Laurie and Yvette// Clarice and Yvette - Wednesday afternoon

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

After Laurie's escape from servitude, Yvette encounters her on the lawn. They cloud watch.




Wednesday had dawned, the sunrise giving birth to a sky as blue as a robin's egg and small scruffy clouds grazed across it like bewildered sheep. Laurie has spent the morning running, doing various chores for Angelo as part of her punishment, and visiting random acts of food upon people she deemed worthy of such fussing.

She now lay prone on the grass in front of the mansion, making up shapes for the passing clouds. Her favourite so far was 'Man being attacked by feather pillow'.

A shadow fell across her, and a small pointed face came into her field of vision, eyes blazing the same blue as the sky. "Boo," Yvette said gravely, but with a note of supressed amusement in her voice.

"Hah!" Laurie replied with a broad grin as she looked up at Yvette. "You have to get up earlier in the morning then this if you want to surprise me, Missy. Come watch clouds with me?"

"Is that what you are be... is that what you are doing?" Yvette asked, moving to lie beside her roommate on the grass. The spikes of her hair dug into the lawn beneath her head. "I am doing the same, in Kosovo. There is being... there is a park there, that I go to."

"You're getting better." Laurie replied, watching a cloud that looked vaguely like a melted telephone drift by overhead. "I like to think about what shapes they remind me of. It's probably the most relaxing past time I can think of that doesn't involve a man named Sven and a massage table."

A small giggle broke from her roommate. "And it is to be not so expensive, yes?" she said, before she pointed up at the sky. "That one is looking like Kyle's toy pig." She paused as the cloud slowly changed shape. "After Mondo has been sitting on him."

"Definitely cheaper, especially considering my summer job is minimum wage. Although, I made a pretty big tip yesterday, which was very cool." Laurie responded, looking at the squashed pig cloud and then glancing at the one to the left of it. "That one looks like that mini-squid Forge was telling me about...after it's been half-eaten by Catseye."

"You are working in the summer?" Yvette asked, curious. She giggled again as she looked at Laurie's mini-squid cloud. "Catseye is b... was the student who is also the cat, yes?"

"Who is also a cat, yes." Laurie correctly automatically, and then smiled. "And I'm working at this little cafe inside a bookstore in town. They let me read my biology textbook when there's no one to serve, which is pretty damn cool. It's mostly just the weekend though, since it's fairly quiet otherwise and they already had another girl working there for the weekdays."

Yvette's eyes glowed brighter at the mention of books. "Maybe I could visit, when you are working?" she suggested, a little mischievously. "To be saying hello?"

"You could indeed. They don't tend to mind people coming in while it's quiet, especially if they're book fans. I spent most of last Sunday having a conversation with the owner on who was the best young writer in Science Fiction at the moment." Laurie replied, noting a darker cloud slowly making its way toward the fluffy white ones. "Looks like a wolf is about to try and eat the sheep."

"And the sheeps, they are being too silly to run away," Yvette said, watching the darker cloud drawing closer. "But there is the sheepdog, to be chasing him away." She pointed out another dark cloud, pursuing the first.
Laurie watched as the two dark clouds merged and drifted off slowly, a cool breeze picking up and blowing strands of hair across her face. "Looks like he got him. I think maybe we should get inside before any more wolves and sheepdogs come by."

"I am not minding, to be wet, but I am not liking making the laundry," Yvette admitted. Then she blinked at the sky. "Laurie, are you to be seeing the clouds to be words, yes?"

Laurie blinked and then grinned as she noticed the words trailing across the sky. "I do. Looks like Ororo is in a playful mood today. Can you make out what they say?"

Yvette frowned, just a tiny bit. "I think," she said after a long moment. "That it is saying... 'penguin'?"

"Hmm, she must have got the memo." Laurie replied mysteriously, pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she looked at the words scudding gently across the sky. "One can never be too careful around penguins."

"Laurie?" When the other girl looked her way, Yvette went on: "You are the very strange person."





Later that afternoon, Yvette has a dilemma and goes to Clarice for help.




Yvette had a problem. Possibly not a Problem, but all the same, she was having difficulties. Looking at the dress hanging from its hanger in one hand, she sighed a little, and then put it back. Not fancy enough. Her prom dress might work, but somehow between May and now she'd apparently grown in places, and now it was uncomfortably tight across the chest. Taking the bodysuit off would make it fit, but then she'd shred it in five minutes, and she didn't think appearing naked at Medusa's engagement party was appropriate, even with Crystal's habit of wearing clothes that exposed her skin to the air as much as possible. No, there was only one thing left to do.

Ten minutes later, she was knocking on the door of Monet and Clarice's suite. Monet had been in fashion school and had helped Jan with clothes when she'd arrived, and Clarice had made the bodysuit and gloves for her. One of them would be able to help, surely? She just hoped someone was in - both girls were so busy most of the time.

Clarice was up to her eyeballs in the remnants of Amanda's leather jacket and other swatches of fabric as she pinned the pieces together to form the pillow. "Come in!" she called over the music. Thankfully, she hadn't yet begun to switch the pieces together or she'd have never heard the knock.

"Clarice? Are you having the moment?" Yvette poked her head around the door, looking dubiously at the assortment of materials and sewing paraphernalia scattered around the common area. "If you are not being too busy? I am needing the help."

"Sure," Clarice put the material down and stood up, "What can I do for you, Strawberry Shortcake?" She hadn't talked much with Yvette recently, even though she was in an out of Xavier's when she'd been in school not living there had put a serious crimp on staying on top of what was going on. She was catching up, but hadn't had time for everything yet.

Yvette came in properly, carrying her prom dress on its hanger and carefully encased in a dry cleaner's plastic bag. "I am having the problem. With the dress for Medusa's engagement party," she explained. "I am..." If she'd been able to, she would have been blushing to the tips of her ears. "Um. Growing?" She made a vague gesture. "And it is not to be fitting any more. It is being my only nice dress that I can be wearing and the party is to be soon."

"Well, then," Clarice hadn't planned on going shopping, but she didn't have time tomorrow, "I guess we'll have to go shopping and get you a new dress." Not that she ever turned down shopping. "Just lemme change into something more mall-appropriate."

"Oh!" Yvette blinked, startled. "I was thinking we could be to fix it? It is being new and I am only wearing it for the prom party, and..." She paused, embarrassed. "I am not having the money for the new dress," she admitted. "It is only being a little tight."

Clarice nodded, she still had to find her own dress too. "Well, I could try to do that. Or if you want to look at my old dresses, I could alter it to fit you. Normally, you don't wear a formal dress more than once or twice. And you never wear it around the same people if you wear it again." Really, as nice as formal dresses were, they weren't made to be worn multiple times and even when you took the best care of them the wear tended to show.

"Oh," Yvette said again. She looked at the dress with the faintest trace of a nose wrinkle. It was a nice dress, but if Clarice thought she shouldn't wear it, then... "Maybe we can be making to fix it for another time, being the later?" she suggested. "And I can be making to borrow one of yours, if we are to be finding something that is suiting, yes?"

"Absolutely," Clarice agreed, showing Yvette to her room and digging out the plastic boxes that held most of her dresses from her closet. "You might like this one." she said, pulling out a black tea-length dress with white and light blue accents, "I wore it when I first came to Xavier's. Betsy, she used to be a model, helped me pick it out. It really works well if you have a flamboyant skin tone like we do."

"Flamboyant?" Yvette stumbled over the new word. "This is meaning... different, yes?" She reached out and gently touched the fabric of the dress, admiring the colours. It was rather more... grown-up than anything she owned, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"That's how I was using it, but that's not the proper meaning," it was probably best not to be the one to corrupt the girl, "But most people aren't red or purple. So clothing colors aren't chosen with us in mind, so we have to remember and not pick colors that look stupid on us." Like purple or red. That wouldn't work at all.

Yvette made a mental note to consult the dictionary later, and nodded. "Like pink," she said a little sadly. "It is being my favourite colour, before. Now..." She shrugged a little. "Are you finding it to be hard, Clarice? That you are being so... flamboyant?"

"Sometimes," she answered truthfully, "but it gets easier. When I first came here, I was really angry. I didn't want to be purple, you know?" Randomly, she pulled out some other dresses, she had acquired quite a few in her time at Xavier's, "I didn't like being stared at and I was scared someone would kill me, but I got to a point where I decided I could either live my life or be scared. I didn't want to be scared forever."

"That is what I am to be saying to my mother. She is wanting me to be going home with her," Yvette said, making a little noise of awe at the numbers of pretty dresses Clarice had. She wished she could actually feel the texture of the cloth - it looked so fine. "But I am telling her I am to stay. To learn, so I am not always to be hiding." She looked up at Clarice, eyes glowing brightly. "It is being hard, but I am to be doing the right thing, yes?"

Pulling out the jewelry to match the dresses, if Yvette was to wear them then she needed the baubles too, Clarice decided how to answer. "I don't think it's for me to say," she finally replied. The jewelry was from jewelry stores aimed at teenages and worth almost nothing, "My parents didn't want me to stay at home. They wanted to hide me away. You're at the age where you can make your own choices, even if they are the wrong ones. One thing I try to remind myself though, is that anything worth doing will be hard. If it were easy then everyone would be doing it."

The slightest hint of a smile dented the corners of her mouth. "This is being very wise, yes," she agreed. Then she held up the first dress, the black one. "May I to be borrowing this? If you are making it not so..." She made another one of those vague gestures. "In front? It is being the little too much grown up for me, I am thinking."

Clarice was a bit more...developed....even at 15 than Yvette was so a strapless dress would need straps or at least more support than it currently gave, "No problem. Slip it on so I can pin it and I'll make some straps for it. I would hate for it to fall down! Are your ears pierced?"

At least the bodysuit would protect her modesty, but even so, Yvette had to turn away from Clarice before she could start slipping off the skirt and blouse she was wearing. "Thank you," she replied, working at the buttons of her blouse. "And no, they are not. I cannot be wearing the jewelry on my skin - it is being making it broken very quickly. Only when Tommy is making the stainless steel for me - it is harder for me to cut."

Well, that ruled out loaning her some earrings since Clarice had her ears pierced since she was a child, "Maybe if we put some of Forge's fabric on the backs of clip ons?" she suggested. If she had her way, Yvette would be the belle of the ball. "Anyways, lemme go get my pins." she ducked out of the room giving the younger girl the space she needed to change comfortably and because her pins were in the other room.

"Okay, let's take a look," Clarice had slid the red cushion onto her wrist and was already pulling pins out and sticking them in her mouth.

Yvette was holding the dress up, since there was no way she could keep a strapless in place. She giggled a little, aware of how foolish she looked. "I will be needing the straps, yes," she agreed. "Because I am not having much of the boobs, no."

"No, you don't have much of the boobs," she agreed, giggling and pulling the dress tighter and pinning it. It was hard to laugh with pins in you mouth. "But, you don't need much, either. See, you are much with the boobage," now that new seams had been created, the dress stood up on its own, showing what little Yvette had to its advantage.

There was a startled squeak as Yvette looked down and saw the dress staying up by itself, and her eyes flared brightly. "That is... um," she managed. "Perhaps we could be not so much with the boobage?"

"Don't worry, it's not all you. The seams in the front," Clarice grinned and showed them to her, they were cleverly disguised, "are rigid to help hold the dress up regardless of how large your boobs are. I'm going to add straps to it though, just in case. You are a very pretty woman, you know."

"I am?" Yvette wasn't sure what surprised her more - being called pretty, or being called a woman. She looked down again, smoothing the dress out. Even with the body suit, it still looked nice. With another of those almost-smiles, she looked up at Clarice. "Perhaps a little boobage?"