Crystal & Lorna, Crystal's suite.

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Lorna plays room service in order to get Crystal to talk to her. Things don't go terribly but that's probably all that can be said for it.



"Thanks, Eric." Lorna handed the delivery boy a generous tip (local delivery types called it hazard pay and considered a good tip their due for going out to the school) and accepted the bag of food from him. "Have a good night." She closed the door as he ran back to his car and peeked inside, inhaling the spicy scent. Mmm, Chinese. She really should do a good stir-fry soon.

She hummed tunelessly to herself as she wandered upstairs and knocked on the door of a student suite. "Room service," she sang out merrily. She felt a little bad for the entrapment but really, this had gone on long enough.

Room service? Someone was getting a little carried away. Delivery was not the same thing as room service. Shrugging lightly, Crystal put down the book she had been reading and went to the door. Once the door was open, her eyes widened when she saw the person on the other side. Miss Lorna Dane. The dreaded Goddess of Cooking, she whose domain was the kitchen and everything in it. The one who had lashed out at Crystal for no reason that Crystal could conceive. Shocked, Crystal could manage only one word: "Hello."

"Kung Pao Chicken, right?" Lorna held up the bag and smiled cheerfully, trying to come off as just a tall, thin woman in blue jeans, not a horrifying creature of myth and legend. "I never got a response to my email. I figured I should come by with a personal apology too just in case we had server glitch or something. Can I come in?" Her tone was light and breezy, with the laid-back laziness of all Californian accents.

"What?" Crystal blinked, confused. "Your email? Oh, I am so sorry. I did not realize that your email necessitated a response. I believed it was in response to my note to you." So she can talk to me without using a barrage of insults? Crystal gave Lorna a polite smile and held the door open wider. "Yes, please come in."

Lorna slipped in past her. "Well, it didn't, really. I just didn't know if the radio silence meant that you didn't get it or didn't forgive me. It's not an excuse but that particular week I was…very out of sorts. I'd just gotten back from my friend's funeral and I wasn't dealing very well." Not to mention all the other nonsense that had gone on at the same time. Lorna sighed and set the Chinese on the coffee table.

Crystal turned around to face Lorna. "I didn't know that. I'm sorry to hear about your friend." Not that that is a good reason to lash out at a newcomer you've never even met. Crystal hesitated for a moment, then closed the door. She highly doubted that Lorna was there to attack her either physically or verbally. "I am assuming that if you were in the mood for Chinese, you would have kept the food, but seeing how you decided to play room service, I would surmise that you wanted an excuse to come speak with me. You could have just come by without intercepting my dinner." A slight smile played across Crystal's lips. "I'm not Marius. I don't bite." True, she could send someone flying with a large gust of wind, hit a person with a concentrated air blast, and even play with the air pressure, but biting was not something she did.

Lorna straightened and shrugged, "Guilty as charged. I figured that if I had your food you were less likely to slam the door in my face. You've been doing a good job of avoiding me up until now." She waved at the Chinese. "You can go ahead and eat. I really just wanted to get a chance to meet you in person and let you know that contrary to my terrible first impression, I'm really not a horrific ogre. There are even people, crazy through they might be, who think I'm pretty cool." She gave a half-smile and backed off from the table, running her hand through her hair.

Crystal's semi-amused expression turned to one of pure horror. "Slam the door in your face!? I would never do such a thing! Purposely staying out of your path is one thing; slamming a door in the face of anyone, especially an adult, is another matter entirely! I am still trying to figure out where I went wrong as to my first impression here, but I am not the rude, uncouth person people seem to think I am!"

Lorna shook her head, "That's a pity. Most of us actually are. Americans in general tend to be casual and a little rude. It wouldn't have been the first time I'd had a door shut in my face. Literally or figuratively speaking." She tilted her head to the side. "What's bothering you about the way people are treating you?"

Crystal had to fight hard to stop herself from frowning. She definitely hadn't planned on getting into this type of conversation with the woman who had come down on her the hardest. Nothing anyone else had said or done compared with Lorna's harsh words. "Just... things. They don't understand me and I don't understand them. However, I don't try to play tricks on them or say cruel things for no reason. I won't lie and say that I only think nice things, but there is a tremendous difference between thinking something and actually saying it." And there's a big difference between saying something without thinking and actually going out of your way to type an insult. Crystal was still in shock at Illyana's words on Mondo's journal.

"Well, the fastest way to fix the not understanding problem is to spend more time with them. Unpleasant, uncouth barbarians thought they might be." Lorna smiled slightly and tucked her hands into her pockets. "I saw Jennie's entry. Are you two still having problems?"

"Our situation is much better now. I believe that we have agreed to disagree on certain... personality traits, and are attempting to get along in a civilized fashion." Luckily, this conclusion had been reached with the only physical casualties being a pair of shoes and a CD player.

"That's good. Learning to live with a roommate is…trying. I'm an only child myself so you can imagine what it was like for me. I went from being the only person with my parents' attention to being, well, here." She gestured vaguely, taking in the whole mansion with barely a twist of her wrist and a flick of her fingers. "Did you go to private schools all your life? I know that William and Harry were sent to private schools." Every female of a certain age knew at least a little bit about the princes of England. Because cute crosses oceans just fine.

"Well, it's not that I haven't lived with people, or even people around my age," Crystal responded. "I only have one sibling, but I've always lived in the same household with my cousins. And no, I didn't go to private schools." Crystal sighed inwardly, afraid of what Lorna might say to Crystal's next words. "I've always been tutored at home."

"Home schooled, so this is probably like my shellshock times a hundred." Lorna didn't seem even the slightest bit fazed by the idea. "No wonder you're having trouble. By and large what I've seen just watching you interact on the journals, the kids are treating you, well, pretty much like they'd treat anyone. They tease and joke around and expect you to get all this. People in general, they start out by expecting people to fit in. But you don't play by the same social rules so there are problems. They don't call you princess because they think you are. They call you princess for the same reason they'd call anyone princess," she smiled a bit apologetically, "they're teasing you. It's a personality to them, not a style."

"I have not heard anyone else called 'princess' or 'Your Highness'. I do understand that they know I'm not actually a princess, but I don't think they're trying to be nice when they say it." Crystal was fairly certain most people were trying to be mean when they said it. As far as she was concerned, Forge was the only one who hadn't made such a comment in an attempt to hurt her feelings. "I may not play by their social rules, but as far as I am concerned, this is a good thing. In our circles, no one would ever even think that someone else would slam a door in his or her face due to a disagreement. It is not proper etiquette."

Lorna shrugged, "Welcome to New York. No one likes to be treated like they're inferior and frankly, kid, assuming that because the rules are different they're not as good, totally covers that. You've got a couple of choices, try to be friendly and not just polite or continue to think of them as not worth your time and not 'your circle'." Her tone wasn't without sympathy. Either choice was going to be hard.

Being called "kid" in this way was no different than being called "princess." Crystal tried her best to mask her irritation at the woman standing in front of her. "They can play by their rules. I will continue to play by mine. I will not allow myself to behave in what I consider to be an inappropriate manner. Others may do as they see fit. If this makes you think I regard others as inferior, fine. I accept that I am the outsider, that my ways are the strange ones here, but I will not attempt to act in certain ways just because that is what everyone else is doing." Crystal's attempt to remain calm failed and she was unable to keep her voice from growing just a bit louder.

"Sounds like you're setting yourself up for a rough time," Lorna sighed, "But it's not a crime to do that so I won't try to convince you otherwise. I'll let you eat your dinner now. Oh for the record, I teach Philosophy, Cooking and Earth Science. I don't, however, teach Beginning Cooking. That's a job for someone with more patience than I." She shrugged, reflecting that she was very glad she wasn't 16 anymore. It was too much effort. "Good night, Crystal."

Crystal recalled Terry's words about Remedial Cooking. It sounded like the Kitchen Goddess had finally met someone upon whom she didn't want to attempt to impart cooking skills. Crystal opened the door for Lorna. "Good night, Miss Dane. Thank you for coming by to speak with me." Although the conversation had not gone as well as it could have, Crystal's words were sincere. Lorna had made an attempt. That was all that mattered.