Operation: Treehouse - Laurie & John, Sunday afternoon

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'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the weaponry to make the difference.' -Anonymous-

Laurie struggled valiantly onward under the weight of several lengths of wood and a toolbox. She'd told Mr Marko that she was perfectly fine picking up some equipment and not to worry about sending anyone to help her out.

This would later be known for all time as 'Laurie biting off more then she can chew in the home repair department'. It was unfortunately for John that he was coming around the corner when it all went horribly wrong.

The moment the toolbox fell on John's sneakered foot, he knew at once that he shouldn't have agreed to help out. He bit back on a curse then shook his head as he looked at Laurie.

"Maybe you should go back to your room," he said. "Braid your hair or paint your toenails."

You could have heard a pin drop in the next few seconds as Laurie stood, hands clutched around lengths of wood, and argued with herself as to the merits of simply bashing him over the head with one of them.

"Do you practice at being such a misogynistic cretin or is it simply a natural talent?" Laurie finally responded, having mastered her urge to maim her fellow student and feeling quite proud of the fact.

John raised his eyebrows slightly. "I'd say, why don't you stick around and find out but I don't really want you to do that." He reached for the toolbox then made a grab for the slabs of wood she was carrying. "Now where are the rest of the men?"

'You'd get expelled' was the thought that Laurie stuck firmly in mind as she held onto the lengths of wood. "I'm perfectly capable of carrying this, Thank you very much" she said, glaring at him. "As to where the rest of the men are, wouldn't that require that you be a man first? Now, if you're quite done being an asshole, you can follow me and I'll show you where everyone else is."

It had come out sounding a little more prissy then she'd wanted but there was only so much warmth she could put into a conversation with someone who immediately made her want to commit first degree murder.

John forced a smile out. "Well, lead on." He rummaged in his pocket for his pack of smokes. "What the hell made you volunteer for this, anyways?" He flicked a glance at her as he lighted his cigarette. "Looking to impress a boy in your class, Collins?"

"Could you not smoke, please?" Laurie replied, wrinkling her nose in disgust. While she might make concessions for people like Amanda, or Mr Wisdom there was no way in hell that John was going to get the same amount of respect from her, and thus she felt no need to be silent about her utter loathing of cigerettes. "And I volunteered because the tree house is something Yvette sees as important, and thus I want to make sure it's there for her. I know friendship is probably a foreign concept to you but some of us find it important and we do things because of it. Although, now I'm forced to wonder why you want to help out, considering that I can't remotely think of any reason you would."

She was being a complete snot, and yet she couldn't help herself. There was something about this John that immediately had her back up.

"Pissing you off seems to be making it worth my while right about now," John said with a smirk. He took a long drag of the cigarette then blew the smoke out in front of him. "So here's how we'll do this. You can either be a good girl and fix us up some iced lemonade in the kitchen or you can stick around and hold onto the nails while I hammer them down." He smarted out a grin. "How's that for teamwork?"

She was not going to rise to the bait, she was going to be calm and collected and get through this without putting him to sleep for the rest of the day. No matter how much she dearly desired to do so right now. "Do you often talk just to piss people off? I'd have thought someone of your age would have learnt by now that there's better ways to pass the time."

He looked amused as he glanced her way. "So what do you usually do on weekends?" he asked. "You know, you've got a real cute smile." He smirked. "Is that really what you'd prefer, Collins? People taking an interest in you? Being nice to you all the damn time?" He flicked his cigarette, dropping the ashes on the ground.

What did her having a cute smile have to do with anything? Why were boys, or sorry, men, always so damn strange? It just didn't compute. "One finds that most people prefer that people be nice and take an interest in them. And my name, Mr cranky Mccranky pants is Laurie, not Collins. How'd you feel if I went around calling you by your last name all the time?" Laurie replied with a sniff, adjusting the planks of wood so they were easier to carry as she walked.

"Frankly, I wouldn't give a shit." He noticed her slight difficulty then and decided to take hold of some of the planks. They had walked far enough. "Seriously though, what do you know about building a tree house?"

"Not a lot." Laurie admitted grudgingly. "But that doesn't mean I can't help out. How hard can it be to hammer nails into wood?"

"Guess you're going to find out," he said. "But I don't think Yvette's going to appreciate it if the tree house falls apart again during the next thunderstorm."

"I'm sure that between all of us we'll make a sturdy structure. Mr Marko is helping as well, I think and you can hardly fault his construction skills." she replied, now relieved of much of her early burden she straightened slightly, glancing over at him as they walked. "Do you really believe guys have a monopoly on construction skills or are you just being contrary because it amuses you?"

"Right now, I'm thinking that if Cain Marko's working on the tree house--" He disposed his cigarette on the ground. "--we should just let him finish the job. Obviously, the man's capable of completing it by himself."

"The point of the exercise is to have fun and be social, as much as it's to fix the tree house. We couldn't do that if we just let Mr Marko do all the work." Laurie said, emphasis on the 'Mr Marko'. There were some things that you did, and some things you didn't, and calling a teacher by their first name without their express permission was one of the things you didn't. Although, she supposed it was different for John, he wasn't a student after all. Which begged the question as to why he was at the school at all. "Didn't you ever do anything just for fun?"

"'course I have," John said. "Why'd you think I joined the Brotherhood?" Whether he was joking or not was not apparent as his features remained stoic. "Trust me, destruction's a lot more fun than say, construction." He dropped his tool box to the ground and raised his eyebrows slightly. "So. Ready to work?"

"Ready to work is my middle name." Laurie responded, dumping the lengths of wood into the small pile already assembled. "Okay, it's Olivia but if I wanted it could be ready to work."

She ignored the Brotherhood comment, as she figured he said it just for shock value and he'd have to get up early in the morning to shock her after all the things she'd seen recently. Besides, joining the Brotherhood had to be the lamest thing ever. Magneto was a nutter, and you'd have to be crazy to want to help him out, or at least young and stupid.

John would have preferred to be called crazy than young and stupid, of course. He took the hammer out and handed it to Laurie. "Guess I'll call you Olivia from now on." Or Olive.

"Or you could just call me Laurie like a normal person." Laurie responded, accepting the hammer and heading off to where the others were standing.

"Right." John nodded. "Olive, it is."