xp_logs | [Jennie and Illyana]

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Meanwhile, Illyana goes in search of Jennie. To see if she wants to hang out. No, really.

Finding people was a lot harder than she remembered, but Illyana had finally tracked Jennie down in the school's dance studio. She leaned against the doorframe, all but oblivious to the fact that she might be interrupting something important. "Hey," she said, raising a hand to indicate her presence, since lurking was never appreciated. Particularly not if your appearance was less than perfect, just at the moment. "How's it going?"

Jennie paused in mid twirl, blinking at the unexpected visitor. "Hey, 'Yana," she said, smiling. She walked over and turned off the cd player, and grabbed her water bottle. She had been aware that someone was watching her in her peripheral vision, and was about to time her routine so that she could grab her water bottle and fling it at whoever had been staring at her again. Several of the boys had a very bad habit of standing in the doorway and staring. They were finally learning how to dodge.

The dark-haired girl wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her leotard. "Not bad. What's up?"

"Oh, you know, I just thought I'd say hi." Clearly, Illyana thought, the whole socializing thing was harder when you'd been doing your best to avoid it for a very long time. To distract from this, she added, "What's the dancing for? Do you take that class in town like Kitty did?"

"Well this," Jennie gestured gracefully, "Is for my advanced placement into the dance program at Tisch. The routine I'm working on anyway. I haven't taken any dance courses in town, just the stuff in Mr. Sefton's class and some stuff I learned back home." She waved Ilyana into the room. "What about you? I saw you with the," Jennie gestured at her face, "And I didn't wanna pry or anything."

The blonde stepped into the room, wincing a little. "Uh, there was this thing. With Limbo. And a filing cabinet? It was kind of complicated. Plus there's, um. A national security concern, so I probably shouldn't say much else." She brightened. "I like the dance, though."

Jennie raised her eyebrows. "I stole almost 30,000 dollars this summer," she deadpanned, "And I still can't beat the hell dimension thing." She stretched, wiggling her toes. "The dance is fun, yeah, I'm thinking of doing some summer coursework at Tisch to keep myself in shape for the fall."

"What do you even do with 30,000 dollars?" Illyana asked, mostly rhetorically, as she suspected that if the hell dimension thing won, then the 'stole military secrets from Russia' thing probably did too. "Tisch - that's in New York, right?"

"Dunno, never really got a chance to use it." Jennie shrugged. She never did ask what happened to the leftover cash, and she suspected asking about it would be something of a faux pas. "Tisch, it's a subsidiary of NYU. I'm going to be taking dance classes there come fall for college." She took a drink of water. "And what's this I hear about you no longer residing in the mansion?'

"Oh, I got a job at that Snow Valley research-y place," Illyana said, with a shrug. "But apparently I also have to finish high school, so I'll be living there and coming here to, uh. Finish. I was, um, underachieving." Which was the understatement of the year. "But college. Dance? I thought you were doing the math genius thing, last time I checked."

"I have many talents," Jennie said with a shrug. "And woah, back up there. Working for Snow Valley? I thought your soul had to be black and dead and life was meaningless and whatnot? I mean, I'm totally not judging, but." The older girl tilted her head. "Does this have anything to do with the file cabinet and the bruising?"

"Um." Illyana had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "A bit. Or, completely. Yes. But if the criteria's that something's wrong with your soul, then I'm probably the best candidate for the job." She said it lightly. "Alternatively, perhaps I'll cheer them up a bit."

"Well, whatever it is. I applaud your masochism. You couldn't put me in the same room with a couple of those people. I'd chew off my own arm and escape. English guy's pretty cool though." Jennie titled her head appraisingly. "Yes, you will definitely add some much needed cheer there. We will still get to see you around, yes? I always liked having you around ... when you were around. uh--" Jennie trailed off and gestured helplessly. "Anyway."

"Uh, yeah, well, apparently it was the not being around part that got me, um, with the filing cabinet. So - I'll be around. Because that was quite the unpleasant experience." She paused, then looked at Jennie and shrugged. "We could, maybe, hang out or something, if you're in the city. Or here. Or whatever." Well, that was awkward. Kitty always wanted to hang out. Illyana had never had to actually ask before.

The smile Illyana received was genuine. "I'd like that." Jennie rolled the waterbottle in-between her palms. Illyana reminded her of another time, and wanting to connect to someone, anyone. Even if the attempts were clumsy. "You know, you doing anything now? I was just about done in here anyway. We could, something? Sneak out into town and go get something to drink and talk about people behind their backs?"

Illyana smiled back, a rare, unsure smile. "I'd, um - yeah. That would be nice. And also, it has been a very long time since I've talked behind anyone's back, which is extremely unlike me. You'll have to fill me in on everything."

"Right! Everything. Everything would take about a week. Ah well, not like have anything pressing due in the next week." Jennie shrugged and picked up her cd player. "Though. I'm going to have to shower first. I'm a little ripe."