo.” A friendly blue-eyed, cleanshaven face presented itself. “I haven’t seen you around much. Are you new to Reach High?”

The girl ignored him, reaching over to a battered phone to turn up the rock music that was already screeching in the echoey space.

He pretended she’d responded, and slid easily into the chair beside her, putting out a hand to shake. “I’m Kev.”

Cutting her eye sideways, the girl sighed, pulling out an earbud. “‘Jali.”

Kevin grinned. “Thought so! Saw your name on my peer tutoring list. Torvan, right?”

The girl snorted, putting her earbud back in and settling in for a nap, hair pulled back in a messy bun. Kevin stretched, smirking lightly. “I’ve got practice in half an hour but I can stick around till then, in case you decide you want any help. You know, since I’m here anyway.”

The only response was the scream of a singer, tinny outside of the confines of the headphones.

When the clock hit four thirty, Kevin stood, putting a folder back in his bag and tossing a sweater over his arm. “Same time tomorrow I guess, Torvan. See you.” He gave her a little smile and a wave as he left.

Yawning, the girl stood as well, grabbing her pencil and jacket.

---
So, this is Reach high! Just... write, I guess. No prizes, no goals. Just a highschool AU of FC. Interact, make your own alliances, play around. This is completely separate to FC canon, so go to town.

[Krika]

The room (really, it was a classroom. Double-sized, but a classroom nonetheless) was quiet as various small groups of people worked to set up presentations. Quiet murmurs drifted across the room as each group tried to avoid disturbing the others, each one completely focused on the tasks in front of them.

Then the door (already ajar very slightly) was slammed open as a tall, lean redhead in a sports uniform barged through with a whoop, drawing dirty looks from everyone in the room. Slowing down with a few skips, he dropped off the two large boxes that had been hooked under each arm down on one of the sets of tables the presentations were being assembled on. The only person at this one was a brown-haired girl in a grey jacket, who was glaring at the redhead.

“Of all the people he could have gotten to help him, he go you.”

The redhead grinned. “Mary, come on! You know I couldn’t resist helping him out. Besides, watching him struggle with all those boxes was just sad.”

“I heard that!” A dark-haired boy in a polo shirt staggered into the room, carrying another one of the boxes that the redhead had just brought in.

“Calvin, I know you did.” The redhead grinned at Calvin, who rolled his eyes and dropped the box next to the others, stopping to flash a rude gesture.

“Well, thank you for assisting me in any case. If we are to get this set up properly, having more time is helpful.” The redhead bowed dramatically.

“Glad to be of assistance.”

Mary sighed, and kneaded her forehead for a moment. “Marc, I know you can’t really help us get this set up, so can you please leave so we can?”

“Right, right.” Marc glanced over at Calvin. “The usual time?” Calvin nodded absently in response as he opened one of the boxes with a pair of scissors before starting to check the contents. “Well then, I shall see you two then. Take care not to blow yourselves up with your science!” He grinned and sauntered out of the room, loudly slamming the door behind him.

Mary stared after him, shaking her head. “Why are we friends with him again?”

Calvin glanced up as he removed a jar containing a plant from the box, placing it on the tables. “Spring Camp, Beach Camp, and helping us out during the Homecoming thing.” He paused then grinned wickedly. “And for you I would hazard a guess that it is because he is quite a good ki-”

“Alright, let’s get this started.” Mary interrupted, cheeks slightly flushed. “No sense wasting time.” With a nod, the two of them bent to their work.

[Lordxana0]

Vinny whistled as he began to walk along the car lot, looking at the various parked cars of the various teachers and students before pausing at a rather nice looking car. "One day I traveled to the market only to find that I had died~" he opened the lid over the gas tank and pulled out a set of lockpicks, pushing them in and working on getting the lock the click. After a few moments it did just that and he unscrewed, pulling out a vial. "So I stole the life of the first man I saw and found a sinful life~" he poured the liquid in and rescrewed the lid back on.

"Should I have found a life of pain for my crime?" he pulled out a small bag filled with white crystals and tossed it into the window which had been opened just a crack to let the air in. "I say a death for a death is fair~" he turned around and skipped back to school, pretty sure that if he stayed out much longer than his hall pass might be getting a weird look. He paused as he saw a familiar face out and about in the halls. "Well well well breaking the rules are we?"

“Oh stow it,” Anji walked up to him, hands in her pockets. “What’re you doing about then?”

Vinny reached into his sleeve and pulled out a rose, offering it to her with a small wink. “Perhaps I was looking for you beautiful?”

The girl made no move, settling to glare at him.

“Not buying it huh?” he tossed the rose behind him and smirked. “If you must know I was out and about doing some things that will make someone elses life a living hell,” he wagged his finger. “But they deserved it, so don’t go getting all high and mighty on me kay?”

“Jus’ don’t get me in trouble, you louse.” Anji rolled her eyes.

“A louse?” Vinny put his hand over his heart as if shocked. “Why Moi Cher… that is actually pretty true” he reached into his pack and pulled out a small plastic bag and offered it to her. “So the usually payment for the usual questions?”

Anji eyed it, nodding. “Bag first.”

He handed it over to her without any argument and nodded his head. “I also heard down the grapevine and rumor mill that you might enjoy a little extra of the good stuff after your last fight, consider it a frequent buyers reward… or something like that” he crossed his arms and shook his head. “Despite the fact I don’t really see much of a dime on my return, but anyway” he pulled out his phone, opening it and showing the picture of his sister he always kept on him. “Any sight of her?”

Anji shook her head. “No, not for.. 8 weeks now?”

Vinny sighed and pulled up another picture, showing a rather tall young man. “If you see this guy bring him down hard… he is my sisters… boyfriend” he said the word as if it tasted sour in his mouth. “And he isn’t a very pleasant person”

Anji smiled ferally. “As you say, then. Need somethin’ else done, seeing as you got me the good stuff?”

He thought about it for a moment and pulled forth another flower, this time a daisy, from his other sleeve. “Try not to suffer any blows to the face, I would hate for something so beautiful to become damaged”

Raising an eyebrow, Anji walked away, waving a hand in farewell.

He glared at the flower in annoyance. “I blame you for that” he walked away, pulling a petal from the flower with each step. “I love me not, I love me so, I love me not, I love me so”
**
“Today as Reach High School a student was reported having problems with starting up their car. This lead him to call a tow truck which quickly caught sight of a rather suspicious looking white bag in the back of his car. Cops were called and the student is now being held under police custody for both drug possession and the firearm that he had in his trunk. Both of these things might land him behind the doors of a juvenile detention facility, possibly dragging over into real jail time, despite his accusations of not knowing where they came from.” the news droned on as a reporter spoke about the incident that had happened at the school. “Later tonight we will be bringing on an expert in youth crime to-”

Vinny turned off the t.v. and stood up, stretching himself out. “And maybe next time you will learn that calling someone a bitch because she won’t date you isn’t a good idea, nor is making her cry” he began to whistle again as he went back to his room, or as he liked to call it his lab. “Shouldn’t have played the dice against a man who controls the roll~” the door shut behind him. “Play again when you control the roll~”

[agoraoptera]

Vinny walked outside for lunch, glad to finally get out of the hell hole known as class to get the state-obligated forty minutes of fresh air that the Founding Fathers had fought the Civil War over… or something like that. Maybe he did need to pay attention in history a bit more often. He paused as he looked around and noticed a booth that didn’t seem to have any real purpose of being on school campus. “How the heck…” he walked over and knocked on the booth. “Uh, any chance this is a psychiatrist's booth?” He pulled out a dime and spun it on the booth, watching it spin lazy circles.

On the booth stretched a lazy gray and black cat, which glared up at Vinny balefully, then put its paw down on the coin. The hanging chimes clinked together gently and the girl sitting behind the counter leaned forward attentively. On her shoulder perched a black bird that looked almost like a puppet, until it flared its wings and stretched.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “psychiatry’s on Saturdays from 2pm to 4pm. Would you like your palm read instead?”

Vinny grinned and thought about it for a moment. “Have a beautiful girl holding my hand for a few minutes or not… hm, such a hard choice to make I am just not sure what to say to it.” He reached into his hoodie and pulled free a lily, offering it to her with a warm smile. “I will say yes to that any day, cher.”

With a light blush, she took the lily, but nonetheless said, “I’m sorry, it’s two dollars for one session, and as much as I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t accept flowers as payment. So, another buck, if you please?”

Vinny thought for a moment before reaching into his wallet and pulling out a five dollar bill, putting it on the table and offering his palm. “The extra is for the pleasure of learning your name, if you would be so kind?”

“Alia. My name’s Alia,” she frowned. “You mustn't make this a habit, sir,” she told him severely. “I can’t afford to have people say I’m cheating them of their money. I suppose I’ll have to give you a couple more free sessions then, Mr..?”

“Call me Vinny, and if you feel so broken up about it, perhaps the extra could pay for the pleasure of me taking you to coffee some time during the weekend, or the next time you are free.” He pushed the five forward. “And honestly I offered the money, if someone says differently I will educate them post haste of my generosity to those of a more spiritual persuasion.”

“Kind of you, very kind of you,” she took his palm and peered at it carefully, running her fingers over the lines etched in his skin. “You can come back for two more sessions free, anyway. Now.. give me a moment to see..”

“Your eyes are truly beautiful you know, more so than any jewel,” he smiled warmly and spoke honestly, more then used to handing out compliments.

“Thank you. Now, see here, this line? It’s your age line. It’s nice and long, uninterrupted. Means you’ll live for a very long time, roughly til your 90’s, maybe even 100’s.”

“Ah, more time to get to know you cher, good news indeed.” He gave her a wink and looked back down at his hand, the same mischief filled smile on his face as always.

“Yes, I suppose we can get to know each other better. Anyway, that’s what the regular fortune-teller would tell you. I however, am not your typical palmist. This-”

“No you are quite a bit more lovely than the normal teller if I may say,” he thought about it for a moment and nodded. “Yes indeed.”

“This line,” she continued, “tells me that you-”

“And I end up together, so it is destined by the fates, no?” he grinned a bit and pointed at the line. “I am no great talent when it comes to this, but doesn’t that line look quite a bit like one that says I am destined to end up with a beautiful young palm reader?”

“No, that’s that line,” Alia gestured to a separate one. “Back to this line, you-”

“Aw so you admit the fates say we are destined for one another, like two halves of a whole separate by the cruel fates that balance this world,” he shook his head and put his hand on hers. “Don’t you think moi cher, I would hate to test fate.”

“This line,” she said again with an air of exasperation, “tells me that you are an outrageous flirt and that I should charge you more for it.”

He moved his other hand and put it to his chin. “Are you sure it doesn’t say I am good looking and the kind of person people fall in love with easily?”

“Oh no,” she said easily, “that’s not in the hands.” Alia poked his cheek and gestured to the curve of his chin. “I can read that in the physiognomy of your face. But then I only read faces on Wednesdays, so you can feel free to disregard that.”

“But you still admit I am handsome,” he winked at her.

“I denied nothing-”

“Oooo!” Off to the side, a boy in a polo shirt was leaning over from the side of the booth, gently rubbing the cat’s back. The cat was rubbing back up against him, purring slightly. A moment later, the boy looked up at Alia. “Is she yours?”

“Yes indeed!” Alia beamed at the new arrival. “Are you here to have your palm read? It’s only two bucks for a single session.”

“Oh, is that what you do here?” He looked the booth over curiously, apparently really looking at it for the first time. “I just saw that you had a very nice-looking cat, and I wanted to say hello-oh, and you have a crow!” He grinned widely. “Nice! What are their names?”

“His name,” Alia stroked the bird, “is Amon. He keeps me honest. She’s Cassandra. And I only do palm-readings on Mondays. If you want, you can come back tomorrow to have Cassandra tell your future. Ailuromancy on Tuesdays.”

Vinny blinked as he reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, biting back a curse. “Speaking of the future and time itself, I must be away.” He moved his hand away from Alia’s and pulled out a business card with a heart on it along with his number, putting it on the desk. “I must be away, but I believe this gentleman here can take my place for today.” He quickly turned around and ran back to the school to deal with the text he had just gotten.

“Come back tomorrow! I haven’t finished your session!” Alia waved, and turned back to the newcomer. “So, what’s your name, goodsir?”

“My name is Calvin.” He considered for a moment, before reaching into his pocket and pulling a few bills out. “How about I sit for one of these readings, and you can tell me about how you got your pets?”

“Excellent, excellent,” Alia clapped her hands together. “Your hand, please. Hm, seems to me that you’re an animal lover. You have a cat, don’t you?”

“Three, actually. And Marzipan, but he’s a stray.”

“That’s nice, very nice. I only have Cassandra here; she helps me with my work, I pay her with milk and I take care of her. Hm, something tells me it’s more than just cats?”

Calvin smirked. “That would be an accurate guess, yes. Would you like a summary, or shall I go into detail?”

“I don’t guess!” Alia pouted. “It’s in the lines. Usually there’s not much about pets in the hands, but the fact that I’m reading something about them means that you deal with animals a lot. But sure, do tell, what else have you?”

“Well.” He started trying to lean back, but stopped before he accidentally pulled his hand away from Alia. “Let us see, I have already mentioned Marzipan, but the three cats that we officially have are Melanie, Jericho, and Cute. There’s Toggle and Punch, the dogs, and Asmodeus, the boa. Matthias is the rat, and he’s with Charcoal, Blizzard, and Fawn the mice. The two ferrets are Killian and Maurice, and while I would be remiss to not mention the fish, they don’t have names.” He flashed a grin. “So yes, I do deal with animals quite a bit.”

Unexpectedly, she frowned. “I think… I’m not sure, you really have a lot of pets but..” she ran a finger over several lines. “Is Jericho ill? You might want to get him to a vet.”

“Well, I suppose he could have developed something unexpectedly over the course of the day, but he seemed fine this morning.”

“Don’t worry, he’s not majorly ill,” Alia continued. “Just a little flu, I think. Don’t let the others catch the bug, alright? He’ll be alright. Uh, it’s honestly hard to read your fate with the presence of so many animals. Probably you’ll live to a ripe old age and as for your love life, you don’t have anyone right now, do you?”

“Oh, we do know how to take care of our animals rest assured. We would not have that many if we did not know we could take care of them. And no, I do not have anyone that I am seeing.”

“Don’t worry,” she said again, patting his hand reassuringly. “You’ll find someone soon. You’ve got the right face- no, no, sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about faces on Mondays. Uh, let me see, have I left anything out.. Oh, I’d usually talk about grades, lifespan and love, but since I’ve talked about your animals, I think that’s about it. Any advice you want?”

He leaned his head back, thinking. “Weelll….” He pulled it forward again. “How about whether to go with daisies or roses for a project?”

“Do you have a certain someone you like?” she probed.

“Oh, no, nothing like that at all! I have a science project that a friend and I are working on together, and we decided to use a flower as the plant for what we are going to do, but we have not yet decided which one to use and those two are what I am waffling between.”

“Roses.” Alia said immediately. “They’re brighter and make any room feel better; you’ll probably have a better grade for it. And for showing any genetic variation, well, red’s an easy colour compared to white.”

He smirked. “Oh, it is nothing quite as simple as breeding flowers, but I suppose you probably have no way of knowing what we are planning, unless you do of course.”

“Of course I don’t,” she said, unruffled. “Palms are for general long-term futures. I’d need something more specific, say cheese or animal behaviour. You know, I think it’d be interesting to try animal behaviour with you, using all your pets. It’d probably be a really accurate, albeit narrow read.”

“Well, they would all likely be biased for me, I would think.” He grinned. “Although I would think that some way of correcting for said bias would exist.”

“Maybe, maybe. What are you working on anyway?” she asked curiously.

“Weeelll, I probably should not be telling you about it, just to be on the safe side you know. We wouldn’t want anyone trying to copy us, buuut..” He gestured toward Amon and Cassandra. “I’ll tell you that if you tell me how you came by these two.”

“A trade! I love trades. Well, I had a dream, see, one night.” Alia tapped her chin, grinning. “I saw the weirdest thing: a bird perched on a cat, and the cat was trotting down an alley like it was just business as usual. Next day, I went out to buy some stuff, saw the same alley, walked in, and there they were, just like I saw. Déjà vu. Amon was standing on Cassandra, and then when they saw me, Cassandra ran away while Amon decided he preferred sitting on my shoulder. It took a couple of hours and a bunch of treats to get Cassandra to figure out that sticking with me was the better choice. They’ve stuck with me ever since. Your turn!”

“Let me see, where do I want to start…” He laced his fingers together, holding his chin in them. “Well, in essence it is a fairly simple concept - see how well plants grow when they are given different conditions to grow in. What makes it complicated, however, is that we are trying to create a general process for working out what kind of fertilizer, or more specifically what ratios for the various elements and materials that go into making fertilizer, would provide the greatest benefit for plants, and if that can be correlated to what kind of plant you are trying to grow.” He cracked a smile. “I suppose you could say we are trying to find a way to find a way to predict what exactly will make a specific plant grow.”

“Interesting, that’s very fascinating. Do tell me if you ever get an answer; I’ve got a few plants at home. But if you come tomorrow, we can see if Cassandra’s got any rough numbers for you,” she said brightly, rubbing the cat’s flanks. “It won’t be very precise, but Cassandra’s given me some pretty useful numbers before!”

Calvin stood up and stretched. “I may very well do so, it has been quite fun chatting with you. However…” His expression turned serious. “I do want to make certain that you are...well, this is not going to sound very nice if I put it like this, but that you have everything worked out for Cassandra and Amon, especially if they were strays that you adopted. They look in very good health as far as I can discern, but I am just double checking, you understand.”

Before Alia could reply, Amon hopped off her shoulder onto Calvin’s, then bopped his head against Calvin and squawked before returning to his perch on Alia’s shoulder. Uncontrollably, she giggled.

“You tell him, Amon,” she laughed. “I didn’t adopt them; they adopted me. But if you want to check, sure, any time. I’ll appreciate any advice you’ve got. I’m only a seer after all.”

Calvin grinned back, and reached out to stroke Amon a few times.“Oh, I do trust that you know what you are doing; I do not think that they would show you such loyalty if you did not, but I will see if I can dig up anything that could help you.” He started to turn away, before glancing over his shoulder.

“And now I have a reason to come back! Clever girl, you are!” With a chuckle, he waved good-bye. She shrugged in mock innocence, smiling widely and waving lazily back.

“I’ll be here most days. Have a good day ahead, and may good fortune guide your path!” Alia settled back into her chair comfortably, and pulled out a laptop while waiting for her next customer; it didn't hurt to do a little searching and know more about Vinny and Calvin before their next consultation.

[RussetDivinity]

The principal glanced up from the papers on his desk as Likovya stepped into his office and dropped her messenger bag on the floor. “You wanted to see me?” she asked, plopping into her favorite chair and leaning back.

“Yes,” he said, making a show of sorting through files. “I’ve been receiving some complaints about your conduct.”

“If it’s about the peanut butter thing, I swear I didn’t know Mrs. March was allergic --”

“It’s not that,” he said, and Likovya relaxed a little. Her stats teacher had made it to the hospital in time and would be fine; she had just been worried about bad feelings leftover.

“It’s not my grades, is it?” she asked. “Because I meant to turn in that paper, I really did --”

“Likovya?”

“Yes?”

“Please let me talk.”

She shrugged and settled back in the chair.

“I’ve been getting complaints from some of your fellow students. Namely, Marcus Rogers, Alexander Parker, and Travis Summers. They say you came up to them after school and threatened them with a weapon.”

Of course they had. Those three had had it out for her ever since she punched Travis for cutting in line in the cafeteria (though that had been off of school property, too). Of course, she had done a bit more than threatening, but that wasn’t something she was going to tell the principal. “Did they tell you they’ve been bullying freshmen?”

“That isn’t the reason I brought you here.”

“No, but I do think it’s something that ought to be addressed. Unless you don’t want to ruin their brilliant futures. Is that it?” Her voice rose as she spoke, and before the principal could respond she had shot out of her chair. “You’d rather go after me because I have so much less to lose.”

The principal blinked once. “Is this a bad day for you, Likovya?”

“No.” She dropped into the chair again. “I’m just running late for rehearsal is all.”

“I see. Well, since it is only their word against yours… I’ll look into the bullying and let you go with a warning. You’re a…” He hesitated, and she supposed he couldn’t bring himself to call her a good kid. “Just don’t make me call you back here. I’ll write a note so Mr. Wayne understands why you’re late.”

The principal handed her a piece of paper, which she pocketed before grabbing her bag and hurrying out.

“Tsk tsk tsk the schools number one acting star getting in trouble for tomfoolery, what is the world coming too these days?” Vinny leaned back against the lockers, looking at the girl as she exited the principal's office, smelling a prima rose in his hand and took a small sniff of it before offering it to her.

“Cut it out,” Likovya snapped, sidestepping the rose. “You and I both know I’m not good at following rules.” Number one acting star, though… if he wasn’t just trying to flatter her, that would make her day about ten times better.

He laughed and casually tossed the flower into a trash bin. “Awful shame about that kid with the drugs and loaded weapon in his car, but I think it will work out good in the long run” he walked next to her. “I mean you know he was captain of the football team, and now the entire team is being looked at for various things. Means less money will go to sporting events this year, more for the drama club if my sources aren’t wrong”

“It would be nice to get the seats replaced,” she admitted. Half the seats in the front three rows were stained or torn, and they might try to get a new spotlight, too. “So why were you hanging around his office, anyway? Did the ‘number one chem star’ get in trouble?”

“I am always in trouble cher, but would it be too much of a stretch to say I was simply waiting for you?” his smile slipped a bit as his face became serious. “Lets walk and talk, staying in one place makes me antsy”

She frowned. No one stood around waiting for her. “Fine, but make it fast. I’m already late, and we’re doing Act II today, which means I definitely have to be there.” Without waiting to see if he would follow, she turned and strode down the hall.

He followed after her, putting his hands into his pockets as he did so. “I understand wanting to ruin the lives of idiots and jerks, but if you are going to do it could you at least try and make sure they won’t go ratting on you?”

“I thought they’d be too scared or something,” she said. “Most people are.” At least, they had been in her last high school.

“This isn’t your average place” he shook his head and stepped a bit forward, turning around and walking backward while he talked. “You are pretty much the face of the acting club these days, you get expelled then it all goes to crap, and I don’t want that to happen”

She slowed a bit out of surprise. “I didn’t know you cared.”

He shook his head. “Despite my usual act I do give a shit about people, and honestly this entire school is like the place Satan sends people when Hell gets too crowded. So yeah I do tend to give half a crap… plus lots of cute girls in this years play” he gave her a wink and a smile.

Likovya rolled her eyes. “Only because Wayne had to genderbend Merriman. So you just want the drama department to be protected.” Granted, she did too, but there was something so satisfying about watching people’s sneers turn to hurried apologies. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

“Or just make a list and I will take care of it for you” he closed his eyes and turned back around, putting his hands behind the back of his head. “I enjoying removing the occasional tumor from this school”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m not much of one for outsourcing. I do my own dirty work.” She turned into the performing arts hall, where she heard Bethany leading the end of the warm-up. Good. She hadn’t missed too much. “Any final words before I vanish for hours on end?”

He thought about it. “A suggestion and a truth” he held up his hand. “Suggestion, more revealing costumes for the female actors,” he gave a wink to show he was just kidding before turning around. “And I wasn’t just messing around about you being one of the best actors in the school. You might be one of the few people to actually make something of yourself after this hell, so just be careful” he began to walk out of the room.

Only two people had said that to her that she could recall. Fitzroy, of course, but he was likely blinded by infatuation, and Mr. Weston had probably only said it to keep her from running off. Vinny didn’t have a reason to lie to her. “Wait,” she said, taking a step after him. “Thank you. I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”

He stopped for a moment before continuing forward, giving a wave. “You really should, I think you could reach a much higher male demographic with my suggestion”

She had just enough time to make a face before turning and hurrying into the auditorium to catch the last few minutes of the warm-up.

[Guyshane]

Marcus took several steps back as a fist was driven into his gut, momentarily knocking the wind out of the teen.

Well, this guy is better than I thought he was going to be. Marcus thought as he fell back into his stance and watched the other fighter cautiously. The other guy looked to be a few years older and a little bit smaller than Marcus, the trade off to that was that he had great speed, as the teen had just learned first hand.

As his enemy charged Marcus stepped forward and threw a right hook. The other fighter blocked but left himself open to several jabs thrown by the senior. The opponent tried to counter with a punch but Marcus caught his arm and used it as a lever to take his balance, subsequently slamming the smaller man into some nearby planks. As the other fighter leaned against the wall dazed, Marcus finished him with an uppercut. Victorious, the highschooler walked back to the section of the crowd that had been betting on him.

A young man stood scowling by the sidelines, one hand gripping a girl’s shoulder. “You cheated,” he accused, tightening his grip. The girl, silent up to this point, winced audibly.

Marcus stopped drinking from the bottle of water he was holding so he could look skeptically at the man. “Really? Tell me what part was cheating? The part where I kicked his ass? or the part where I kicked his ass?” he asked cockily.

“The part where you knocked my fighter out,” he growled. “How’m I supposed to make my money back?”

“Well I’m sorry about that,” the boy replied, in a tone that only the insincere use. “But knockouts are the quickest way to win the fight. Its a reality that everyone who bets has to deal with. Besides dragging out fights accomplishes nothing but making it harder to get back to full strength before the next meet.”

Snorting, the man looked him up and down appraisingly. “You want to come work for me? I’ll treat you right. You’ll even get eighty percent of the cut.”

“That would depend.”

“On?” Charlie pulled out a cigarette, only releasing the redheaded girl for as long as it took to light it.

“Several factors.”

“Being?” A puff of smoke filtered up into the ceiling.

“Legality, pay rate, vacation days, how much of a slimeball you are.” Marcus shrugged. “You know, basic stuff.”

The man glared at him, and snarled, “You’re havin’ me on.”

“I know I’m not supposed apply grammar rules to everyday speech but you annoy me so much that I’m going to do it anyway.” The highschooler leaned just a bit forward and cupped a hand around his ear. “I’m sorry what did you say.”

“What. The hell. Do you want?”

“Stop bothering me with this nonsense and just pay the people you lost money to so we can get on with the night.” This was met by murmurs of agreement from those who had bet on Marcus and grumbles of concession from those who had bet against him. It may have been an illicit activity but there were still standards.

Well at least when it came to the gambling anyway. Having paid everyone else in cash and small, clear plastic bags, the man turned to Marcus, smirk curling his lip as he pushed the girl forward, causing her to stumble. “Here, you have have her. Keep her working for me, eh? She has a fight tomorrow.”

Oh wonderful. Marcus grabbed the girl before she fell and pulled her along whispering in her ear as he did. “Don’t worry I’m not gonna hurt you or anything, just stick with me for a bit and I’ll keep you away from the jackass for a while. Okay?”

The girl nodded, trembling as she bit her lip.

Marcus loosened his hold and brought them both to a stop where his friend Rachel was waiting for him. “Okay Ray, how much did I make off the last fight?”

“Ninety-five.”

The senior blinked in confusion. “I thought you said we could make one-fifty minimum off that fight?”

She shrugged. “Sorry Mark but one guy would only make a bet if you won in the first two minutes and Jenkins is still only gonna pay if you get a one-hit.”

Marcus sighed. “Dammit Jenkins,” he muttered under his breathe. He took the money and shoved it in his pocket before motioning the other girl forward. “Ray, meet our new friend…” He paused and looked questioningly at the small girl.

She glared back, crossing her arms. “‘m Anjali. ‘n you?”

“Marcus” he said, gesturing to himself. “And Rachel or Ray.” he motioned to the other girl. “Rachel I don’t know who this Charlie guy who owns the place is but he let her boss in. And her boss is a total dirtbag.”

“‘e’s Charlie,” Anjali spoke up, glancing over warily.

Marcus’ eyes widened in understanding. “Oooooh…..” he said softly.

Rachel glared at Marcus. “Were you off insulting people while I was gathering the winnings? Again?”

“What? No...I wouldn’t call it insulting.” he replied, holding up his hands in a defensive gesture. He looked over at Anjail. “Would you call it insulting?”

Anji looked up at him, shaking her head. “Not at all, sir.”

“Dammit, I’m not ‘sir’ just because your boss is a sleaze who uses people as betting chips doesn’t make me sir.” Marcus took a breath to calm himself. “Look, point is that a lot of smack talk goes on at these meets. I’m sure he won’t be permanently insulted and maybe we should just stay away from this particular location in the future since this clearly breaking more laws than we’re used to breaking.”

Anji bit her lip, glancing over at the man with the cigarette. “What about me?”

Marcus looked back down at her. “Do you want me to beat up the slimeball? I’m pretty sure I can get him to fight me if I put some effort to it. And I’d be more than happy to.”

“N-no, he doesn’t mean anything by it.” Anji defended the man, arms crossed. “Just… doesn’t know his limits, sometimes.”

Marcus looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Sometimes? Or all the time?”

Anji rubbed her arm, wincing. “He tries. I know he does.”

The boy just looked at her sadly. “There is no try, only do and do not.” He replied with muppety wisdom.

Rachel punched him in the arm. “Star Wars won’t make her feel better Marcus.”

Anji looked between the two of them warily, hesitant to speak up.

“The advice is appropriate for this occasion Rachel.” He replied glaring and rubbing his arm. “What do you think Anj? Yoda helping you out at all?

“Er… Yoda?”

“I die a little inside each time I realize someone has made to your age without watching Star Wars.”

“Yeah well, I have better things to do than watch a dumb movie.” Anji retorted, rising up to her full height.

Marcus gasped and leaned into Rachel. “She just called Star Wars dumb.”

“Not everyone is as obsessed as you are.”

“Sith traitor.”

As Charlie walked towards them, Anji’s eyes widened, and she slid closer to Marcus, grabbing his arm and hugging it close to herself.

Marcus eyed the approaching man warily. “Oh, hell. If it isn’t one thing its another.” He stepped forward to square up only to realize the extra weight on one arm. “Anj, I have an inkling that I’ll need that arm back.”

Glancing between them, Anji shook her head, and grabbed Marcus’s other hand, tugging him down. Leaning close to him, she whispered, “Act natural,” before hiding her face in his shoulder, her hands reaching up to play with his hair.

Smirking, Charlie passed by them, grabbing a beer before returning to his side of the room to watch the next fight.

“Well that worked.” he whispered in her ear. “Hold on a few things we need to do to keep up appearances. Then he kissed her quickly before moving up and away and kissing Rachel.

“There,” Marcus said nodding. “Now we should be good.”

Then Rachel slapped him.

Marcus shook his head to recover. “Okay, to be fair I probably deserved that. You okay Anj, or do you want to slap me too?”

Anji shook her head, glancing across the room. “I’m good.”

“Wonderful. Ray, how long ‘til my next fight.”

“Another round.”

“Okay, Anj. Stick close to Rachel while I’m fighting she’s only a musician but anyone who was there for the guitar incident won’t mess with her.”

Anji nodded, shrugging deeper into her coat. “Whatever you say, boss.”

He grinned. “You keep up with all that I’m gonna start calling you minion.”

Anji looked over at Rachel, sighing. “He always like this?”

“Arrogant to the point you wonder how his head fits inside of buildings?” She replied pinching the bridge of her nose. “Yes, sadly that is the case.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence Ray.” Marcus replied sarcastically.

“Look, I honestly wouldn’t mind getting out of here,” Anji pointed out. “He’s drinkin’ too much tonight. I don’t want to be around when he crashes.”

“Well give me one more fight, this is for higher education after all.”

Anji nodded, reaching over to grab a drink for herself.

“Marcus!” Someone called out from the front of the crowd. “You’re on, get up here”

“On my way,” he yelled back. “Okay so,” He snatched Anji drink and took a brief draught before handing it back to her. “Anj, stick with Ray. Ray, you think we can actually make one fifty this time?”

“I guarantee nothing.”

“Wonderful. Okay after this fight,we’ll all head out, grab some dinner, maybe all get to be friends,” he said as he looked at Anji. “And then I can head home and study for my test on Monday.” Then he turned and headed for the ring.

His opponent was stockily built, a full head shorter than him.

Marcus stepped forward and assumed his fighting stance as the organizer stepped into the ring. “Alright, same rules as always. No weapons, no gouging. First to unconscious or tap out loses. Ready, Go!”

Tucking his head low, the other man charged Marcus, right fist flying up for a quick jab. The rest of his body turned low, hiding away from him.

Marcus leaned back and allowed himself to fall, kicking his leg out and hoping to catch the other man in the jaw.

The dark-haired fighter leapt back, snarling for a moment before diving close to Marcus, trying for a quick knockout.

The boy grinned nastily as he stayed where he was and kicked forward with both feet directly toward the other fighter’s face.

One clipped the boy’s face, and he fell back, a hand clutching his jaw.

Marcus rolled backwards onto his feet. “I missed? Damn, I must be off my game tonight. And it must be me because you certainly aren’t that good. I mean look at you, like really look at you. What I’m saying is...you’re ugly, and an idiot.”

In the crowd Rachel leaned over to Anji. “Marcus missed his calling as an insult comedian.”

“Tries to get himself killed, more like,” Anji grumbled.

“Not at all. He gets people angry. And quite irritatingly he is right when he says angry people fight stupid.”

Marcus spread his arms out wide and walked towards his opponent slowly. “But none of that matters. Come, we can be friends.”

Rolling his eyes, the fighter stood, shoving Marcus roughly as he walked away.

“Well, you can’t say I didn’t offer. Asshole.”

“Good job pissin’ off Shane.” Anji smirked. “Better not walk down any dark alleys for a while.”

Rachel made a distressed sound in the back of her throat. “I have to go through dark alleys to get to most of my gigs. I don’t want to make the guitar incident a weekly thing.”

Marcus meanwhile was staring at his enemy. “Well? We just gonna stand here all night?”

Anjali shrugged, “‘m yours for the night. Lead the way.”

Marcus shrugged. “Rachel go collect the bets. Then we’ll go grab some food. Anj, hamburgers sound good?”

The girl nodded, and offered him a smoke. “Want one?”
“No thanks, Dad is a doctor. I know exactly what those things do to your lungs.”

Rachel returned. “None of us ate for a week after that lecture”

Marcus rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. It was more like a day.”

Anji shrugged, “Your loss.”

Both of them gagged. “Let’s just go,” Marcus offered diplomatically. “There is a great place about five blocks over”

[JackAlsworth]

Eleven thirty-seven and fourteen seconds. Jenny flipped the page in her biology textbook. Lunch was one of the few peaceful times of the school day. It was when she could get some actual work done.

Normally.

“Hey, Hunter!”

She tried to pretend the call wasn’t directed at her, keeping her gaze fastened on the words in front of her.

“C’mon, not even a hello? How’s that for politeness?” the voice drawled. A couple of unfriendly chuckles echoed him.

She sighed. “Leave me alone.”

She liked to sit alone during lunch. Interruptions were very unpleasant. Unfortunately, sitting alone apparently made her more of a target.

She felt someone sit down roughly across from her. She looked up. Alexander Parker, senior, ran through her mind. Future prospects: remote.

“Listen, Jen - can I call you Jen?” Alexander said smoothly, then continued without waiting for an answer. “This would be a lot easier if you just went ahead and helped us when we asked. That’s what friends do, right?”

Jenny looked down at her book again. “We’re not friends,” she mumbled.

Alexander leaned in. “Sorry? Didn’t catch that, Jen, speak up. We all like to hear the wonderful sound of your voice, don’t we, guys?”

Jenny wasn’t looking, but she visualized Alexander smirking, and his friends nodding unpleasantly. “Leave me alone,” she repeated.

“Now, now,” said Alexander, shaking his head, as if to a misbehaving child, “that’s not too friendly, is it? And you already know what you are if you’re not my friend, don’t you?”

Someone gripped her shoulder. She looked up. Travis Summers, senior. Physical strength: currently insurmountable.

“You’re my enemy, aren’t you?” said Alexander quietly.

Jenny jerked away from Travis, but his grip was too strong. “Please stop,” she said, still avoiding meeting their eyes.

“C’mon, Jen, be a sport, we can settle this without any - ”

“Oh, goddamnit, you boys are going to make me miss rehearsal again, aren’t you?” A dark-haired girl set down her tray on the table and leaned forward, grinning. “I mean, it’s not like Wayne’s going to recast -- we all know that -- but the principal might keep me after again, and I don’t think any of us want that. Especially not if I tell him you were bullying a kid. I’m surprised you weren’t suspended after I brought up those freshmen I defended you from.”

The two seniors flinched a little, and the girl’s grin widened.

“So you do remember. I was afraid I’d have to teach you all over again that it’s not nice to be mean to people. I still may.” She looked over at Jenny. “Another freshman, right? Just can’t bring yourselves to go after people who can fight back. What a shame.”

Jenny glanced up from her book at Alex, whose face had structured itself into a similar expression to the one she had seen her father make when he smelled spoiled milk. “We weren’t bullying her,” he said with exaggerated patience. “We were having a friendly conversation, is all. She offered to help us with our science work earlier, and I was just asking how it was going, that’s all.”

“And she asked you to stop. Isn’t that right?” The girl turned to Jenny. “Do you want me to handle this? I’ve dealt with them before. After… oh, what was her name… Aria Carp. Do you know her? Freshman, plays clarinet, cute in a geeky sort of way.”

Jenny had frozen, partly out of shock and partly out of fear. Who was this girl? It’s not like Wayne’s going to recast... Wayne was the theatre director… so she was in the upcoming drama production…

Alexander’s voice cut into her thoughts. “We were doing just fine before you showed up, you little bitch,” he said, teeth grinding almost audibly. “Now, if you’d kindly walk away before - ”

The girl lunged across the table, nearly upsetting her tray. “You should be very glad the security officers here don’t give a damn,” she said. “Now, you’re going to let the girl talk, or I’ll give you a pretty scar this afternoon. Is that clear?” As though nothing had happened, she turned and smiled at Jenny. “They were bothering you, right? I find it hard to believe these pitiful excuses for men would actually speak civilly to a girl.”

Somehow, Jenny found her voice. “I… I just want to read my book,” she squeaked.

“You see?” The girl turned back to the seniors. “She just wants to be left alone. Now, unless you want to have a little talk with me after school, I’d suggest you move along. I get very angry when I have to miss rehearsal, especially since we’re coming up on Hell Week.” Her voice lowered dangerously. “You don’t want to make me miss Hell Week.”

For a moment, Jenny thought Alexander would upset the table. She watched his fists clench and unclench. Then, he stood up. “Fine,” he said. “Let’s go, guys. Get us some food somewhere with a more pleasant aroma.”

Travis let go and stood up as well. Jenny hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath, and exhaled quickly before turning back to her book. When she looked up next, the girl and her tray were gone.

Eleven forty-six and thirty-three seconds. She sighed again. She needed to finish this section before lunch ended.

* * * *

When the end-of-lunch bell rang, she packed up the textbook and set off toward her next class. She hadn’t made it halfway down the hall before the girl from before appeared next to her.

“I’ve got English soon, so I’ll make this quick,” the girl said. “My name’s Likovya Kerensky, and like I said, I’ve dealt with those three before. Looks like they’re not scared enough of me to stop bullying freshman kids, so I’ll have to make this one sound personal. What’s your name, and how many fingers do you want me to bring back?”

“I’m Jenny,” Jenny said, and then she stopped walking abruptly. “F-fingers?” she asked, unsure if she had heard correctly.

“A joke,” Likovya said quickly. “Unless you want fingers. But really, I want those guys to know exactly why they’re getting sliced up this time. I’ll make sure they don’t take it out on you later. Would you rather I not tell, though, just in case?”

Jenny stared at the other girl. “You go… looking for fights?”

“I beat up people who need beating up. Like those two. I’m like Batman, except less rich and without women throwing themselves at my feet. And apparently I’ve got a crime-fighting friend. He can be Superman, I guess. His name’s Vinny, so if you need help and can’t find me, just look for the guy covered in flowers. He’s weird but good, I think.” Likovya blinked. “Sorry. Large lunches make me a bit chatty. Probably why I’m pretty off-topic unless we’re talking about plays in class. Anyway. If you need something, find one of us. We’ll handle it.”

Jenny nodded, mentally filing away, Likovya Kerensky, junior. Actress. Possibly insane. “Thanks,” she mumbled, setting off for class again.

“No problem,” Likovya called after her.

[Tohrinha]

Moira was about to keep strolling past the lab when she saw movement through the window in the door. Curious, she tried to see past the various cracks and mysterious stains that covered the glass, but could only make out a figure. She shrugged, glanced up the hallway to make sure no one was looking, and walked in.

Vinny smiled as he rushed between three different tables, each with chemistry equipment set up on them. “Okay thats cooking just right, need that one heated up more… was this mustard gas in liquid form or Pepsi I made a funny color?” he poked one of the beakers and frowned at it. “Hm… is it really worth risking it?”

He didn’t seem to have noticed her come in. Moira considered cutting through the storeroom to the back exit, but she didn’t feel like wandering the neighborhood again. And this seemed more interesting than whatever class she was supposed to be in at the moment. She went over to one of the tables and picked up a flask, gently swirling the grainy liquid inside.

Vinny turned around and looked at the girl who had just picked up the flask, quickly grabbing it away from her. “Don’t touch that!” he began to breath hard as the liquid changed color. “Crap crap crap” he continued to shake it and pointed at a beaker filled with orange liquid. “Grab that and pour it in, now!”

Grinning, Moira snatched up the beaker. She slowed as she neared the other substance, careful not to spill the liquid. This was more fun, she thought as she tipped it into the flask.

The liquid changed to a royal purple color, and Vinny finally put it down after putting a hand to his heart. “Oh...oh thank god...thank every god…” he turned off the various burners and pulled off the labcoat and goggles he had been wearing, coughing into his hand. “Well um…” he pulled out a daisy from his coat pocket and offered it to the girl, quickly throwing back on his usual personality. “How can I serve you beautiful?”

Bemused, Moira took the flower. “...Thank you?” she said, not unpleased.

“Pleasure” he blinked as he realized for once someone had actually taken one of his flowers that didn’t seem like they had the usual IQ of girls he ended up with. That was certainly a plus. “So are you interested in being part of the chemistry club?”

“A club for doing things like this?” She gestured to the various tables with the daisy, eyes going wide with surprise. Hesitating only a moment, she laughed. “Who wouldn’t want to?”

“Uh” he looked around the empty classroom. “I am fairly sure the surroundings answer that question for you moi cher”

“Oh.” Moira followed his gaze, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. “Well, maybe they’d be here if you did it after school?”

“Oh but then I would need to pay off the janitors too, and I am not made of money” he shrugged and began to pour the collective chemicals together into a large beaker, heating it up over a large burner and turning back. “So is there a name to go with your beautiful face or should I just call you angel?”

“Moira,” she said, walking over to watch him. She passed an idle finger through the burner’s flame a few times. “You’re…?”

“Vinny, Vance, the V-man, but seriously just call me Vinny all those other names are crap” he smirked a bit, pleased as ever by his humor which in his opinion was flawless. “So you are interested in chemistry?”

She blinked at the list of names, then turned away, smirking. “Yeah, I guess.” She turned back to him. “You teach yourself, or did you find a teacher that actually knows something?”

“My first memories where of playing with a science kit, so yeah I pretty much taught myself” he put a lid on the liquid from before and began to shake it up. “And there we have napalm”

Moira’s eyes lit up. “You made that?” she asked incredulously, looking between him and the container. She smiled slightly. “Can we test it?”

“Person or object?” he asked as he began to pour bits of the liquid mixture into small containers. Always better to have small weapons then a big one in his opinion. Never knew when you were going to need napalm.

“...Object,” she said, looking at him uncertainly. “I don’t purposely set people on fire.”

“Well I mean there is a difference between purpose and accident… I mean one can look like the other all the time so you know?” he grinned and pulled out a rose, pouring some of the mixture and watching as it interacted with the rose, setting it on fire. “Just like the passion in my heart” he said before dropping it into the sink.

Moira watched it burn with an eager expression on her face. The light made her eyes glint, before she seemed to remember where she was and looked up, smiling. “Think you could teach me how to do that?”

A dark grin came to his face. “Oh moi cher, I can teach you all that and more” he began to grab some chemicals and some clean glassware. “Want to learn to make a mixture that freezes most things instantly?”

“You have to ask?” She slid off the counter she’d hoisted herself onto to get a better look, grin mirroring Vinny’s. “Where do we start?”

“Well grab that and start mixing it with that…” he began to point out the various steps, not bothering with his usual routine while there was science to be done. Guy had to have his priorities after all.

[Krika]

Likovya had seen the booth by the football field a few times, but most of those she had been a bit too busy to go up to it. Today, though, there weren’t any players out and she didn’t have class for another thirty minutes (at least, she thought she didn’t), so she wandered over and looked at the girl sitting behind it beside a bird and a cat. “Hi.”

"Hello!" The girl said brightly, stowing away a laptop and steepling her fingers. "You're Likovya, yes? I've been waiting for you."

“Have you?” The girl looked a little familiar, but Likovya wasn’t sure how she knew her name. “Why?” People seemed to be waiting for her quite a lot lately, and she wasn’t sure how well she liked it.

"Well," she winked, "if I told you, I'd have to charge you. But I'll tell you for free. I've been waiting for you because I'd like to read your future. Would you like to have your future told? It's only two dollars for a single session!"

“Sure. Why not?” Likovya pulled two dollar bills from her pocket. It would be a good bit of fun if nothing else.

"My name's Alia, by the way," she said absentmindedly, pulling out a deck of cards and spreading them out face-down, gesturing to her cat. "Come on, Cassasdra, do your thing."

The cat eyed Alia grumpily, then trotted forward onto the cards. As soon as the feline's paws were each on a card, Alia shooed the cat away and pulled out the four cards.

"Oh, look, that's a nice spread you have. The Fool, inversed Death, the Magician and the World. You know what this reminds me of? 'All the world's a stage'. I take it you're an actor?"

“Yeah. I’m Cecily in this term’s play.” It wouldn’t have taken a lot to know that. She had been chattering about it since she was cast.

"Wonderful, wonderful. There's a lot of vitality in this set, you know. I think you'll have a great time acting. Inversed Death tells me you got away with something recently?"

“I suppose.” The principal’s office might have been a near miss, given how she tended to rub the wrong way with authority. “I doubt it would have been enough to count as Death, though.” But if he had decided to kick her own, then she would have had to explain to Mr. Weston why she wasn’t going to school anymore and might even have had to stop working in his theatre… “Well, maybe.”

Alia gave her a knowing smile and nodded. "As you say, as you say. It's not part of my business to probe, but word of advice, try to be more subtle when doing viol- I mean, just be a bit more discreet. You have most things in hand, I think."

“People keep telling me that,” Likovya said with a smile. “I’ll be careful.”

"Right. Yes. Uh, let me see, hm, Tarot cards aren't very specific, but Cassandra's being nice and docile, so your future ought to be rather smooth-sailing, at least for a day or two. Got anything you want to ask in particular?"

“Not terribly. Um… oh, my boyfriend’s a poli-sci major. Should I tell him to keep at it or go into theatre with me?” Fitzroy couldn’t seem to decide whether he wanted to be a politician or an actor, but she was determined to play Lady M for him and do everything she could to encourage him.

"Theatre, if you want a spicier relationship. Don't push him too quickly though; you're a forceful person as far as I can tell, and it might be a bit much if you don't take care. No offense, of course."

“I’ll keep that in mind. Is that everything?”

"Yes, more or less. It's been a real pleasure-" She was interrupted as Cassandra leaped off the table to rub against the leg of Calvin, who had just appeared from around the back of the booth, carrying a bag over one shoulder.

“Oh, I am sorry, did I interrupt another one of your little sessions?”

"Hello Calvin!" Alia smiled warmly, then turned back to Likovya. "Well, looks like your immediate future will be a bit calm for a day, then suddenly burst into action. Cat's truth."

“Well, thanks for the advance warning. See you around.”

"Come back soon! I also read palms, faces, tea leaves, crystal balls and I do personal horoscopes on demand. If my predictions pan out, you can recommend me to your fellow actors. I do so love reading actors' futures. Oh, may I have your number, Likovya? Here's mine."

Likovya scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and passed it across the booth. “I don’t always have my phone, but I’ll try to at least have it on.” As she stepped away, she nodded and smiled at Calvin. “Hi.”

He nodded and grinned back. “And hello to you as well. I suppose that you know my name now, so for the sake of symmetry, what is yours? You look a tad familiar, but I can not quite place it.”

“Likovya,” she said. She likely hadn’t met him; she would remember someone so loquacious. “You probably saw me on stage. I was Mimi in Rent last year.” She still couldn’t believe Wayne had gotten away with having them show that, though it was likely why they had to do Restoration plays this year. “You’ll come to see The Importance of Being Earnest, right? In two weeks, I’m playing Cecily, it’s going to be great.” She had to shamelessly plug it at least once a day, or the other actors might think she wasn’t as excited as she normally was.

“Oh, that would most likely be how I saw you yes, I have seen several plays here, although not all I should say, so I would have seen you there. And I see no reason why I would not be able to see your production, it looks like an interesting play.”

“Glad to hear it.” With a smile and a wave to both, she set off across the field. There might even be a little time to get some work done on her essay before class. As she left, Calvin plopped down into the chair, his bag dropping to lean against the chair.

“So, before we get into pleasure, let me get business out of the way first, alright?” He reached down into his bag, and pulled some pamphlets and sheets of paper. “While I figured that you would have the basics of taking care of Amon and Cassandra down, I just threw in some introductory things just to cover everything, in addition to some more in-depth things, as well as a few recommendations for both books, and the address of a good vet.” He shuffled the papers and pamphlets so that they were relatively neatly stacked, and offered them to Alia. “If you have not done so, I would recommend a vet check just to be on the safe side, as strays can pick up all sorts of issues that are not apparent.”

Alia took the papers, blinking, a little lost. "Uh.. yeah. Sure. I did that early on. Um. That's a lot of material. Uh. Thanks."

He waved his hand a little. “It is fine, I just wanted to make sure there was not anything missing in them. Like I said, if you did not have at least some idea of what you were doing, they would not be in such fine condition.” He gave Cassandra a few rubs on the top of her head.

"I appreciate it. I just wasn't expecting so much. So, you mentioned pleasure after business..?"

“Well, you did say that you wanted to do some sort of fortune-thing with Cassandra, unless I am gravely mistaken in my memory, which I am not for a general rule. And here I am, so why should I not see how this turns out?” He pulled two bills from his pocket, and offered them to her with a smile.

Alia bowed slightly in thanks, but only took one of the bills. "It's a little crass of me to charge you the full cost since you've given me all this. Right, you wanted numbers, yes?" She pulled another set of cards though these were only a set of twenty. "Come on, Cassasdra," she gestured to the cat, who promptly trampled over the cards. "Here, we've got four, four, two and one. Maybe that's a tentative ratio?"

“Perhaps without one of the fours it would be quite an even pattern, but with a second four that is not as much of a thing, at least from a mathematical standpoint.”

"Hey, I skip all my Maths class." Alia said. "But I don't know what those numbers are supposed to mean. I don't exactly have much to go on," she spread her hands deprecatingly. "Any idea?"

“Hey, I was under the impression that you were the one supposed to be doing the interpreting here, not me!” He glared at her in mock annoyance, a look that was ruined by the grin on his face.

"It's not my project!" She pouted. "How's this, what nutrients are you using? Ammonia, nitrogen?"

“Well, I doubt it is pointing in the direction of the project I am working on, as we are using quite a few more elements than four in our fertilizer.” He leaned back, looking at the numbers thoughtfully. “Perhaps this particular set was something of a dud?”

"I don't mind doing another set, if you want." Alia shuffled the deck with the ease of long practice and spread them out again. This time, Cassasdra didn't even need to be prompted. This time, two nines, a six, and a one were revealed. "Any revelations?"

Calvin frowned for a moment, before rearranging the cards to form the number 1996. “Well, that would be my birth year, which at least for me is quite significant.”

"That's not bad, I suppose. Here, another round." This time the numbers were two threes, a one, and a seven. Calvin looked at them, frowning. “Well, I can say that I do recognize a pattern, but I would rather not say what, as they are a rather...sensitive set.”

"Uhm. Alright. Want another set? Or.." Alia wasn't sure how to react to his discomfort.

Calvin flashed her a grin. “Do not worry, it is no reason of yours, it simply coincides with something that I would rather not have be known to be coinciding with it. One last go?”

"Sure! This is strangely fascinating." As the numbers were flipped again, the revealed a one, a two, a three, and a four. "Well." Alia broke out into a laugh, joined by Calvin. "I suppose Cassandra's tired by now and she's making her displeasure known." Alia petted the feline affectionately.

Calvin suddenly leaned to the side, digging through his bag. “Well, in that case…” A moment later he came back up with a few small items in his hand. “I brought some treats for your two friends!” He offered Cassandra some small non-descript treats, while Amon was offered some cherries.

The two creatures nibbled on their respective foods without, obviously, a word of thanks, so Alia said it for them.

"I'm grateful, as I'm sure they are," Alia smiled. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Calvin rolled his eyes with a grin. “And then read the tea leaves?”

"Hah! No, that's for Thursdays," she snickered. "Here, have a cup," Alia pulled a cup already containing tea leaves and saucer from under the table, filled it with hot water and stirred idly.

“And yet you have that at the ready, although I suppose that I could not fault you for being prepared.” He accepted the cup, blowing on top of it to cool it off. “I am afraid I am a bit blunt, but I do feel like your services and what-not have been worth full price, instead of the smaller one you took. I mean,” he gestured to the cup. “tea, and all.”

"Oh, no," she said pleasantly, "you see, I foresaw that someone I'd like talking to would come today, hence the tea. It's on the house."

Calvin took a sip, eyes grinning over his cup. “Foresaw, hmm? And you did not prepare a cup for yourself as well? It hardly feel correct to be the only one drinking here.”

"If you insist, sir gentleman," Alia pulled out a second cup, already steaming fragrantly.

Calving chuckled. “And you were just going to leave that there to stop being hot? What if I stayed a while and it got cold?”

"I knew a gentlemanly guy like you wouldn't let that happen," she smirked, sipping. "How do you like it? My personal brew."

“I think it is good, although I would preface that statement by saying that pretty much all tea tastes the same to me, so I would not be able to distinguish any subtleties in the flavor that I am told exist.” He took another sip. “I still think it is good, I am simply no tea aficionado.”

"No worries. Just a, um, disclaimer, any dreams you might have tonight are not the result of this tea. Though if you have any fascinating dreams, please, do tell."

Calvin had paused with the teacup halfway to his mouth, and was staring at suspiciously. “Would you mind giving me perhaps a bit of a rundown of what goes into here? Accidentally ingesting possible-drugs were not precisely on my list of things to do today.”

Alia mumbled something incomprehensible, ears flushing red, and began taking the paraphernalia down from the top of the booth. "Uh, well, anyway- get down from there, Mishra-" A bat fell headfirst onto Cassandra, who mewled in protest and lightly held the bat in-between her teeth. "Point is, your health is fine, I drink the stuff every day."

Calvin, on the other hand, had been very distracted by the sudden appearance of the bat, looking at it worriedly. “Please, please tell me you do not have a pet bat?”

"Um... I'm sorry, it's against my morals to lie." Alia averted her eyes abashedly.

He leaned forward with a groan, holding his head in his hands. “First of all,” he started, speaking through his hands. “I do not even know if bats are even legal to keep as pets, and if they are I would guess at quite a bit of paperwork being necessary. Secondly, while I know little about keeping them as pets, I do know that they need to have a large amount of space to fly around in, and judging by the fact that I have only heard of one zoo that has them, though I am sure there are more than I simply have not heard of, they are likely not the easiest pets to take care of.” He sat back up, giving Alia a flat stare. “Cassandra and to a lesser extent Amon are both relatively easy to take care of, but…” he broke off with a sigh. “You get what I am trying to say, yes?”

"Yes..." Alia looked to the sides. "He flies about wherever he wants at night so that's not a problem. And about legality... about that... ah.. whatever gave you the idea that this," she gestured at the booth vaguely, "was legal?"

“Considering that you are doing it on school property, I figured that at the very least you would be facing the school being angry at you, but that is not of particular interest to me. You keeping a pet that it is entirely possible that you do not know how to take care of properly, however, is.” He stood up, staring at the sky for a long moment before looking back at Alia. “You know that I like animals, and I am not going to let someone allow a pet to come to any sort of harm because they just wanted a cool pet, or they found it in the street, and ooo, we do not have to worry about much because it will be easy to take care of, and then they either do not have what it takes, or they simply do not have what it takes to take care of a pet, or they treat it wrongly…” he trailed off, voice dropping back down from the louder tone it had been working it’s way up to.

He took a moment, calming himself down before continuing. “Look, I think you are a nice person. But if a bat is as high-maintenance a pet as I think it might be, I am just not sure if you could do it, no offense meant against you.”

Alia absorbed his tirade silently and stood. "I understand, Calvin, but trust me; Mishra takes care of himself. He's not really my pet, only in that he stays around me. Most of the time he's with me, he's sleeping. Rest of the time, he's out flying and what-not. All I've ever had to do is groom him and clean up his crap; he gets his own food."

Calvin sighed again. “Look, I will see how legal bats are as pets, and try and dig up pertinent information. For all you know, Mishra could have a half-dozen diseases, and that could cause all sorts of complications.” He closed his eyes and took another deep breath, letting it out slowly before opening his eyes again.

“I am sorry for going off on you like that, I am sure you have the best intentions, but I have volunteered at an animal shelter on and off for a few years, and cases where owners try to have quote-exotic-unquote pets that then proceed to be neglected or hurt because their owners have no idea what they are getting into...it is an understandable anger, I think.”

"If it sets your mind a little at ease, Mishra's hung around me for a couple of years. If he's had complications, I would have seen it before. I'll bring him to a vet if you want, though I don't know how I'm going to fake out a license.."

He offered her a smile. “I will see what I can find out about that, and maybe dig up some information on what common issues are. If he has stuck with you this long, he is probably at least somewhat domesticated, so releasing him back into the wild would be a bad idea.”

Standing up, he slung his bag over his shoulder. “Still, I have various things I should probably go do, and this has taken up more of my time than I expected it to do, not that it was an unenjoyable way to spend time.” He offered her a hand. “Friends?”

She took his hand, smiling. "Friends." With a wave, he walked off, headed toward the main school building. Alia exhaled contentedly, and continued packing up the booth. It wouldn't do to be caught by teachers.

[agoraoptera]

Marcus figured he had one of the strangest lives out of anyone at the school.

I mean most of the time its pretty standard aside from the fights but this? Look at this. The this he was referring to was both the stall and the young girl who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He had been reading over his assignment for an honor class when he had heard a sound, looking up he saw nothing so he just went back to work. Then he heard it again and when the senior looked, there was the booth.

“So…..um, what is going on?” he asked the girl sitting in the stall.

“Hi!” Her smile was positively dazzling as she stroked a big sleeping cat. The bird perched on her shoulder eyeing Marcus beadily was just the icing on a very strange cake. “Would you like to have your fortune told?”

“You have your raven to eye ratio wrong there kid.”

“Amon’s a crow, so I’m fine. C’mon, be a sport, it’s only two bucks for a single session! It’ll be worth your while, I promise,” she leaned forward, eyes twinkling.

This whole situation sounds oddly familiar...did Anji saying something about a younger sister who read fortunes? “Um, would you happen to know Anj by any chance?”

The girl blanched and made a face, then sighed with an expression of long-suffering. “What ill name has my dearest darling sister attached to my most estimable work now?”

“Not much really. She really only mentioned you in passing between bites and mentioned something about Tarot cards? She failed to mention the miraculous appearing booth though.”

She giggled at that. “That’s good, that’s good. Bites, you say?” She propped both elbows on the table. “Tell you what, let’s make a trade. You tell me more about my sister and you, and I give you one session free.”

Marcus shrugged. “If you like, but I don’t think there will be as much to tell as you think there is. Do you want to start or should I?”

“Uh, let me start. I’m pretty reliable with this kind of thing, you know. Oh, pardon me, where are my manners, my name’s Alia. You are..?”

“Marcus.” He replied, stretching out his hand to shake.

“My deepest pleasure, Marcus,” she shook his hand vigorously. “Now.. oh dear. See, normally Tuesdays I do ailuromancy, but Cassandra,” she poked the snoozing cat, “is completely out of it. Exhausted her earlier on; didn’t expect to have to set the cards so many times. Hm, would you rather a palm reading, or a face reading?”

Marcus blinked rapidly several times. “Uh….palm reading? I guess.” The hell is a face reading?

“Face it is!” declared Alia happily. “Come, sit a little closer, let me have a better study of your wonderful and handsome features. Come, come, don’t worry, I don’t bite.”

“Right……” He sat and scooted a bit closer.

“I’ll start general then,” she murmured, turning his head from side to side, pushing his chin up and then down. “Right. You’ve got what I call the ‘wood-shape’ face. Means you’re athletic, or at least you work out. Muscular and all. It also means you’re a practical kind of guy, right? No wishy-washy stuff, very decisive. It’s a good face shape to have. Mmm.. Funny thing is, you’re blond, which traditionally refers to physical weakness. I do believe you’re a very strong person, but there’s a soft, vulnerable side to you that you don’t often let people see. You’ve got a nice forehead, see,” she traced his head, “this is a good indicator of… well, most people don’t agree with me, but I think this shape is an indicator of nerdism. You nerd out over some stuff, don’t you?”

“You’ve clearly been talking to your sister, heathen that she is.”

Alia glared at him witheringly. “Don’t cast doubts on my competency, mister Marcus. My sister hasn’t said a single word about you; I didn’t even know you existed. Obviously everything I’ve said is true, yes?”

Marcus nodded “Or at very least close enough.”

“Right, see? Trust me, Marcus, I’m your friend. Now, you’ve got even curved eyebrows, which is wonderful, it means that you’re very much a people-person, and your thoughts tend to be clear and smooth. You can grasp most things easily, so studying shouldn’t be too hard provided you focus. And your eyes, I like that shade of green. It speaks to me of vitality and loads of energy, and that you help people a lot. Sound right?”

“Can’t think of anyone I’ve helped lately. And I’m not sure I really have any people skills….do insults count as having people skills?”

“.. Sort of, I guess,” she shrugged bemusedly. “Think about it; I’m sure there’s people you’ve helped but you haven’t realised. Ask your- do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, not at the moment.”

“Right… Well, ask your friends, I’m sure they know when you’ve helped them. So, not bad, huh? Got most of it right, eh? Normally I’d be charging you two bucks, but a deal’s a deal.”

“I met Anj during a…..sporting event of sorts that was taking place at the warehouse she works at the owner was gr-I mean, kind enough to loan out a bit of the space for our event. Anj was….working I guess? A complication-” He let out a sigh of frustration. “Look how much do you know about what your sister’s boss does in that warehouse? I’m getting tired of speaking in non-implicatory vocabulary.”

Alia’s lips tightened and her face paled. “Charlie?”

“I just prefer to make a name out of insults for him on the spot but yes.”

Alia looked away, hands clenching painfully behind the booth. The crow could feel her mounting tension, and rubbed its head against her.

“God damn it, I told her not to go back. I don’t know the details, she wouldn’t tell me, but I’ve seen the state she comes back in. God damn that man. Tell me, Marcus, what exactly goes on there? Prize-fighting?” she demanded, shaking with anger.

“Prize-fighting. You make it sound so noble. Illegal pit fights is a more accurate term, we’re just too cheap to find a pit. Anyway I think that was the first time fights were happening there. Certainly the first time I’ve been there and I’ve been doing this for a while.”

She couldn’t find her voice for a few moments, instead closing her eyes and breathing heavily.

“I wish I could stop her. She comes back bruised and battered and- and it hurts us both. God. Marcus, I know you don’t owe me anything, but if you see her there again, will you ask her to go home? She doesn’t need the extra cash; I can cover up for expenses, just.. she’s stubborn. If it’s possible.. please.” Alia ended limply.

“First of all I don’t know that it is possible. How am I supposed to convince her she doesn’t need the extra cash when I’m much better off than you two and I need the extra cash. And I wasn’t really planning on going back to that particular arena, Charlie is into stuff I don’t want to be caught up in, I think.” He paused. “Still...I like your sister after a fashion, takes some getting used to and all but still, so it might not hurt to go back one more to see if she’d listen.”

“Charlie is..” Alia spat out a venomous curse that didn’t bear repeating in any form of civilised company. “I don’t know the man, I’ve never met him, but I think I know enough from seeing my sister’s bruises. She’s insane. I- Sorry. You don’t need to hear me rant like this. Thank you, Marcus. Thanks for.. thanks for trying.”

“Oh don’t worry, your rant is about not liking Charlie. Having met the man its a sentiment I can wholly get behind. And your sister isn’t insane. Based on what you’ve said she either has a low-grade form of Stockholm syndrome or she loves you and is trying to take care of you.” He took out his wallet and slapped down twenty-five dollars in front of her. “I don’t know about this fortune telling business but the presentation alone was more than worth the money.”

“What? Oh, no, no no no, Marcus, I couldn’t, no,” she pushed the bills back to him. “I made you a trade, sir, I can’t just take twenty-five like that.”

He grinned down at her and moved her hand over to the tarot deck. “Then flip me one card and we’ll call it even.”

Alia stared up at him miserably, brown eyes tearing up slightly. “Marcus.. That would be scamming you. How about this instead, say you invested twenty-five into this business.. I’ll be sure to bring you returns, sir.”

“One card.” He replied firmly, shaking his head.

Reluctantly, she took the tarot deck and shuffled it with as big a flourish as she could manage, then flicked out an ornate card from the middle of the deck. “Strength. It represents compassion, sir. Thank you.”

“Say hi to Anj for me, Alia,” he replied before sauntering off, whistling as he did.

“Find me some time soon! I may not be here, but you’ll see me when you want to find me. Otherwise,” Alia muttered once he was out of hearing, “I’ll have to stalk you to hand you your returns.”

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

The redhead lifted each of the two football players from the ground by the scruffs of their necks, giving each another swift kick. “You want to be a jerkass to dykes, do it to my face and we’re good. But if you come near my sister again, whether to be a dick about me or something else, I will cut it off. Understood?”

Ben turned her back on them, wiping her palms against her jeans as she headed for the parking lot.

“What, you two again? How many times do I have to tell you to stop being idiots?” The voice came from behind her. “Looks like someone got to you first, though. Tell me, who do I thank for giving me a free afternoon?”

Ben turned. Bloody hell. She swallowed a few times, before putting out a hand and trying to sound casual. “Ben Tannaieon. You’re Likovya, uh, right?”

“Yeah. Nice to meet you.” Likovya shook her hand once. “You got these two, I’m guessing?”

Ben smiled, her lips curling a little. “People don’t bother my baby sister twice.” She had to remind herself to let go of the other girl’s hand after the handshake.

“You did a decent job on them. ’Course, you’ll want to be careful near the school. There’s bound to be at least one teacher who cares about keeping up the rules.” The girl smiled. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only one going after them. They don’t seem nearly scared enough of me.”

“Thanks,” Ben said, her pale cheeks taking on a pink tint. “You fight?”

“A little. I’m not exactly a pro, but I do my best to beat up those who deserve it. If I were a bit richer, I could be Batman.” She looked over at the two football players. “Do you fight often?”

“When I can,” Ben said with a grin. “I need either an excuse, or someone willing and able to match me.” She bit her lip, glancing around awkwardly before letting out a bunch of words in a rush. “Alex is probably getting impatient right now, I should go… but there’s an extra space in our car. You want to come, hang out a bit? I could show you a trick or two.” The girl’s eyes sparkled.

Likovya grimaced. “I’d love to, but I’ve got rehearsal in a bit. Wayne’s working with Bethany for the first half-hour, but we’ve got a runthrough after that, and I kind of need to be there. Saturday, maybe?” The grimace turned to a hopeful smile.

“Come over Saturday?” Ben repeated eagerly.

“If I do my homework during Act I, I’ll have the whole day free. Where should I meet you?”

“You want me to pick you up?” Ben offered. “We share the car, but I’m pretty sure Alex doesn’t have any weekend plans.”

“Sure. You know the Orpheus, that theatre on Main Street? I work there -- and live there, a little -- but I think I can get off early if I show up in the morning. Say… two-ish? Sound good?” The grin widened, and Likovya seemed almost to bounce on her toes.

“I’ll pick you up at two,” Ben promised, grinning just as widely. “Should I wait till then for lunch, or do you eat at work?”

“Oh, someone usually brings in pizza or something during our break. I won’t say no to extra food, though, as long as you’ll let me chip in.”

“Do you have to chip in if it’s homemade? I think Em was going to bake something, to be honest. We’re all freeloaders once she gets going.”

Likovya’s eyes lit up. “Homemade food? I haven’t had something properly baked in ages. You must have the best sister.” She glanced over her shoulder at the school.

“One of each,” Ben conceded ruefully. “But Em makes up for Diana in all the best ways. So I’ll see you Saturday, then?” Impulsively, she grabbed Likovya’s hand and shook it once more. “I’ll make sure we’ve got something lovely and baked for you.”

“Thanks. And I’ll see you on Saturday, Ben Tannaieon.” With a grin and a wave, Likovya turned and hurried through the parking lot, pausing only to glare at the football players and touch the side of her jacket in a way that looked almost like a warning.

Ben practically flew to the parking lot, throwing herself into the passenger seat of her car without a care for the impatient looks of her brother and sister. “Guess who I actually talked to!”

[Lordxana0]

Vinny lined up the pool cue with the ball, eyeing it for a few moments before pushing forward and knocking the 8 ball into the left corner pocket. "And that is two out of three, pay up" he held out his hand toward another man, who looked to be in his late thirty's or early fourtys.

"Don't even know why I bother" he pulled out his wallet, handing over a crisp fifty to the boy. "Okay so you got me out here, guessing you want to do more then kick my ass at pool"

Vinny smirked and jerked his head to an empty table, putting the fifty dollar bill into his pocket and sitting down in it. "So hows the wife and kids?"

The man sat opposite of him and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers. "Come on kid we both know that I am pretty much under your thumb, can we just get on with this?"

The young man laughed and shook his head. "Hey don't blame me for you not being able to resist taking picture of high school girls in gym outfits" Vinny wagged his finger. "Tsk tsk tsk you are a married man after all"

The man growled and clenched his hands into fists. "Enough of this, I am not going to sit here and be mocked, not for all the blackmail in the world you slimy little bastard"

Vinny raised a hand, showing that he was done joking for now. "Fine fine fine, I have a few more students that you need to have your people look the other way at" He pulled a file holder filled with pages out from his hoodie and slid it over to the man.

"Jesus kid more?" he looked through the files and sighed. "You know something about you I don't get" he leaned forward. "You seem to have a real problem with bullying, yet for all the blackmail you put over on us you don't ask us to ever do anything about it, hell you just ask the whole blind eye thing."

Vinny let his smile drop and leaned back in the chair. "Ever hear the term 'equivalent exchange'?"

The older man frowned and shook his head. "What that one of your D and D terms... or maybe something from an anime?"

"Very astute, through the term didn't come from an anime it is where I first heard it from" he clapped a bit before continuing on. "One thing must be traded for another, the basic tenant of alchemy is that. You can't just get stuff for free" his smile all but disappeared before he spoke again. "Tell me are all humans equal?"

The man shrugged and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it up. "Pff don't ask me kid, do I look like a great thinker to you?"

Vinny cracked a smirk at that. "Not at all my good friend, but you see the answer is obvious, no one is equal, there are people who are just plain better, that is the basic fact of life" he tilted his head to the side as a dark smirk came to his face. "But those who are too be great must face themselves against the endless tides of those bellow them, or else they will never have the will to crush those in their way. So what if a few unimportant people are forced under the crushing tides?" he shrugged and laughed a bit. "One great life in exchange for fifty lesser ones, that math sound just fine to me don't you think?"

The older man let out a puff of smoke. "I miss the days when the kids you had to look out for had gang tats and wore all the same colors"

Vinny stood up, walking over and putting his hand on the other mans shoulder. "The times are changing my friend, oh right and tell your people to not bother with the booth set up on school campus, tell them it is for a club or something of that like. Other then that same rules as always, avoid busting or looking into any of the kids on the file including their lockers, discredit anyone who will try and get them in trouble, and just stay out of my way in general" he walked away, putting his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and whistling. Having the head security guard of the school under his boot. That and a few of the teachers and even the assistant principle. Honestly if these people where expected to lead future generations into greatness then they should feel lucky then people should feel lucky they had someone like him controlling the strings.

"Reach High, my greatest experiment" Vinny laughed a bit as he walked home, confident that his efforts would produce great fruit.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

“If you guys can pick up from here… I have another meeting to run to.” The brown-haired young man grabbed his lunch and backpack, dashing through the crowded hallways. He got to the book club just as the others had gotten settled, his hair in disarray but showing no signs of exertion. “Hey.”

Calvin looked over at the newcomer from his seat. “Well, you managed to arrive just in time to not be late.”

“It’s a skill,” Alex said, grinning. “You got things running, I guess?”

Calvin gestured to the club, whose members had been split into several groups, each engaged in discussion. “Well, things have not devolved into chaos as of yet, so everything should be fine.”

Alex slowly began opening up his lunch. “You read anything good lately, Cal?”

The other boy shrugged. “Nothing new, exactly. I was feeling a little nostalgic, and decided to go back through some older books that I read as a kid. Rascal, and the like. You?”

“Same idea,” the older boy nodded. “Started picking up a few old Hofstadters again. You might like these, actually.”

“What were they, again? I know you have mentioned them, and talked about a few here, but exact details escape me.”

Alex smiled, reaching into his bag to pull out a slightly battered tome. “Godel, Escher, Bach. I wouldn’t characterize it so much as typical nonfiction as I’d call it a book about everything.”

Calvin took it, flipping it open to read the summary on the inside flap. “It certainly looks like something of an in-depth read. I will check out a copy at some point, see what it is like myself.”

“Borrow it,” Alex encouraged, sliding the book over. “I already know what it says.”

He took the book, grinning. “Thanks! Although, is this a borrowed or personal copy? I will be careful, of course, but if it is not yours, a touch extra care would be prudent.”

“It’s mine,” Alex assured Calvin, laughing. “I wouldn’t lend out a library copy.”

“Simply checking, you understand. I will try to get it back to you quickly, and thank you for lending it to me. It looks like it will make quite the change of pace for me.” He slipped the book into his backpack.

“Take your time,” Alex said. “I found it was worth the extra examination, especially on my first reading. See you around, Cal.”

Calvin adopted an expression of mock outrage. “You only arrived, Alex! Are you that busy that you cannot stay around in a club that you help run?”

The boy smiled sheepishly. “Student council meeting.”

Calvin nodded knowingly. “Aaah. Politics. Well, be sure to have lots of fun!”

[Lordxana0]

Vinny moved through the halls of the school, doing what he usually did when not engaged in part of his experiments or doing something to show what a kind and lovable soul he was. Namely looking for girls to hit on. Some might call this shallow, or ‘wrong’, maybe even a little creepy. And maybe those people had a point, but Vinny had just restocked the flowers in his outfit and he wasn’t about to let them go to waste again. So he continued through the halls, looking for a girl that looked like one of his more usual targets.

Diana flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder, smiling in self-satisfaction. She fluttered her eyelashes at the senior boys, sliding a hand into the pocket of her designer skinny jeans as though reaching for something. She wasn’t, not really; just putting on a show. A girl glanced at her with what was probably envy, and she let out a peal of bell-like laughter.

The young chemist froze in place as he heard the laughter of a girl. Not just typical laughter through, this was the laughter of a girl who was full of herself, shallow to the rotten core. In other words, he had to go and hit on her. It was divine law, any it was fate! He quickly ran a number of scenarios through his mind and picked out a flower, a typical red rose, before quickly moving toward her while acting absolutely casual. He leaned on the lockers in front of her and offered the flower. “Hello moi cher, I couldn’t help but hear the angelic choir around here… or prayhapse that was just your lovely laugh?”

Diana smiled at the boy-- pearl-white teeth shining against her ruby-red lipstick-- and accepted the rose. “How sweet!” she exclaimed, her voice oozing with overlaid sugar.

“Might I have the pleasure of learning your name?” he smiled warmly and kept against the locker, enjoying the easier discussions with girls he didn’t know versus the continuous game of wits that occurred with every other bloody female he had linked himself too.

“Diana,” the girl said. “Like the princess, but with a long e.” She formed her lips slowly around the sound. “And you are?”

“I am Vinny, and might I say though you are named after a princess I would more equate you with an angel, or maybe a goddess of some culture long gone.” he gave a small bow.

“I know,” Diana said serenely.

“But of course,” he quickly shifted gears. “So might I ask what classes you take?”

The girl tilted her head a little, sizing the junior up. “I’m on my way to home ec right now. All I need is the perfect man to make me the perfect housewife.”

Vinny smirked. “Well if you are looking for a prince charming then I suppose that I could fill the role for you, perhaps over dinner?”

Diana inspected her fingernails. “Dinner where?”

He thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out the price tag this would have attached to it. Better go high end for now and see where it went from there. “Well there is a new place opening up, some fancy Italian place I could easily get reservations to.”

The sophomore considered for a minute, then nodded sharply. “Pick me up at seven-thirty.”

“If we make it seven on the dot on valentines day I could get a horse drawn carriage to take us there” he smirked and crossed his arms, hoping the one up would work. He hated being at a disadvantage.

“That might be nice,” Diana said, flashing him a blink-and-miss-it smile. “If I’m still interested by V-day. Impress me tonight first.”

“I suppose I could do that.” He offered a business card with a heart on it. “One day to blow you away.”

Diana pulled a lipstick out of her slim designer purse, and scrawled something on the card before capping the lipstick and handing the paper back. “You’ll need my address, hon.”

“Hm, I suppose so, I was going to ask you to text it to me though, I suppose this works as well.” He put the card away and smirked at her. “Seven thirty then.”

[agoraoptera]

"Oh, come on, pick up... you know it's me..." Alia muttered exasperatedly, listening to the jangling ringtone for the fifth time in a row. She sat on a table, legs swinging idly as she drummed an impatient tattoo against the weathered wood.

After what felt like two and a half blind eternities later, the ringtone cut off and a voice hoarse from too many years of alcoholism spoke. "Alia! My favourite customer!" The man's pronunciation split her name into three distinct syllables, 'Ah-lee-ya', but she was more than used to it.

"I've got a prediction for you, Case, I looked into the ol' crystal ball and I saw you getting a windfall today."

"Yeah, sure Alia," came the unconvinced reply. "Sure. Look, I don't care how much you're paying, you'll be a hazard to everyone and I'm not going to endanger you, I'm not fixing you the driver's license-"

"Not the driver's license, Godfather," the diminutive girl groaned. "That's old news, no, I've got something else."

"Shoot."

"You've probably not had much experience with this bef-"

"I said," Case grumbled with exaggerated patience, "shoot."

"Okay, okay, easy now. I need a license- don't groan! Not a driving license! I need a license for uh, exotic pets apparently. For Mishra."

"The bat?"

"The bat." Alia confirmed.

"Just Mishra?"

"I guess so. Don't think I need one for the others yet. Actually, make it two. Mishra and Urza."

"Two bats."

"Yeap, that's it."

"Send me their measurements and what-not. You know the drill."

"Of course, of course, will do, Case. Thanks a bunch."

"You little twerp. I'll send Molly over tomorrow."

Alia made a face. "No, not Molly, please. I'll drop by the parlour and pick it up myself."

"Suit yourself. Say, you mentioned something about a bonus?"

"I didn't say anything like that, Godfather, but there's twenty in it for you."

"I used to do this business for thousands at a time, Alia," Case growled.

"That's when you were doing passports, and anyway, you owe me. I said a windfall, didn't I? I don't normally pay, so twenty's a veritable fortune." Alia grinned, knowing that he could probably hear it in her voice.

"Bah. I suppose I still owe you, eh?"

"You're probably going to owe me forever," she snickered. "It's not an easy debt."

"Oh you little fiend, just remember that I do this out of the compassion of my heart."

"And the hardness of your liver. Don't drink so much, Case, I need you for.. for the long-run."

"Scheming little con-artist."

"I don't con people!" Alia objected. "I predict things, and what I predicted for you worked out, didn't it? I helped you and everything. Point is, stay safe, Godfather. Fortune guide your path."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Alia."

The line clicked dead, and she hopped off the table, whistling tunelessly. Calvin was such a strange guy, but so interesting, and Alia was willing to go out of her way to bring Mishra to a vet for interesting people. Now, on to the next target. There were quite a few people interested recently in her divinatory services, and she was more than happy to oblige. It was truly wonderful when people were so receptive to her words.

[Tohrinha]

Alia wasn’t precisely sure what the girl was doing up here. Then again, she wasn’t sure what she was doing up here either; it wasn’t a very healthy place to be. Still, after the previous few consultations with disconcertingly normal people, a strange person might just be what she needed.

“Hello!” Alia called, the vaguely noxious wind blowing her hair into her eyes, and Amon’s. Squawking, the crow flew off, but she wasn’t too worried. Amon would come back later. “Would you like to have your fortune told?”

Moira finished climbing out of the fume hood, glancing around at her new surroundings. She couldn’t say she had expected to find a booth set up on the school’s roof, let alone one with someone in it. Deciding to run with it, she walked over to the other girl. “Sure.”

“Take a seat,” Alia gestured. “My name’s Alia, and I do ailuromancy on Tuesdays. However, my cat,” she prodded the sleeping feline, “is indisposed. I can do Tarot card readings, or palm readings, or face readings, or even crystal ball instead, if that’s your kind of thing. Only two bucks for a session. Up for it?”

Moira sat, pulling her hair to one side to keep it out of the way. “Moira. I used to know someone who read the Tarot. It might be interesting to see how you do it.” She smiled, pulling a pair of crumpled dollars out of her pocket. “Your cat’s lovely, by the way,” she added, stroking its side with a finger.

“Thank you, miss Moira,” Alia said, shuffling a deck of cards, then flicked out three cards in quick succession. Both of them watched as the wind blew the cards off the rooftop and far out of their reach. “Well… I suppose I should have predicted that,” Alia said sheepishly, reaching for a second deck. This time, with much less of a flourish and tucking each spread under the cat’s tummy, she gestured for Moira to pick the cards.

“Flip them in the orientation, yeah, oh that’s nice, the Wheel of Fortune, the Magician, the Sun, and you laid them out from right to left. Wonderful.” Alia peered at Moira and blinked owlishly. “This is a general read, since you didn’t ask for a particular question before we started, so… Wheel of Fortune. It’s a card of change, sudden change in particular. Would I be right in supposing you’re a new student here?”

“That’d be right,” Moira said, returning her gaze with a bright smile. “Just a few weeks ago, actually.”

“Cool! Nice to meet you then, hope you’ll uh, enjoy the school. Reach High can be.. well, I’ll let you form your own impressions. Oh, the Wheel of Fortune’s about opportunities too, so perhaps it’s signaling good chances ahead for you. Mmm.. Magician. I hate drawing Magician, because he’s one of the vaguer ones, so people think I’m bluffing them by being general. Anyway, Magician. In connection with the Wheel.. I suppose you took the initiative, did something and that led you to Reach High?”

“My friend loved the Magician. He’d just make up something that kind of fit, and if anyone called him on it, he’d say he was--what did he call it--making the reading more personal.” Moira shook her head. “But yeah, I guess you could say I took initiative.”

Alia chuckled lightly, eyeing Moira closely. “The way you say it makes me think you did something rather mischievous. But no,” she held up her hands, “that would be unprofessional. Now, the Sun…” Alia looked the cards, frowned, looked back at Moira, frowned some more and stared at the cards again, then cracked into a grin. “It’s something to do with fire, innit?”

Moira leaned an elbow on the booth, grinning. “You’re pretty damn good at this,” she said appreciatively. “How long have you been at it?”

“Uh, a while. Okay, fine, a long while, a couple of years. Tell me, I’m curious, you tried setting the school on fire? No, no, you didn’t draw Justice or Death or anything, uh, what exactly did you do? Something in the chem lab? Bunsen burner?” she gestured vaguely below them where students continued with their experiments.

Mirae tipped her head, flicking her eyes upward as she recalled. “I think it was more the repeated holding a lighter to things to see what would happen. They didn’t seem fond of that.” She looked back at Alia, her head still tipped quizzically.

“Ohhh. Got a lighter with you?”

Grinning, Moira reached into her jacket. She pulled out a lighter and flicked it open in one practiced movement, letting the flame dance for a moment before snapping it shut and laying it on the booth.

“Sweet.” Alia took the lighter and held the flame to the corner of the Sun card. Despite the flame licking the edge, the card seemed almost unharmed. Then she puffed at the card, which immediately disintegrated into gray ash, floating away on the breeze. “Cool, isn’t it?”

“Very nice,” Moira said, nodding. She held up a hand in the ash’s path, catching some of it on her fingers. She rubbed it between them, then tasted it. “No chemicals that I can tell,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh come on, you should believe in magic. Okay, make an ‘O’ with your thumb and index finger like this, and raise it up to the sky so that the sun’s inside it. Got it?” Smiling, Moira complied. Alia put her hand beside Moira’s and, from Moira’s perspective, flicked the sun. An ornate card fell out of nowhere onto the counter and Alia splayed her hands with a flourish. “The Sun.”

Moira ran a finger gently along the card’s edge. “Neat. I… don’t know how you did that.” Laughing slightly, she looked back up at Alia, focusing on each of her eyes in turn. “But I think I’ll let it stay that way.”

Alia shrugged with a wry grin. "Magic, miss Moira. I use the Sun to store stuff, and the Moon too, though that's a little problematic because of the lunar phasing."

“What, do things fall out at the new moon?”

"Not really, it's just that I can't exactly get my stuff out when there's no moon. I mean, geez, what kind of safebox vanishes for a quarter of a month every month?"

Moira shrugged. “The kind that no one else can get into?”

"Heh. You're sharp, I like that about people. I think we could be fine friends. By the way, what were you doing, climbing out of the fume hood?"

“Oh, that?” Moira turned to look back at the opening. “I’d already gone out the other two exits. Didn’t know where this one went.”

"Ahhh, see what I mean about initiative? So you're a science student- do you know someone called Vinny?"

“I wouldn’t call me a student. That’d mean I went to class. But yeah, I’ve met Vinny. He’s the one who showed me around the lab.”

"By that definition, I'm not much of a student either," Alia gestured at her booth vaguely. "Anyway, if you see the bleeding flirt, tell him he didn't finish his session last time, will you?"

“Hah. Well, you have something going for you, anyway. I’ll send him over to you next time I run into him,” Moira said, nodding.

"You should come back again soon- well, not here, but if you're looking for me, I'll be there. I do different types of reading on other days, and psychiatry on Saturdays if you need someone to talk to. Fortune guide your path!"

“Thanks!” Moira got up, smiling. She surveyed the roof for a moment, then turned back to the booth. “If I find your other cards, should I bring them back to you?”

"Oh, uh, sure, I guess. You can keep them if you want. No biggie, really."

“Okay. I’ll find you later, then.” She glanced once at the fume hood, then walked over to where a rainspout broke off from the gutter and swung herself over the roof’s edge. She quickly climbed down out of sight and Alia whistled in appreciation.

Now she just had to get off the roof, booth and all. Amon circled the sky once, twice, then returned to her and she sighed.

[eli_gone_crazy]

As the ten-minute bell rang, Anji slunk into the school, hair flopping over into her eyes.

“Hey,” a blond boy called, walking in just behind her. “Missed you yesterday.”

The girl started, jumping a foot away before glaring at him. “Can’t say the same about you.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow, falling into step with the girl. “Usually my friends are the scary ones,” he commented wryly. “I’m just this guy, you know?”

“Why are you talking to me?”

Kevin shrugged. “Nice girl’s walking into school at the same time as me, not going to give her the cold shoulder. Plus, like I said, I missed you yesterday.”

Anji cut her eyes at him, and shrugged her pack higher, wincing. “Just. Go away. Not your charity case. Move along.”

Kevin bit his lip, resisting the urge to carry her bags for her. “Just trying to be friendly,” he said quietly. “I don’t take charity cases, but I do like having friends. Especially friends I’m going to see every day after school anyway.”

“Only because I’m required.” Anji stopped, twisting to face him fully. “We’re not friends. I don’t get how you think we are.”

“We could be.”

“In your dreams, Blondie.”

“I could live with that nickname, Carrots.” Kevin’s eyes narrowed as he faced her directly, looking her over in the fluorescent institutional lighting. “What are you doing here, Anjali?”

“Headin’ to class. You, Aqaba?”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t be heading anywhere but a doctor’s office like that. And don’t tell me you’ve already been, because if you had, your cuts wouldn’t still be dirty and they’d be a sight more patched up. My godmother’s an emerge physician; I know someone who hasn’t been and should yet when I see one. You could get an infection.”

“Least of my worries.” Anji scoffed.

Kevin lowered his bag, leaning against a locker. “You want to talk about the bigger ones?” he offered. “Because it must be something to top possibly losing the arm.”

“I’m not going to lose my arm. If you’ll excuse me,” Anji began walking again, heading for the door.

Kevin sighed, running fingers through his hair in frustration. “I’ll see you after school, Anjali. Feel free to talk to me if you change your mind.”

--------------------

“Hey.” Kevin nodded to Anji in an almost formal gesture, walking into the detention room before slinging his bags onto the floor.

The girl rolled her eyes, pushing more hair into her face before laying her head on the desk.

“Listen,” Kevin said. “You can count me as a friend or not, up to you, but I’m here to help you pull your marks up. If there’s something bigger in the way of that that tutoring isn’t going to fix, talk to me. I can help. I’ve been a useful guy at helping with things before. Especially for people I call friends.”

“Aye-aye, Captain.”

Kevin’s shoulders slumped a little. “I guess it isn’t fair to ask for trust when the admin just foisted me on you. I’m not… them, Anji. Just another kid trying to muddle through high school. But whatever. Let’s get out a binder.”

Anji pulled out a battered three-ring binder, slapping it onto the table. The cover was missing, and one of the rings was bent backward.

Kevin pulled his chair closer. “What subject?” He flipped the first couple pages to see.

“All of them.”

“Not a lot in here,” he commented.

“Thought that was what you were for.” Anji rubbed her arm, shrugging lightly as she stood. “Look, this is useless. Sorry for wasting your time.”

Kevin put a hand to his mouth, covering a yawn. “Hey, it’s been a long day. I could use a pick-me-up, no doubt you could too. How about I buy you a burger, see if we can pick up from there?”

“You’re asking me out?” Anji laughed.

Kevin smiled crookedly at her. “You want? Or just a bite to eat with a friend?”

Anji glared at him, and shrugged, gathering her things and painfully slipping on a jacket. “Up to you, Blondie.”

Kevin grinned, reaching to take her bag for her. “Let’s just call it a burger, then. If it were a date I’d have to change into something presentable.”

Anji followed the bag, weakly reaching out a hand for it before reconsidering. Mutely, she shrugged deeper into her jacket. “I can take care of myself.”

“‘S good,” Kevin said, leading her out to his car in the parking lot. “Seem like you have to a lot.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Didn’t mean it to sound rude,” Kevin apologized, unlocking the passenger-side door for Anji. “All I meant was you seem to be dealing with a lot right now. It doesn’t hurt to let someone carry your bag, or give you a ride, if only to take a break from the weight on your shoulders.”

Anji held out her hand for the bag, face stony. “‘d like the weight back, please.”

Kevin rolled his eyes, depositing the bag on the girl’s lap before getting into the driver’s seat. “Think about it, please,” he said. “It’s what friends are there for.”

“Nice car.” Anji turned to look at him levelly. “Friends buy it for you?”

“Parents,” he said, unruffled. “Came in useful for me chauffeuring them around to and from the airport.”

Anji nodded. “It’s flash.”

Kevin shrugged. “It does its job.”

Anji made a grunt of agreement, and turned to the window. “You just got handed my papers, then?”

“Papers?” Kevin asked.

“For the whole mandatory tutoring.”

Kevin shrugged. “It’s voluntary on my end. You were on the roster, I picked up the tab.”

“Oh.” Anji turned back to the window again.

“You should know rules are, if you’re not comfortable with your peer tutor you can have me replaced with someone else.” Kevin half-turned his head, giving her a small smile. “But I like to think we’ve got too much camaraderie for that.”

Anji snorted, rubbing her arm. “So, why are you really taking me out?”

“What, I’ve got to have some nefarious motive all the time?” Kevin snorted. “I’m hungry, you’re hungry. I want to do some tutoring and actually see some headway on your grades, which we can’t do if we’re both starving, and it’s infinitely more fun to eat an early dinner with a pretty girl than it is to eat alone.”

“I’m pretty now, eh?”

Kevin smirked. “I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first you’ve heard of that.”

Anji glanced over, “Not at any point where I wasn’t asked to repay the compliment.”

“I’m confident enough in my own good looks that I don’t need to go asking for favours,” Kevin said airily. “Doesn’t mean I can’t call you pretty, though.”

Anji smiled, settling more comfortably into the car seat. “Confident, huh? I like that.”

“You do, do you? That mean my cold shoulder’s warming up?”

“Don’t push it. I’m not your problem.”

“I don’t think you’re anyone’s problem,” Kevin said quietly. “You look like a junior, not a problem.” He sighed, tapping his fingers against his steering wheel at a red light. “I get it. I’m a stranger. Just some lame peer tutor. Ask me what you want, Anji. I’m an open book. Can’t ask you to talk to me if I don’t do the same.”

“What are you doing Friday?”

“Friday?” Kevin repeated, startled. “School, tutoring, practice. After that my schedule’s duller than a grimy surface.” He glanced over at her before looking at the road again.

“Would you maybe like to go see a movie with me?” Anji bit her lip.

“I… Sure!” Kevin said, sounding pleased. “Something particular playing?”

“Not that I know of,” Anji turned to look at him, eyes lined with worry.

Kevin smiled back at her. “You want me to pick you up at seven, then? That’ll give us enough time to get there, see what’s on, pick something, and get in.”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll be at the school around then.” Anji smiled.

[agoraoptera]

Just one more, Alia promised herself wearily. Just one last client. By the Never-Fading, she hadn't been this tired since the time when.. when.. she couldn't even remember when. Never mind. Hang in there, girl. Just one more, and we close shop and get our asses home and take a nice long bath mmm..

"... Alia?"

"Oh, yes, pardon me," she shook her head vigorously. "Yes. Tarot reading."

Not bothering to expend the energy on any flourishes, she shuffled mechanically, expertly splitting the deck and slicing the cards together. Hm.. Since this was her last client, she might as well have some fun..

With renewed vitality,the black-haired girl dealt three cards in the rough shape of a triangle, then let out a dramatic, horrified gasp. Alia's client saw the cards and barely stifled a small scream.

"Is.. is that.."

"Yes," Alia nodded fervently, eyes wide and staring with grim intent. "Death and the Devil, with the Hanged Man on top. I.. I'm afraid I don't have good news for you, Nancy."

As a matter of fact, those three cards weren't always bad, but most people didn't know that, and the names always sounded horrible. Drawing these three together and stacking the Hanged Man on top was probably going to ensure that Nancy would never come back again, but Alia wasn't too bothered about that. There were always more clients, and she much preferred to end the day with something exciting.

"What is it?" whispered Nancy, fear shining in her eyes. Poor girl. Alia almost felt sorry for her.

"Death." Alia held the card up so that Nancy could see the stylised skeleton on a pale horse trampling down the king. Nancy probably only saw the skeleton. Still, it wouldn't do to lie to her. "Death can represent a few things, namely the end of a cycle, loss, conclusions. At the same time, it can mean renewal, but with the Hanged Man overshadowing it.." The fortune-teller let her sentence trail, implications left unsaid, because the Hanged Man over Death really only meant that it was a moment of suspense between the death of the old and the birth of the new.

Nancy muttered something incomprehensible, losing most of the colour in her face.

"The Devil." Alia showed her the malevolent satyr-like depiction, seated atop an altar with a reversed pentagram. "This one means many things. Lust, greed, doubt, vice, but with the Hanged Man overhead..." It really probably referred to inner insights and perceptions, perhaps a touch of self-bondage or the temptation to give up at the worst.

Nancy looked almost ready to faint. Alia would have to go easy on this one; she didn't want to have to deal with fainting clients.

"The Hanged Man," Alia said with an air of finality. The card wasn't actually that scary; it was rather uplifting, really, but after seeing Death and the Devil, the Hanged Man probably looked real awful to Nancy. "This-"

"Alia," Nancy whispered faintly. "The crows.."

"Amon? He's mine. As I was saying the.."

"They're yours?" And Nancy's voice was so choked up with fright that Alia finally roused herself from her meandering thoughts.

In deadly silence, they had gathered, a swamp of undiluted black bodies waiting, their wings rustling soundlessly. A hundred beady eyes stared straight at Alia, and she shivered. Crows, so many of them! What were they staring at her for? What were they waiting for?

".. Hanged Man.." Alia croaked unthinkingly, then a flash of inspiration struck her. In her mind's eye, she saw a million hanging stages, a million nooses. Crows waited and feasted; she saw them with strings of red flesh and bloody sinew hanging from their beaks, and she cried out in terror, "Crows, crows and gibbets and death!" She burst into an incomprehensible invocation, sibilant to the ears and exceedingly esoteric. Alia's eyes showed their whites and she raised her hands; at the same moment, Amon, perched on her shoulder, chose to flare his wings like a phoenix ascendant.

Actually, if someone understood Avestan, which was the language the little girl was using, then they would have heard something like this: "Three tablespoons melted butter; eighteen graham crackers, crushed; quarter cup all-purpose flour; one cup sour cream; eight ounces cream cheese-" and so on. Alia was studying Persian as part of her course, and Avestan, being related to Old Persian, seemed like a convenient language in which to memorise phrases to improvise as chants. It was also obscure enough that most people, even Persian speakers, would not guess that she was reciting a cheesecake recipe in mystic cadences.

It was a frightening sight, to any on-looker. A booth decorated with traditional medium's paraphernalia surrounded by a murder of midnight crows, the mystic chanting her ineffable words with her crow familiar rising with her; it made for a truly hideous sight. The murder took flight as if responding to Alia's chanting, and flew towards the booth. Nancy screamed as they rushed just over her head, wings beating down upon her as they swooped in to graze Alia and then flew right back out, into the sky.

When the murder was little more than a black cloud in the sky, something seemed to snap in Alia, and she fell back into her chair, trance broken. After a minute or so where the only sound was that of Nancy's sobbing, Alia pulled herself up and sat stiffly straight.

"I was wrong." Alia declared coldly. "The cards speak to me; it is an inescapable change. It comes upon me."

Nancy stared fearfully at her. "What are you?"

In the orange light of the dying day, Alia's eyes were orbs of fire. "I am Alia. Leave me now; I need some time to think."

As soon as Nancy fled out of sight, Alia collapsed the booth. "I don't know what that was about," she told the crow on her shoulder, scratching its wing happily, "but that was pretty cool. With any luck, word of my prowess will spread and then business will pick up even better. Now, go find Cassandra for me, get her back, then let's go home."

[Lordxana0]

Vinny looked around the gym, which had been converted into a Valentines day abomination of pink, red, and various other bright colors. The DJ was set up at the table and doing his thing, throwing out songs on the top ten list that made him want to kill himself, or other people, or other people and then himself. But whatever, that wasn't the point tonight. He looked down at the clipboard he held and began marking off a few things. "Team 1 food and drinks in position?"

From across the gym a student gave him a thumbs up. "Yeah but you know we can hear you without the ear pieces ri..."

"Team 2" he spoke into his headpiece again and looked to the doors. "Everyone set up to check I.D.'s and make sure no one brings any alcohol in?" two of the school security guards gave him thumbs up to let them know they were ready. They were two of the most through of the entire ground, sadly their taste for drink and cheap women had brought them under Vinny's blackmail control and they were forced to work overtime with no pay for Vinny's dance. The schools dance. Same difference.

"Okay final check" he texted a few people in the crowd, ones that would look out for trouble makers and take care of them before they became an issue. He had been planning this for months, pretending to get along with every up their own ass jerk on the committee and destroying all of them so his perfect vision would be complete. A school dance where people could have some fun and cut loose... within restrictions of course. No drugs, no booze, nothing would slip his sight to make this a perfectly safe and fun night. Not his usual game but when he said all in he meant all in.

Vinny raised his hand to the headset and sent the final order. "Okay let the crowd in and get ready for hell people" the doors opened and students or their guests entered into the gym and began to talk, move to the food, or dance to the music the D.J. was pumping out.

Vinny rested his back against the wall and smirked darkly. "Lets see how long before something goes wrong" he looked around and began to notice something. People were coming in with dates, and yet for all intents and purposes Vinny was ridding solo for the night. That just wouldn't do, his reputation couldn't stand a hit like that. He could totally control the party and find a cute person with whom to be seen with. Probably... maybe... meh figure it out when it happened. He moved into the crowd to try and see if there was anyone he knew who had come by themselves. Who knows he might get lucky.

[RussetDivinity]

"Are you sure I look all right?"

Likovya stopped and looked back at Fitzroy, who had stopped again and was smoothing down his red-brown hair, staring at his reflection in a storefront window. "You look fine," she said. "Better than fine. You're the handsomest man I've ever kissed."

"Even more than Geoffrey?"

"Geoffrey's rugged," Likovya said, pulling Fitzroy from the window and speeding up as much as she could in her heels. "You're beautiful."

"I still don't know if I should have worn red," he muttered, picking at his tie.

"You were the one who wanted us to match," she reminded him. "I would have been perfectly happy in green."

"But in red and gold you look like a princess."

"I am a princess." She linked her arm through his and walked down the sidewalk in quick, even steps.

The dance had only begun when they arrived, and there were only a few people there. Likovya recognized Vinny, along with a sophomore who had somehow been cast as Angel the previous year and a few people from her statistics class. She didn't recognize the two boys standing guard, but they nodded at her, either not noticing or not caring that Fitzroy was rather too old to be a student.

"There weren't any guards when I went to dances here," he said as they went straight to the buffet table. "Have they started taking things seriously now?"

"Hell if I know. Everything's been getting weird." She helped herself to three cookies and surveyed the dance floor. "Looks like we've got it all to ourselves. You brought pockets?"

"Of course."

Some minutes later, Fitzroy's pockets looking slightly larger, the two of them were attempting to waltz to a pop song that was almost painfully not in 3/4.

[agoraoptera]

Dances were fun to look at. Sort of. Not quite.

Oh sure, the first couple of couples had been fun. It'd been rewarding to tell them that their love was true, and she'd gotten the chance to try out that trick.

"Okay, stand here, close your eyes," she'd directed the guy. Gesturing silently, she pushed the girl lightly but firmly on her left shoulder. "Okay, open your eyes. Did you feel anything?"

"Yeah, you pushed me. Why?"

"Which side?"

"Left."

And the girls always went crazy when they found out that he'd felt Alia's push because their hearts were connected. Then Alia'd have to repeat the thing, but with the girl's eyes closed this time, and they would always feel the shove. Every couple left her booth happily, grinning at each other with heart-stopping love in their eyes.

By the fourth couple, Alia felt sick.

She laid her head on the table, stretching and trying not to feel resentful or envious. Maybe she ought to sleep. Closing her eyes, Alia let the pop music lull her into the soothing nothing of sleep. Hopefully nobody would bother the sleeping fortune-teller.

Then, of course, she felt a pressure on her head.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," laughed the voice.

"Go away," was what Alia fully intended to say, but through her arms, nothing save an incomprehensible groan was heard.

The voice laughed again, then the voice's owner pulled up Alia's head. She glared at him blearily through blurry vision and she rubbed her eyes languidly. "Go away, Angus."

"You're not that tired, are you?" He sat down insouciantly, propping his legs on the other chair.

"'m tired." Alia yawned. "Whatcha want?"

"No need to be so cold, little alien. How've you been?"

"I'd be better if you let me sleep," she grumbled, then stretched. "Could be better, I suppose. Not too bad."

"What do you mean, not too bad? Alien, what have you done? I wanna hear straight from your mouth."

His earnest tone stopped her short; what happened? What did she do that she didn't even know about?

"Angus.. what did I do?" she asked slowly.

"Nancy. She's saying that you're some kind of, what was her word, she called you the 'Feathered Lady' and said something about crows being your herald and she's even been saying the class ought to seek you for guidance."

"She what."

Angus nodded. "That's what I said too. Did you drug her or something?"

"No, I didn't, wait, she, I, you what?" Alia stared blankly at Angus, who shook her head again.

"Earth to Alia, Earth to Alia, are you there?" he asked. "You awake yet?"

"Stop shaking me damn it, uh, yeah. I'm awake. Did you say 'Feathered Lady'? Where in the world would Nancy get an idea like- OH."

Angus rose an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Oh. I, uh. Huh. I didn't see that one coming. See, Nancy came to see me, and then.." Alia quickly related the incident with the crows, now thoroughly awake. "... and then she ran away," she concluded. "I don't really know what to make of it, but it's certainly an omen of some sort."

"Wow. Must have been quite a sight."

"Angus."

"Feathers everywhere, whirlwind-like, huh?"

"Angus please."

"Sorry," he said, scratching his head. "Cut me some slack, Alia, but you must admit it sounds kinda crazy." When she maintained her even stare, he threw his hands up in exasperation. "I believe you, alright? I'm just trying to imagine it. Sounds real dream-like."

"I might have thought it a dream myself," Alia conceded, "until you said Nancy's been talking about it."

"She's gone barking mad, Alia. Says you're a prophet."

"P-prophet? Prophet?" Alia repeated the word several times, rolling about her tongue.

"Well, prophetess. But I think she's traumatised, really needs help."

"Prophetess. I like the sound of that." Alia said, attention wandering.

"Alia! That's not a good thing! You should say something to her."

"Something, eh?" The cogs and gears were already turning in her head.

Angus could guess the tenor of her thoughts; it didn't take a psychic for that. "Alia, tell her you're not.. not whatever she thinks it was."

"I know, I know. But, look, at this stage, whatever I say to the contrary, she's not gonna change her mind. But if I say the right things, then I think I can leverage on this to get more customers. I've got an idea."

"God save hapless trusting people from scheming prodigies," Angus said in mock despair. "I'm not sure I quite like where you're going with this, Alia."

"Oh, don't worry. It'll work out somehow, you'll see." Alia told him confidently. "But, hey, let's put that aside for now. It's been a while since I've seen you." Resting her chin on a hand, she looked up at him questioningly.

"Yeah," Angus grimaced. "Haven't had much free time."

"What, not even enough to drop by my booth and say hi?"

"Really busy."

"Bug. Haven't found a girlfriend yet, have you?"

"Alia, the last time you saw me was last week." Angus stared at her, unamused.

"Lots of things can happen in a week," she retorted cheerfully. "Like me being a Feathered Lady, whatever that means."

Angus rolled his eyes. "So, what else has happened with you, o Feathered One?"

"I've met a bunch of people.. Oh yes, there's this guy, he's called Calvin, he's real interesting, got a ton of pets and everything from cats to snakes and mice. I'm going with him to bring Mishra to a vet, maybe tomorrow or something. We kind of didn't iron out the details."

"Mishra? Is he ill or something?"

"No, I don't think so at least. Calvin just wants to check that Mishra's alright, since apparently bats are difficult to take care of."

"Oh. You like him, eh?"

Alia's face reddened dramatically. "I didn't say that! I just got to know him, Angus, go away! I never said anything of the sort."

"There there," Angus patted her head lightly. "Enjoy the feeling. It's fun."

"I-"

"No need to be so uptight, alien, we're at a dance," Angus grinned at her discomfort. "Hope it goes well with him."

"I AM NOT-"

"Shh," Angus put a finger to her lips, winking. "You don't want the whole world to find out, do you?"

She settled for glaring at him, then smacking him on the back of the head when he turned about.

"Arse."

"Hey now, that was uncalled for," Angus smirked, rubbing his head. "I'm actually thinking of leaving now; don't have much call to stay. Coming?"

Alia shook her head. "Nah. Think I'll stay for a bit more, see what I can do to fleece- I mean, try and help cement bonds between couples. I am a veritable pillar of society," she added with a dignified flourish.

"Right, you can stay and be a pillar of society. I'm gonna be a parasitic slob and scoot home and sleep. Ciao," he waved, then was gone.

[Krika]

Calvin sipped his drink as he wandered around the edge of the dance floor. Normally he wouldn't have any particular reason to show up, but Marc had barged into his house, grabbed him, brought him here, and then vanished, presumably to dance with somebody. Not that he’d seen him in any large amount of time. He’d never been comfortable at dances, and this one especially was somewhat awkward for being alone in. He was scanning along one wall, when he saw a rather familiar booth. With a chuckle, he started over towards it.

When he reached it, Alia was scribbling something on a piece of paper, striking out words and rewriting rapidly. Seating himself in the chair in front, he cleared his throat loudly.

Alia flinched so dramatically that she hit her head against the side of the booth and she cursed in some incomprehensible tongue, rubbing her head. "Calvin! You could not scare me, you know!"

The boy grinned apologetically. “You seemed pretty intent on the piece of paper, and I figured that any given method I used to alert you might produce a similar reaction. Could I ask what had you so engrossed in your writing?”

"Ah, no, it's nothing really," she folded the paper hastily and slipped it into her pocket, but he still caught sight of the words 'Prophetic Sayings' written at the top in bold.

He blinked for a moment, before giving a mental shrug. “If you say so. I certainly think there is quite a bit you would not wish for me to go prying into, so I will not if you do not want me to. I take it you are working the crowd, evaluating relationships, stuff like that?”

"Maybe I'll show you next time," she tried to grin apologetically. "And I'm not 'working the crowd'! I am contributing to the vivacity of deep relationships and bolstering the atmosphere of love!" She nodded in satisfaction.

“Oh, of course. We would not want to ruin the atmosphere of excited hormones, would we now?”

"Hah, of course not. What's up, Calvin? Got a special friend you want me to, what did you say, evaluate your relationship with?"

He gave a shrug. “Nope. I am pretty sure I mentioned this to you before, did I not? I have not had anyone like that.” He shot her a mischievous glance. “You?”

Alia indicated herself with a deprecatory spread of her hands. "Does it look like anyone would be interested? I'm just the fortune-teller," she said, with only the slightest touch of bitterness.

He shrugged. “Well, I do not know if I would be an especially good judge of that, but according to some more knowledgeable people I know, chances are somebody would.”

"Oh? Who is?" Alia asked with genuine curiosity.

The boy raised his hands in the air in mock exasperation. “Given that I have expressed a lack of knowledge on the subject, why would you think that I would know? That is just what Marc always says whenever he gets shot down by a girl. Or a guy. Which only happened once, but it still counts.”

"Oh." Alia sat back disappointedly. "I thought you meant you'd heard someone express interest in me. As much as I would love to be flattered like that," she sighed, "I don't have to lie to myself; I'm too out of place."

“Hey, do not be sad like that!” Calvin bopped her gently on the head. “I do not worry about it much, and I am doing just fine. There is no use dwelling on stuff like that, or you will just be sad all the time.” He gave her a smile. “Or at the very least learn to fake being happy all the time for your customers, you know?”

"Ow, hey-" she glared up at him. "It's not so simple as that. I'm only twelve, see," Alia said, as if that alone explained everything.

Calvin opened his mouth, paused in place for a long moment, before closing it again. He glanced Alia over quickly, his expression turning from confusion to some form of acceptance. “You have so many hidden things about you, it would seem. How did you get to be a freshman two years early? Predict your way into good grades, or something?”

"How did you guess?" She grinned at him. "No, I just did a bunch of tests, they told me I was smart, I told them I knew that, and, well, here I am."

He theatrically gasped, face covered in feigned shock. “I guessed correctly? I must be psychic as well!” Expression reverting to normal, he gave her a long look. “Well, being two years younger than another else you have classes with would feel somewhat alienating. You do not have any particular friends your own age?”

Alia shrugged. "Not really. Sort of. Couldn't really talk to them. Mostly it was me talking and not understanding. So I skipped three years and.. and I find I'm even more out of place up here. I just want to.. I'd just like.. I don't know."

“Well, I cannot say precisely that I could help you with that - I mean, I could introduce you to some of my friends, but you are still going to be five years younger than them.” He gave her a helpless look. “I would like to say that I can help you with that, but in all honesty I do not know what I could do to help you feel like you are fitting in.”

"It's okay," Alia said without much conviction. "I don't know what anyone can do either. Maybe I could hang out with you and your friends once in a while.."

He grinned at her as infectiously as he could manage. “There is no could! There is only will!”

She managed a small smile. "Thanks, Calvin. I appreciate it. So, yeah. Nobody's interested in a little child," she laughed. "It just doesn't make sense, I guess. Maybe I should try setting you up with people."

He chuckled. “You can scheme with Marc on that, I suspect that was part of why he dragged me here in the first place. And it does make a certain amount of sense, anyway. You are young, and most people generally go for someone about their own age. Maybe in a couple of years you will have better luck.”

"Luck? I make my own luck," she grinned, hands reaching for a deck of cards and shuffling, then she cut the deck into two, flipped both sides onto each other. On the top lay the Lovers. "I don't mind an older guy, he'd be more mature-ish."

“I suppose so. I think that might be a bit of a fallacy to completely correlate maturity and age, but it is something that for about ninety percent of the population seems to happen.”

"Feh. Oh, by the way, something weird happened the other day. I was doing some card reading for a girl, and then there was this.. suddenly there was a whole lot of crows all around us and then they stared at us. I took the opportunity to chant, of course, but then the birds kind of swooped at me, touch-and-go and flew off. Really weird behavior for crows."

He frowned, tilting his head to the side as he thought. “Well, bird flocks do tend to land on the roof and fields, so that is not really weird, but they swarmed you?”

"Swarm is one word for it. I mean, they didn't attack me, just flew into my booth, touched me with their wings, then flew right back out."

“That is weird, yes. I mean, I assume you were not covered in food or something, but that is not normal behavior for crows by any means. And I also assume you did not get scratched or anything, but in any case an entire flock having some sort of disease would be ridiculously unlikely…” he shrugged helplessly. “I am at as much of a loss as you.”

"Yeah.. didn't think you had an answer. But then.. the girl I was doing a reading for? Yeah... she sort of..." Alia's eyes shifted from side to side guiltily. "She sort of thinks I'm a prophetess now."

“Well. That is…” he tried to formulate words for a moment. “That is a leap of logic I do not think I understand. I mean, I can easily see how the crows would have freaked her out, and if you decided to play up the whole mysterious fortune-teller thing while it was going on, I guess I can see how she might have reached that conclusion, but still…”

"Yeah.. what I was writing? It's kind of related to that.."

“How so? Are you going to play this up, try to claim some sort of connection to...I do not know, gods, ghosts?”

Alia spread her hands helplessly. "Whatever I say, she'll assume that connection. So, the way I see it, I can maybe get her to give me a bit of publicity and then I get to have a few extra customers. I'll try not to overdo it."

He gave her a small grin. “Well, since you are running a business, I cannot say that working with the trends to increase your revenue is at all a bad thing. Heh, if you play your cards right,” he tapped the deck on the table between them, “then you could have them eating out of your hands, or something like that. I am sure there are more than a few people in this school, this girl included, who would eat up stuff like what you do.”

"Don't make me sound like a scammer! I'm just commodifying the future truth. People sell futures all the time on the stock market; I'm just being more moral and selling truth."

Calvin chuckled at her defensiveness. “Regardless of how you phrase it, they would likely still eat it up. I do not quite get why they would do it, but then again, I lean towards science rather than anything mystical, no offense intended.”

Alia stood and spread her arms wide, then glanced self-consciously behind. "Ordinarily, a murder of crows would swoop in and prove you wrong, but I think I can hold off proving you wrong."

“Also, that would ruin the dance, at the cost of ‘proving’ your mystical abilities.” He grinned. “Ah, but I suppose that you will figure out something that you can do with this reputation of yours. You are smart, after all.”

"Ah, I'd ruin a dance any day. What is a dance? A miserable pile of jigs!" Alia flicked the Lovers card into the air, watching it pirouette and fall smoothly into the crowd. "By the way, I got the license for Mishra," then she disguised the next couple of words with a cough, "and Urza."

Calvin had been following the flight of the card, and pulled his attention back, missing the end of the sentence. “Hmm? Oh, you obtained a license for her? I…” he paused somewhat self-consciously. “I doubt asking how would be a good idea, but at least now she can be checked for rabies, or other diseases. Do you feel comfortable going by yourself, or would you want me to come along with you?”

"Yes, now they can be checked," she agreed none too enthusiastically. "I guess it'd be better for you to come along. I don't know how convincing it'll be that I have some bats and managed to get licenses, being twelve and all."

“That is a good point. Do not worry, after this I will stop badgering you about the-wait.” He paused, staring at her. “Plural bats?”

"Uh.. haha, uh.." she gave an awkward laugh. "Yeah, there's a funny story behind them.."

He stared at her for a long moment, before raising his head to look at the ceiling. “So, how many animals do you have, exactly?” He pulled his head back down to look at her.

"See, the two bats don't technically belong to me. Neither does the ferret. I do have another cat though. And the parrot is my parents'." She added lamely.

He chuckled slightly. “No wonder we get along - we both have a bunch of experience taking care of animals.” His expression turned a bit more serious for a moment. “That being said...at this point, if you have managed to take care of a bat for a few years successfully, finding out about a second is not precisely disrupting, I guess would be the word.”

"Like I said, they take care of themselves. My house just.. has a bit of space. Like yours. Big. Ish."

“If you have that many animals, I would hope that you have a large enough house!” He grinned, seriousness seeming gone. “Having a large group of them confined in a small area never works out well, you know?”

"I don't have to guess," she rolled her eyes. "But it helps when the cats just like lying around all day. Well, Cassadra, anyway. Lord Windgrace never stops prowling. Amon's just... on my shoulder. Not that much space needed. I think you need the space. Boa, dogs, mice, your side's a lot more energetic."

He nodded emphatically. “I have been told by unprepared guests that it is something of a mad house. The dogs especially are energetic, bouncing all around the house. The ones we keep in cages are less of an issue as a result, but the dogs being excited and riling up the cats are more than enough a lot of the time.”

"I'd suggest bringing my animals to your house, but I find myself more than a little concerned for the safety of the bats. And Amon. And- well, you get the drift."

He nodded. “Different environments, different expectations. On occasion we have taken care of neighbors pets while they are away on vacation, or trips, and often they are overwhelmed when we take them over to our house to socialize, and have a change of pace.”

"I can guess how they feel," she nodded sympathetically.

He smiled at her. “Hey, I think it is fine, but growing up in such an environment biases me in that regard.”

Alia pulled out a set of poker cards from under the booth. "Hey, you wanna play something?"

He re-positioned his chair, turning to face her completely. “What do you have in mind?”

"Something fun, hm.. here," she passed him the set, then pulled out a second deck. "Shuffle, draw and deal continuously. If we deal the same card, whoever calls out 'snap' first gets to give the other the cards. Whoever gets zero cards wins."

He took the deck, shuffling it. “Ah, simple, but by no means a short game. This should fill the time nicely.” He gave her a confident grin, ready to deal out the first card. “Are you ready?”

"Prepare to lose," she told him solemnly. "I already know what you'll deal." And so saying, they began.

[RussetDivinity]

The party was in full swing when Likovya slipped out. Well, it was as full swing as a high school dance could get. Having tagged along to a few of the parties at the community college, she was rather underwhelmed, but she couldn't deny that it had been getting rather hot and stuffy. She had given Fitzroy a quick kiss, said she was off to find a bathroom, and vanished into the crowds. Rather than stopping at one of the restrooms, she headed straight for the front doors and burst out into the night, enjoying the sudden goosebumps that rose along her arms. She was so eager to get outside that she hadn't bothered looking to see if she was alone, and so the sudden, quiet singing surprised her.

"Who do you think you are, barging in on me and my guitar? Little girl, hey, the door is that way --"

"Roger!" she cried, turning and hurrying to him as fast as she could in her heels. The man set his cigarette on the edge of the trashcan's ashtray and swept her into his arms.

"Hello, Mimi. Happy Valentine's Day."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, stepping back so she could take a look at him. He didn't look quite as wiry as he had the year before, and his light brown hair had grown out a bit. "I thought you'd want to get as far away from this place as you could." That had been the gist of what he had said at his graduation, and they had nearly revoked his diploma for leaning across the stage to say it into the microphone.

"I wanted to see you again. Is that such a crime?" He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and took up his cigarette again, careful to blow the smoke away from her face. "Why couldn't you have been here since your freshman year? We could have played off each other so much more."

"I was busy getting expelled from a public school in Seattle. They're a lot less tolerant of freshmen who carry around knives in their pockets."

The man laughed. "Can I ask you a weird question?"

"Sure." She couldn't think what he didn't know about her already; they had worked on two plays together the previous year and knew each other better than brother and sister.

"Why do you call me Roger?"

"Because I don't like your name."

"What's wrong with Geoffrey?"

Likovya shrugged. "It's spelled funny. Besides, you always call me Mimi."

"It was the first role I saw you in. I didn't know such a strong voice could come out of such a little body, or that a sophomore could dance like that. You were wonderful." He took another drag. "I don't really like your name, either."

"What's wrong with Likovya?"

"Likovya Kerensky," he said. "The whole thing. It sounds Russian, or Slavic, or something. You look more like a Mimi Marquez, or... no. You look kind of Middle Eastern." He scrutinized her carefully in the harsh light from the streetlamps. "That was a dumb thing to say, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Are you drunk?"

"A little. Friend and I split a flask of... something."

Likovya reached up and patted his cheek. He had started shaving, apparently, and the stubble of last year was gone. "Are you going to make it home okay?"

"Yeah. Hell, if nothing else, I can hang out at a diner and text Fitzroy."

"Are you sure?"

He bent and kissed the top of her head. "I'll be fine, Mimi. Go back inside and get warm. I bet your boyfriend's waiting." There was an edge of bitterness to his voice, but that could have come from the song he started up. "Take your hair in the moonlight, your dark eyes, good-bye, good night."

"Good night," she said, giving him a quick hug. "Call me when you wake up tomorrow. I've missed you." Acting didn't feel the same without him. Mimi to his Roger, Lady M to his Mackers... the two of them had played opposite each other in her first roles at Reach High, and she had gotten used to showing up at rehearsal and sitting next to him while they waited for their scenes. Robin was a brilliant Algernon, but she didn't feel quite that same connection, that same knowledge that she could metaphorically leap blindly and know he would catch her.

When she returned to the dance, Fitzroy grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. "You almost missed this," he said, swinging her into a quick-paced dance to a jazzy tune. "They only play one jazz song a night, I think."

As she did her best to keep up, her melancholy mostly vanished.

[eli_gone_crazy]

The lab was crowded and silent by the time Anji walked through the door. The professor, a weasely old man with a shock of orange-white hair, turned to face her. “Well, nice to finally see you, Miss…. Torvan. Please, have a seat next to Miss Hunter.”

Making a face, Anji surveyed the room, looking for ‘Miss Hunter’. The only open desk was next to a small girl with brown hair, who apparently hadn’t noticed Anji come in. Biting her lip, Anji nodded to the professor and walked back to the table. She quickly slid her bag under the desk and sat down, putting her earbuds on the table.

The professor had already resumed his drone about factoring polynomials or whatever by the time Anji had gotten her tattered notebook out of the equally tattered bookbag. Glancing at ‘Miss Hunter’, she quietly cleared her throat. “Hello.”

The girl looked up. “Hi.” She looked back down again and resumed writing.

Anji stared at her for a moment longer, before biting her lip again and turning her attention to the groove another student had carved into the wood and varnish. The professor seemed to finally run out of wind, and turned to the class. “All right then, now that you all understand the work, pair up and solve the problems on the handout. I expect them to be done by the next class.”

Anji gulped. She looked desperately around the room for a familiar face, and found none. Sighing, she looked over at ‘Miss Hunter’, who was still doggedly writing. Anji rolled her eyes, and tapped out a quick rhythm on her notebook, which was still closed, even with the cover missing. “So, uh, think I could borrow that sheet when you’re done?”

‘Miss Hunter’ finally looked up again, meeting her eyes for a split second before looking away. “I can’t help you,” she said.

“Ah, come on!” Anji leaned closer, grinning through a split lip. “It’s not like it’s a test or anything. You’d just be helping me… Check my work. I swear I’ll have it back by lunch.”

Hunter shook her head. “That’s not helping you. That’s doing the work for you. You don’t want to be in this class, and you don’t want to learn anything. I can’t help you.” Her voice was almost as monotonous as the teacher’s.

“Yeah, okay. I got it.” Anji slid away brusquely. Shooting another glare towards ‘Miss Hunter’, she pulled out her phone and began tabbing through the menu.

Unfortunately, the teacher chose that moment to walk up behind them. “Miss Torvan, where is your work?”

“Uh,” Anji colored, slipping her phone back into her pocket and staring at the blank page. “I was just getting started on it.”

He nodded, clearly skeptical. “All right. And make sure you help Miss Hunter with her work. She’s a freshman, and she might be overwhelmed.”

‘Miss Hunter’ was already starting on her third page. Anji didn’t think the assignment was even that long. Laughing breathily, Anji swallowed and nodded, turning to the page with wide eyes. She waited until the professor was out of earshot before whispering, “Damnit.”

‘Miss Hunter’ was still scribbling away, and Anji gave another eye roll before stopping. “You forgot to carry that exponent.”

Hunter stopped writing. She blinked, then erased half of the problem and started again. “Thank you.”

“No biggie.” Anji turned to her own paper, frowning at the unintelligible swirls of numbers, letters, and lines.

Some time into her drug and sleep-deprived stupor, someone pushed a separate piece of paper onto her desk. “Finish the problem.”

It was Hunter. Anji gawked at her. “What?”

Hunter was staring at her intently. “You corrected my work. You know more than you’re letting on. Finish the problem.” Her voice hadn’t left its monotone, but there seemed to be an edge in it.

Scowling, Anji stared at the paper for a moment, her voice taking a belligerent tone. “Why do you want me solving the problem, Miss Hunter?”

“My initial hypothesis was that you didn’t care about the material this class provides, and were thus incapable of learning it. I want to know if my hypothesis is in error.”

“Uh… Okay then.” Anji turned back to the page, and stared at it for a moment longer. “I can’t solve this. There isn’t enough to go off of.”

Hunter continued to stare at her. Anji glowered, and turned back to the page, quickly marring it with a dull pencil. After a few moments, she said tentatively, “Y is equal to the square root of five.”

Hunter nodded. “That’s correct.”

“And why did you do that?”

Hunter didn’t smile, although Anji thought she saw the corner of her mouth twitch. “Because now I can help you.”

Anji opened her mouth to speak as the bell rang, signalling the end of the period. Nodding, she put away her notebook. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

Hunter nodded again. “Be ready.”

[Lordxana0]

It was dull and Vinny was bored. Those two things happening at the same time didn't look conductive to allowing someone in this school to continue living an unmolested life. The problem was that he didn't know exactly who to target. Oh it wasn't that there weren't a number of targets whose lives he could mess up forever without feeling bad about it, in this hellhole he had more targets than a man should ever have the right to ask for. No it was that he lacked that certain spark he normally drew from. He needed a target that not only deserved his ire, but also sparked the muse within his soul.

"Could firebomb the soccer practice... no that would mess up the field and only half the team is comprised of jerks... maybe I should replace the soap in the second floor girls bathroom with ink... naw too much work to produce ink..." he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, still having not even the slightest idea what he was going to do. There had to be someone that deserved his special brand of wrath.

Inspiration struck him like a metric ton of falling bricks as the massive gym instructor pushed past him and toward the gym without a word of apology. In that one action he had provided Vinny with all sorts of fun and interesting ideas. The kind of ideas that made for laughs and cheers. For him at least, it wasn't like he could go and care about what ever little person wanted or thought about, he would be busy all the time if that was the case.

Now then, the important part of a prank was figuring out why the person deserved to be pranked in the first place. The gym teacher had bumped into him, and that would allow for something small, but Vinny was feeling something big at the moment, something that would be crazy and make no sense.

He pulled out his phone and opened his file on the teachers in the school, summoning up the gym teacher file and flipping through it. "Okay, aggressive, mean to students, smokes on... smokes on campus!" he locked the phone and a dark look crossed his face. "There are kids with allergies and clean lungs here, people shouldn't be smoking on campus!"

He stormed into the chem classroom and looked around, promptly realizing that he was actually suppose to be in History right now, he figured this out by having an entire classroom turn to look at him. Of course he was in justice mode right now, so he ignored the students and went to work in his personal lab at the back, grabbing chemicals and getting to work. The teacher sighed and just went about teaching, being used to this kind of thing by now.

The class passed and Vinny stood up and walked out of the classroom without another word, carrying his new mixture in a small glass beaker.

The next part was a bit difficult. He had to gain access to the gym teachers office. Thankfully the schools black market always had a lockpick or to handy, and after swapping some crisp bills to a kid doing his damnedest not to look suspicious he was on his way. The lock opened easily, like all of the locks in this God forgotten place. Once in it was easy to find the gym teachers cigs and replace them with his own special mixture, leaving with a whistle and a smile.

Inspiration.
**
Vinny was sitting at one of the many tables in the lunch room, enjoying a sandwich he had brought from home and trying to remember how the theme to an old cartoon show went. His thoughts were interrupted by another person sitting down, the infamous hall monitor Salvantas, who backed up his goth look by being able to kick more ass than anyone without formal training should have. "I heard the gym teacher got pretty sick today." Salvantas said it as a statement, but it was obviously an accusation.

"Did he?" Vinny asked, putting his sandwich down and turning toward Salvantas.

"Yes, they say that in the middle of having the kids run laps he start vomiting a bright pink substance and had to have an ambulance called to pick him up." Salvantas spoke casually, but he was watching the person across from him with focused intent.

"Hm, he should watch what he puts into himself" Vinny shrugged and suppressed a smile.

Salvantas looked at the chem master for a moment before standing up. "You usually aren't a problem for me and mine, and the gym teacher deserved the payment for what he did. Stay low for a few days and go to your classes. If you don't than I will be forced to think you are playing out of the rules and will come down on you" he walked away without another word, back to his patrol.

"Spoil sport" Vinny sighed and took another bite. "Return to boredom I suppose."