Lorna and Angel, back dated to right before dinner

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Lorna finds Angel in the kitchen, still trying to work through this whole _boy_ thing and gives her some advice. And Angel's sense of humor strikes again.



An apple held firmly in her teeth, Angel glared at the paper before her and erased something. She tapped her pencil, leaning her head back a bit so she didn't drip juices down her neck. Her jaw was totally killing her but she'd take the apple out as soon as she finished writing this next thing. Juice on her was doable, juice on the paper meant having to go back and print it out and start all over again.

Lorna was carrying her own paper into the kitchen, frowning at the meal plan her very unhappy nutritionist had shoved at her when she'd finally darkened his door again. Relapses sucked. Now she had therapy and doctor visits and meds and all that other nonsense all over again. However the sight of a student made her shove the resentment down. The fact that it was Angel made her smile. "Hey, kiddo, whatcha working on? Homework?"

"Mpph!" Putting down her pencil, she took the apple out of her mouth and quickly wiped her mouth. "Hiya, Ms. D. Homework? Um..." Angel glanced down at the paper and, oddly, blushed from her neckline all the way to the roots of her hair. "It's, um, a personal...project-y thing. One I'd, you know, never thought I'd be doing..."

Lorna blinked, that was definitely an strange reaction for a personal project. "Never thought you'd be doing, hmm. How so? Is something wrong?" She paused behind Angel and peeked over her shoulder to see if she could help in any way.

"No, not wrong...just..." Angel sheepishly pulled her arm away from the paper. It was set up like a logic problem book, only it listed a good number of names from the school--all male--and length of time. "I'm kind of trying to figure out this whole crushing on boys thing and how long it lasts and oh God I'm a dork."

Don't laugh at the students when they're not trying to be funny, Lorna. Don't you dare laugh. Keeping a straight face took effort but she managed it. "How long does crushing last or how long does the whole being randomly attracted last?" Lorna pulled the paper closer to her so she could examine it a bit more closely. "This is way more scientific than I ever was about it."

"It was either that or hide under my bed," Angel said, leaning her head on her hand. "I mean, I didn't even really like them until Halloween and then bam! Like in Emeril, only with hormones and sticky hands. It was like my head was making up for lost time or something, you know? So a list to make sure I don't explode." And she glanced at the list again, grateful the blush was going away. "I'm tracking how long the crushing lasts."

This time Lorna let herself chuckle a little bit, "And hope that you can find a pattern?" She moved away to gather her dinner together. "So how's it going? Discovered the secrets to unlocking the mystery of woman and man? If you do, you can totally write a book about it and make a hundred million dollars."

"I'd so buy a monkey if I had that much money." Taking a second take a bite out of her apple, she chewed and then swallowed. "Well, it seems that I'm either fickle or we have a whole lot of very hot guys in the mansion and my hormones are going 'Ooh, ohh that one! ...no now that one!'. It's really, like, a whole day mooning over one boy and then I'm onto the next one. Is that normal?"

Lorna grinned at her, "Completely. And yes, there does seem to be an unnaturally large population of attractive people in the mansion. Makes it very easy for your hormones to decide that it has to be attracted to everyone all at the same time. Which can feel a lot like being on a merry-go-round that's going too fast."

Angel's face lit up with relief. "Oh good. I thought I was just going insane. I was even giving my--but not my--boys a wide birth because your best friends really shouldn't have butts that look that good." She scrunched up her nose. "And if you neglect to ever tell them I said that, I'd be eternally grateful."

"I can't imagine it will ever come up but I promise your secret is safe with me." It took a moment for Lorna to remember who Angel's boys would be. After a short time, memory of the Halloween party and discussions about stolen underwear came to mind. Julio and Kyle, then. Well, now. "Crushing, especially on your best friends, is a time honored and incredibly awkward teenage tradition. I feel head over heels for my best friend's brother. He was 17 and he had a brand new cherry red Mustang."

"Oohh." There wasn't a whole lot about cars that Angel knew but she knew pretty. "What did you do?" she asked, curious, leaning her head on her crossed arms. Always one for stories, it didn't help that this might actually contain good advice.

"I hung out at her house every day. And we begged him for rides to the mall." Lorna grinned and leaned on the counter, "He had this...really awful actually, taste in music but I learned everything about his favorite bands. I think I still have my Reel Big Fish albums. You're too young to remember ska, aren't you?" She sighed and shrugged, "But alas, it was not meant to be. He was dating the prom queen at his school. I got over him pretty quickly though and moved on to Scott Michaels. He was on the Debate team at the local high school."

Giggling, Angel grinned up at her, peeking through her red bangs. "My mom once said that flashy cars were compensating for something. I'm not quite sure what that thing is but it's missing. Except Mr. Summer's. I don't know what he wouldn't have...oh, except an eye but I don't think you can compensate for an eye with a car..."

Lorna's eyes widened and she dissolved into helpless giggles, clapping her hand over her mouth. Oh God. Oh God. Out of the mouth of babes and thank god that Scott wasn't a telepath and Jean wasn't here because she'd be smote right about now with righteous wrath and.... She was running out of air from laughter. "I...uh, it's...Mr. Summer just like fast cars is all."

Innocently as possible--though she was grinning with sheer glee despite knowing that there was probably a part of the joke she just didn't get--she held out her glass of water. "Drink?" she asked, ducking a potential newspaper smack. Despite Ms. D not having a newspaper, she'd seen her in action with Marius. "Fast and shiny cars and bikes apparently," she continued cheerfully.

"Brat," Lorna retorted, finally getting her amusement under control. She was going to have a horrible time keeping a straight face the next time she ran into Scott. "Okay, so. You're trying to figure out how long crushes last. What's the verdict so far?" Better turn this back around to the topic at hand before Angel said something else outrageous and caused Lorna to laugh herself into apoplexy.

Snickering, Angel nonetheless behaved herself. Putting the glass back down, she double tucked hair behind her ears. "A day, two at the most," she responded. "And then it's just, you know, realizing that their cute and not, thankfully, scribbling my first name with their last. Not that I've done that or anything. Nope, not at all. And then there are a few that aren't going away, drat them all."

"A day or two. Okay, that's just about regular. Who are the ones who are sticking around? Guys your own age? Or are you into the older men?" Not that Lorna was at all trying to see if Angel's boys were her "boys".

"No older ones," she mused, flipping through the notes before. "It's like after 21 and my brain goes 'Oh, too old'. Probably because of the potential of being arrested thing." The blush was back. "The ones that are staying are ones that really shouldn't be staying around..."

"Shouldn't? Why shouldn't? Are they taken? Because, like I said, best friend's brother. Dating the prom queen. It's not like your brain listens to stuff like that and all's fair in love and crushes." She didn't take offense to the 21 is old thing. Sometimes she felt old even. "Maybe we can figure out why they're sticking around if you tell me who they are."

She had to concentrate to keep the tips of her ears from literally flaming. "Juliomarius...Kyle keeps bouncing back and forth," Angel coughed. "It's awkward. Is it supposed to be awkward? Because it is. And they're boys so they don't notice. Well, I think Marius noticed when I manifested the liking of boys thing but Julio and sometimesKyle don't."

Lorna carefully filed that away for the subtle sounding out of Julio on the subject next training class. "Marius probably did. Some guys always do, it's like a radar they have. Yeah, it can be but it can be kinda fun too. Once you just accept that, hey, this is what happens around a certain age, you're good to go. You can just enjoy it when your brain goes all 'hey, lookit him!' Doesn't mean that you have to do anything with that feeling."

"Oh good, because right now it feels like it's clinging and chewing on my brain meats. And I know it's a brand new thing and that eventually the shiny will wear off but man, it feels like my head's going to come off." She glanced up at Lorna. "Does it get better as you get older?"

Lorna started to nod then thought about it. "Yes and no. You're never going to not notice attractive guys again. But it won't always be this demanding." She thought of her reaction to Alex, the first time they'd met. It was so cliche that it hurt but she'd literally been speechless. Of course, she'd only been 19 then too and such a different person than she was today. "Right now your brain is like...a new puppy. It's running around and it's into everything and it's destroying your shoes by the pair. It needs a bit of time to calm down and get used to this."

"Too bad I can't take a sedative for noticing guys until the shiny wears off," Angel grumbled. Shaking her head, she turned back to Lorna. "Thanks for the advice, I feel a lot better now. It was...hard, you know? My mom and I get along great but she's on the other side of the country. And my dad would have locked me in my room."

"It's not nice to sedate puppies." Lorna laughed, though she had a sudden pang of missing her own puppy. "Dads do that. My own took to threatening my dates with a shotgun. It was totally old-school. Some guy would show up to pick me up and Dad would be in the living room, cleaning his shotgun. It was crazy."

"Remind me never to ask you on a date...not that I would because apparently I don't find girls attractive like that. It says so in the notes. And my dad would probably just threaten someone with his cane. But he's kind of big so I guess that just adds to the scary of being owned by a guy with a cane."

"I've talked him out of it. Mostly. I think." Lorna just grinned. "You're gonna be fine, Angel. Take a deep breath and count to ten when your brain is freaking out and see if that helps. And if those crushes don't go away, hey, it's not the end of the world."

"And I'll try to remember not to set my crushes on fire just so I can escape."