Clarice and Sarah: An older, somewhat psychotic sister.

[x-marrow.livejournal.com]

Sunday afternoon, Sarah and Clarice bump into each other out on the lawn. They swap stories, and make plans to cause trouble clubbing like they used to. Sarah is such a bad influence.



She'd been spending far too much time at the mansion. At least, Sarah thought so as she found herself wandering the grounds again, looking for a good place to have a quiet cigarette or two. Settling herself next to a tree, she pulled her cigarettes from her coat pocket, and began fishing for her lighter in her other pocket.

Clarice had wandered outside to take a break from studying. Spotting Sarah under a tree, she decided to take her snack over there, "Still smoking like a chimney, huh?" she commented, sitting down with a soda and leftover Thanksgiving jello salad. Mmm, jello.

"Of course." Sarah nodded, one hand stuffed in her pocket and the other holding her lit cigarette. "Why stop now? It still isn't going to kill me."

"You smell nasty though," she said, wrinkling her nose and taking a bite of her jello. Smoking was one thing she had never done and never planned on doing, ever. Although now that she thought about it, she'd really given up her biggest vice. "And it makes your teeth all yellow."

"I"m trying to start a new perfume craze. Blood and cigarettes. Maybe just a hint of booze. I think Hollywood will go crazy for it." She took another drag off of her cigarette, blowing the smoke downwind from where they were. "It's the new bad girl line. Called 'Don't Make me Kill You'."

Clarice rolled her eyes and popped her soda can open. "Wow. And here I was thinking that maybe being a teen heartthrob for a year would make you all wibbly and nice. Bad me, too many blows to the head."

"Didn't you hear? I wasn't nice enough for the teen heartthrob." Sarah didn't look at Clarice then, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on some far-off tree. That was obviously something she didn't want to talk about. Finally she nodded in the direction of Clarice's empty jello bowl. "Besides, the word 'wibbly' makes me think of Jello. That's not really something I want used to describe me."

Shrugging, Clarice looked out at nothing as well. The first time they'd sat and talked in at least a year and they were already back to old habits, "I got tough, y'know. While you were gone. When the going gets tough, and all," large brown eyes turned towards Sarah, open and clear, "But wibbly isn't always a bad thing."

"The last time I was 'wibbly', or whatever, I was mooning over a guy who was just waiting for the right time when he could change me. That just isn't me. Just like you aren't a raging bitch." Sarah shrugged, taking a final drag from her cigarette, and stubbing it out quickly on the ground beside her.

"Don't tell Shiro!" Clarice laughed at the mental image of a cute and nice Sarah, it just didn't work, "I'm the raging bitchqueen of Xaviers according to him, I'm sure. We broke up too," she told her friend, soberly.

Sarah laughed, adding, "Drama Queens. The whole mess of them." Stretching out her legs, she returned her full attention to her friend. "So what about you Pixie, what's new with you?"

Clarice shrugged, "Became an EMT. Joined Red X. Joined the X-Men. Went to college. Still proving that purple is beautiful," she spoke as if these were barely worth mentioning as opposed to great achievements she never thought she'd ever see. She'd come a long way since she hid under Sarah's bed. "I fought ninjas and cut a guys hand off and made him go fetch it. Don't tell anyone." That she admitted it surprised her, but she thought Sarah would understand.

And understand it, she did. In fact, she was terribly proud. "Please tell me you said it just like that? 'Go fetch'? I think if I had been there, I'd have laughed my ass off."

"Shiro wasn't too pleased," that had been an understatement, "but yeah. Exactly like that." Clarice was happy that Sarah was pleased. She looked to the older girl as if she were a sister, albeit a somewhat psychotic sister.

"Fuck him. I'm sure you had your reasons for cutting off that guy's hand." Who was he to question what she did? Who was -any- of them to disapprove when the other guy deserved it?

She indicated the diamond on her forehead, "He cut me. On my forehead!" she only liked scars that were not easily seen. Guys could have scars and be macho, girls just looked weird."He said it was overkill, but he cut me! Not nice!"

"Who's to say he would have stopped with just your forehead?" Sarah smiled genuinely at the younger girl. "You protected yourself. I say you did well."

Clarice smiled, "So. What're you doing besides working with the rest of the chimney brigade?" At least half the people working at Snow Valley smoked heavily. She was almost surprised they weren't considered a health hazard or something.

Sarah shrugged. "Working, smoking and drinking. That about covers it." She left out the trips that included missions she wasn't supposed to talk about, because well, they didn't exist. "Occasionally I go out and cause trouble at a club somewhere."

While Clarice didn't know exactly what went on with the Snow Valley people, she knew enough to know that Sarah was leaving a lot out. She also had learned to just not ask, go maturity, "We should go out sometime. You could come for a weekend or something."

"I could. They don't lock me up on weekends yet." She grinned, pushing herself up from the ground. There were things to do before she left to go back to the Brownstone. "Let me know when you've got a free weekend, and we'll see about going out and making everyone's heads spin."

"After finals," Clarice said, staying seated. She was going to enjoy the fresh air a little more before she put her nose back to the grindstone. "Finals suck."

"Kick their asses, Pixie." Sarah took a swing at the air, and headed back towards the mansion. "I'll catch you later."