Crystal and Jennie - Girls Just Want to Drink Coffee?

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Jennie follows through on her promise to go somewhere with Crystal and the two girls leave campus to get coffee. Future plans, prom, licking knives, and Forge are topics of interest.



"... looking forward to it very much. I might even stay the following weekend. I have been told to take the time to enjoy both the scenery and the people, and while I am there I might as well stay an extra couple of days," Crystal said, finishing telling Jennie about her upcoming visit to Dr. MacTaggart on Muir. Upon Crystal's return from Hungary, she had been semi-surprised by Jennie's invitation to go with her to a coffeehouse. While Jennie had been drunk during Spring Break, she had mentioned the idea of inviting Crystal along with her when she left campus, but Crystal hadn't been entirely sure that it wasn't just a drunken statement, soon to be forgotten.

Jennie grinned at Crystal over her mug, "That's fantastic. Do you think the medical thing's something you'd like to pursue after you go home? Because you'll be all graduated and everything." Jennie was steadily going stir-crazy at the mansion. The first available opportunity she had, she snuck out and asked her roommate to come out with her as well. She figured Crystal wouldn't like to go see live bands like she did, as those places were rather loud and full of people who liked to shove safety pins in their noses. But coffee was something safe.

Jennie's question reminded Crystal of Sooraya's question while they were waiting for the boarding announcement in the airport. "I do not know. I suppose I will think about that during the internship. I intend to continue learning about genetics, plus I am also interested in learning different ways my abilities can be used to in the medical field."

"Well, it's just that you've never mentioned anything beyond your return home. While the rest of us is 'Where are you going to school? Are you going to study? Are you going to stay at the mansion? Blar blar blar.." Jennie shrugged and added more sugar to her coffee.

"I am going to study at home with professors from the university in Attilan," Crystal replied with a smile. She was more than willing to tell anyone who asked, but had not really been interested in finding out the locations of colleges the other students wished to attend, not to mention just who was crazy enough to want to stay at Xavier's. "I believe that answers questions one, two, and three, does it not?"

"That's got to be handy, a professor that'll come to you instead of having to go somewhere else. Would make it very very hard to skip class," Jennie stirred her coffee. To her, the whole experience of college was getting out and doing new things. But Crystal had done that already, hadn't she? And found the rest of the world wanting. "I mean, I'm still invited to visit, right? And you'll come and visit me in my little apartment?"

"Oh, yes, of course you may come to visit me in" Crystal nearly said "the palace" but quickly decided against it, choosing instead to say "my home." She already had the perfect time for a summer visit; Medusa's engagement party would be a spectacular event and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "I am sure that we will both be rather busy, but perhaps if we are able to find a chance when both of us have the time, I can see about returning to New York." For a short visit. In a year or two. Don't make me come back here, please...

That would be Crystalspeak for 'I'd rather not,' oh well. Jennie couldn't blame her. There were places she hated too. "I'd be more than happy to. You can introduce me to your family as your 'scruffy, crazy roommate.' And then I will charm the hell out of them. I can do that, you know. Charming. My dad is Ari Niarchos after all." Jennie blew on her coffee some more and grinned.

"Jennie!" Crystal looked up from her cup, a feigned look of shock on her face. "I would never say such a thing about you! You are not scruffy at all!"

"But I am crazy," Jennie added, put on an air of being offended. "Don't worry, I'll only re-arrange the china when no one's looking."

"Everyone at the mansion is crazy, Jennie," Crystal pointed out with a laugh. "It is an unwritten rule, I believe. In order to remain there, one must have at least some small measure of insanity. Do not worry, though; I am certain that sanity returns once you are no longer there."

"Ah-hah! I use your own logic against you! That means you're just as nuts as the rest of us." Jennie took a drink of her coffee. "Truthfully, coming to the mansion's one of the best thing's that's ever happened to me. If it wreren't for it, I'd be in a gutter somewhere. One of those moment sof questionable chance and everything."

"Oh no," Crystal protested lightly. "Any insanity on my part is due to my surroundings. I do not intend to remain there; therefore I am not truly insane. My insanity is temporary and borrowed, and I shall regain all of my sanity once I am away. I am looking forward to a week of full sanity, and then it will not be too long until graduation." She eyed her drink for a moment before looking back at Jennie with a serious look. "I am very glad that you are safe and not in a gutter somewhere. I am glad that being at the mansion has been a positive experience for you. It seems to be that way for most people. It has not, however, been that way for me, but I have certainly learned a lot and had many valuable experiences."

"Such as?" Jennie asked innocently.

"I have learned much about my abilities," Crystal said. "I can do things I never thought I would be able to do. I have gained much from working with people at the mansion."

"Also? That people are insane." Jennie added. "Which I already knew, thankfully. It's a different brand of insane at the mansion. Some people are insane-er. At least no one is insane and mean. Just cheerfully insane. Or smugly."

Crystal kept her comments about mean people to herself. No one was mean? People had certainly acted in cruel ways to other people. Perhaps "mean" was not quite the word she would use to describe them, but still... "Yes, people are insane," she agreed with a smile, then took a sip from her cup.

Jennie shrugged. "Bah, one person's normal is another person's insane anyway. So when do you leave for Muir again? Are you missing prom?"

"I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon," Crystal replied. "If I want to spend extra time there, I will remain the following weekend, so yes, that would necessitate missing prom." And if I don't want to remain I will probably go home for the weekend.

"Sadness!" Jennie declared. "Prom is like, the most American of American traditions. Back when I went to a normal school, kids would spend months preparing, spend gobs of money on princess dresses and rent limos and hotel rooms. Not that I ever went to those dances, but still." Jennie had to wonder, Crystal didn't like it when Jennie left her out of things, but then she would deliberately remove herself from other situations. Her roommate often confused her. "Anyway, it'll be loads of fun. It was last year. It's a shame you'll miss it."

Crystal nodded. "I will think about it, and perhaps I will attend after all. Either way, I hope that you enjoy it and have a good time."

"Yes, yes I will. I should think about a date, shouldn't I? Who at the mansion does not suck?" Jennie tapped her spoon against her mug.

"Jennie!" Crystal put on another feigned look of shock. "You do not intend to go to the prom with your husband?"

"Doofus hasn't asked me yet. I'm old fashioned like that, yo. I don't know. Maybe'll I'll go in a group of girls again. Last year I went with Forge to keep him from getting his ass handed to him by the female population." Jennie rubbed her forehead. "We later went on a date, but then he broke up with me because I got kidnapped."

Crystal had to bite back a response of "Forge is an idiot." Her conversations with Forge the previous evening had left her rather upset and with a renewed "Forge is a complete idiot" mentality. "Is that really why he broke up with you?"

"That and he has issues. I lean towards the 'I don't want to deal with you beng kidnapped by one of your best friends' trauma.'" Jennie sighed and shook her head. "I thought dating a nice guy would stop my endless cycle of relationships that end badly. Alas, I was wrong. I'm better off being pretend married to a guy who doesn't want to sleep with me."

"Well, I do not think that Forge is particularly nice, Jennie," Crystal replied. "He can be, I am sure, but he can also be quite rude and tactless, as he was when speaking to me yesterday." She shook her head. "I can understand that certain things that that have been said by people during my stay were not intended to be harmful, but there is no doubt in my mind that Forge meant to upset me last night." Jennie was better off without Forge; of that, Crystal was sure.

"I'm torn, Forge is a good friend of mine, and on the other hand he's a tactless asshole when the occasion calls for it." Jennie frowned. "I think the reason I get along with him is because I'm a bitch. At least you know Forge now and have exposure to peopel like, that way later on in life when you do encounter people like him again you'll know how to deal with them."

Crystal gave Jennie a wide-eyed look. "Deal with them? What do you mean by that?" There was no way Jennie could know the sort of ideas that had been running through Crystal's mind.

"Like you normally deal with Forge? Um." Jennie shook her head. "Well, I don't know how you deal with him. But hopefully you'll have figured out the correct way to deal with people like him. Me? I usually just punch someone or make a armoir fall on them. I am not much of a diplomat."

Crystal looked at Jennie quizzically. "Do you make it a habit of punching people and making things fall on them? That does not sound like something you would be able to do too often without getting into trouble."

"Only when they deserve it," Jennie said primly. "Fortunately I've never needed to be a diplomat. I mean, I don't do it when I'm with my father and have to impress his psycho wife. I swear, when I have dinner with them she's always looking at me like I'm about to start licking my knife or something."

"Maybe you should lick your knife," Crystal suggested innocently. Sometimes she felt completely comfortable with Jennie and other times she didn't, but she had been able to joke with her other times and had already done so this afternoon. "See what she does if you actually do it."

"I really should, shouldn't I? I should also turn her doll collection to the wall," Jennie grinned. "Complain that they were looking at me."

"Maybe you should just start with the knife," Crystal said with a small laugh. "You do not really want to try to make her dislike you, do you? If she already has negative opinions of you, you do not need to make them worse, although if she does have those opinions, sometimes it seems as though you may as well live up to them, yes?"

"She already doesn't like me. I'm a reminder that my Dad was with other women before her. I think she doesn't like my older brother Dorian for the same reason. That and Dorian's a tool." Jennie sighed and ran her finger along the rim of her coffee cup. "She saw the tattoo and almost banned me from the apartment on sight."

"Can she really do that?" Crystal questioned. "If your father wants you to be there, can she actually prevent you from seeing him? Whether or not you are allowed in his home should be up to him."

"Like I said, psycho." Jennie said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I totally want to see your homelife now. You parents will be here for parents day, correct?"

"Yes, they will be here. You will be able to meet them then." If it had been up to Crystal, they would not be coming for parent's day, and she would leave New York the moment she finished her last final. However, attending her graduation and staying for parents day was apparently the proper thing to do.

"Awesome," Jennie smiled. "I want to meet them. And I have ulterior motives. If Dad brings psycho bitchmonster from hell she can see that my roommate is a true and proper Lady." The girl nodded firmly. "And that I haven't mortally offended her with just my very being."

Crystal wondered what Jennie's father's psycho wife would think of what she had planned for Forge. Oh well, Forge had it coming. She also wondered what exactly she would say to the woman about Jennie if she met her. "Perhaps we do not need to inflict the 'psycho' on me and you can simply let her know that you have an invitation to the palace. That could work nicely, I think."

"Yes, yes that would. The less people who meet her, the better. I would suggest Dad keep her in a closet, but I think he kinda likes her." Jennie checked her watch. "Blargh. Time to get us back for dinner."

Crystal nodded, "Yes, I have certain things that I need to take care of before I leave tomorrow." She smiled slightly. "I need to finish packing, too."