xp_logs | Crystal and Jennie

Upon arriving at her room Monday evening, Crystal is greeted by a very ticked-off roommate. At first, the girls have it out, but after Crystal openly reveals how she felt when Jennie was missing and why she stayed at the school, Jennie manages to open up, too. Then they go off in pursuit of gingerbread men and Jennie asks the burning question: Can Medusa control all of her body hair?

If Crystal was expecting to see her roommate as she stopped by the room after her workout, she probably wasn't expecting to see Jennie sitting pointedly on her bed with her arms crossed. A carefully blank expression on her face.

"So," she said shortly. "Anything you want to say to my face?"

Well, that was different. "Good evening to you, too, Jennie," Crystal replied calmly. "I take it that there something that you wish to discuss with me?"

"Oh, I dunno, the open hostility to a perfectly friendly comment the other night comes to mind." Jennie was pissed off, esepcially after doing her best to be open and friendly to the other girl. She did not enjoy having it misconstrued.

Crystal walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "Hostility? Are you referring the post that insinuated that I do not know the meaning of the world slang and seemed to make fun of the way I choose to speak, or do you mean the one that suggested an inability on my part when it comes to being able to pick up on and understand nuances?"

"I was teasing," Jennie said. "You do have that in Attilan, don't you? Teasing? Or is it really like some throwback to Victorian England where everyone is prim and proper all the time and looks down their noses at the rest of us plebs?"

"There is a difference between teasing and making offensive comments," Crystal returned. "Although being unkind might not have been your intention, that is how it appeared to me." She shook her head. "Also, please note that my upbringing is not representative of the typical way in which children in Attilan are raised. Suggesting that the way I say or do things means that everyone in Attilan acts that way is silly."

"So is assuming that what we say and do is indicative of normal Americans," Jennie shot back. "How in the hell was what I said offensive? You know how I talk, look at what I say to Kyle or Forge half the time. Or you would if you deigned to actually spend time with the rest of us. I'm sorry we all don't have the privaledge of learning to be mutants in an enviroment where we coddled. Most of us come from backgrounds where we got beaten up."

"I do not assume that what the people here say and do represents the typical way of all Americans," Crystal retorted. "Not everyone here was raised in America! And there are so many different cultures just in America, it would be ridiculous to assume that everyone here is from a similar background!" Crystal frowned. "I do spend time with people, I already told you that. You said I missed your point and seemed to be upset because I do not spend enough time with you! If you wanted to socialize with me, all you had to do was say so. When you came back after the summer, I stopped going away on the weekends. I stayed here, mostly in the room, just in case you needed me at any time. This is a good thing, too, because you did need me, you needed someone to see what was going on with you. Then you were better and did not need anyone watching out for you anymore, and it seemed to me that you had no interest in spending any time with your clearly annoying roommate who had acquired pets in your absence. I did not know if you would ever come back; I was afraid that you were dead somewhere! No one could tell me anything! You seemed to want space; I gave you space! And I am very sorry about your background, but how could I know that when you never tell me anything?!"

Jennie stared back at Crystal, completely thunderstruck. "Whoa."

Crystal let out an audible sigh. "I only stayed here because I was worried about you," she told Jennie. "I knew that if I left I would never find out whether or not you were alright, and then, once you were back, I was concerned about you and I wanted to make sure that you were fine."

Jennie put her head in her hands and sighed, before looking back up. "Crystal, it's... it's nothing personal that I don't talk about things. A lot of bad things have happened to me and..." she combed her fingers through her bangs, "I don't talk about the bad things not because I don't understand that you care, it's just... if I don't talk about them, then it's like they're not real. They go away. Does that make any sense?"

"I understand what you are saying," Crystal said softly, sitting in a chair nearby. There was more that she wished to say, but she knew that Jennie would not want to hear any of it, didn't need to be reminded of the fact that no matter how hard you tried to avoid thinking about something, it could never really go away by simply avoiding talking about the subject.

"I'm sorry I said those things," Jennie said after a moment. "I didn't mean them, I was upset," she sighed. "It's just hard to live with someone like you, you know? I grew up in apartments and a trailer park, and here I share a room with someone who is an honest-to-God Lady, and I worry that I look like some uncultured heathen to you."

"I think that it would be hard for me to live with anyone, uncultured heathen or not," Crystal said with a slight smile. "I know that people here believe that I always had it easy, that I was always coddled as you say. But...can you really blame my parents for that? For wanting to protect their daughters? I...they...things happened. They wanted us to be safe."

Jennie smiled ruefully. "I don't, I guess. My mother wasn't so much the protective type. She sorta threw me out when I was 15, but... we made up, in the end." The older girl tilted her head at her roommate. Far be it for her to ask Crystal what happened, that would be insanely hypocritical of her, but her curiousity was piqued.

"I'm sorry that happened to you," Crystal told Jennie, assessing her roommate's reaction to her previous statement. Part of her wanted Jennie to know what it was like to be on the receiving end of "something happened but I'm not going to tell you what," but for the most part, she just didn't want to get into it now. didn't want to risk another round of "you didn't have to tell me anything" like what had happened during their last big conversation. "I'm glad that you were able to make up with your mother. She sighed inwardly, not wanting to bother Jennie by continuing to make her say things she'd probably regret saying later. "Do you still want some gingerbread men? I think Medusa still has some, and," she said, grinning slightly, "she does not require souls in exchange."

"Excellent. Because I'll never know when I'll need to use Stephanie's soul for something else." Jennie clapped her hands together. "You sister doesn't mind me tagging along?"

"At worst, we willl grab the cookies and flee," Crystal said solemnly, then offered a small smile to show that she was joking, "but I am sure that it will be fine."

"Then we shall hunt her down." Jennie said with a nod. "And I promise not ask whether or not your sister's control extends to all of her body hair." So again she and Crystal were at something of an impasse. Jennie was starting to open up to her roommate, little by little, at least. She felt a little bit of pride at that.

Jennie's question took Crystal by surprise, but the younger girl decided to give an answer. "Well, you will not find a razor in her bathroom, I can tell you that much..."