xp_logs | Log: Monet, Jubilee, some thai food, and pretty clothes.

Monet slammed into the room like a whirlwind.

"Right! I'm going shopping!" she announced. She glanced around the room for the first time, taking in the hotelly decor and the rather startled expressions of the inhabitants. She didn't appear impressed.

"You," she said. Her finger was pointing with certainty and a sort of unwavering determination directly at Jubilee. "You are coming with me."

Jubilee blinked at the whirlwind that was Monet. She'd heard the word shopping, shopping was good, shopping was of the strong. Especially considering she hadn't had the chance to go shopping in England which was not surprising since she'd never been to England. Her goal in life was to shop at least once in every country, she'd only just invented this goal but it seemed a worthy one.

So, shopping with Monet would be good, even if she didn't particularly know Monet but hey, only way to get to know someone was to shop with them, after all.

"Dude, coolness. Where we going?"

Monet's smile was sparkling. "So Bond St. it is."

***

Less than an hour later, Monet shook her head.

"Listen, that looks awful," she told Jubilee firmly.

"Crap. How about you just forget about trying to be cool and let me dress you." She leaned over to talk to the sales assistant, the two of them shaking their heads sadly.

Jubilee blinked, looking down at the short red top she'd picked out. It was a rainbow of color and seeing it had made her feel bouncy and happy. Something that she needed a lot right now.

'What's wrong with it?' she wondered.

They'd been shopping for an hour and Monet's expression had taken on a somewhat pained look with each new outfit Jubilee chose. Jubilee for her part, couldn't understand why Monet was being so damned picky, she thought she looked fine.

She shrugged suddenly, well, it was Monet's money after all. Long as she was paying, Jubilee could play nice.

"Fine, but I'm so not wearing anything with ruffles on it."

"Ruffles? Ruffles?!?" Monet looked insulted.

"I would never put anyone in ruffles. What sort of a person do you take me for?"

Several large logo'd bags later and in a hat store, Monet frowned. "You know, that neck thing is just distracting. Could you get it in, like, black, or leather, or something thinner, maybe?" She held up a strip of ribbon. "Or maybe disguise it?"

Jubilee was feeling somewhat dizzy from being around Monet. She was like a force of nature, and Jubilee had thought she liked to shop. She was nothing when compared to Monet.

She hadn't yet been able to ask Monet anything about herself even. That would have to change, perhaps when they ate lunch.

"The collar I'm wearing underneath it is bulky, so they thought a neck brace would be more explainable then anything else. It's meant to keep my powers from gettin' out of control and blowin' things up, ya know? Dude, if you can find a way to disguise a metal collar that looks better then this, that would be so cool. You really think leather would work?"

Monet tilted her head in thought. "Well, there's a couple of options, depending on stuff. If it doesn't need to be touching your skin, you could wrap a ribbon around it. If it does, you could get the outside painted. How big is it? If isn't not really wide, I'm sure that we could do something with leather as well." She shrugged. "There are always options, and the neckbrace is really ugly."

She shook her head in disappointment and signed.

"Anyway, this shop's boring. Want to go do something else? We could eat, I suppose."

Jubilee pondered Monet's words, her hand going to the neckbrace.

"It's a bit weird looking for painting, with buttons and a few panels with these weird little electronic bars. It's like, pretty narrow though and sits directly on my skin, it's meant to defuse my power, rather then stop it completely, so Big Blue said it had to have direct contact with my skin. We could cover it with leather though, that'd be so cool lookin'. But, like, food and stuff! Food would be fantastic, what did you feel like?"

"I saw a nice looking restaurant earlier," Monet said.

"Then we could go shoe shopping and find a leather store later." She suddenly stopped on the pavement, making Jubilee walk into her and then spinning on the spot happily. "I have missed shopping so much!"

Jubilee laughed at Monet's exuberant display. "Like, dude. You should have said something when we're doing our annual "Go to the mall" trip most weeks. Could have taken you into town. Shops aren't as fancy as around here, but like, you can still find some good stuff."

Taking Monet's hand, she dragged her off down the street, if there was one thing Jubilee knew, it was food. "Like, I saw this really, really nice Thai food place on our way up here. Looked perfect for lunch."

***

Over a very nice - Jubilee was absolutely right in her assessment -Thai lunch, they relaxed a little and gossiped. One of the few but definite advantages of the school was that it always had something interesting to talk about. Between the two of them, what with Jubilee's friendly and chatty nature and Monet's ability to find dirt on absolutely anybody, they figured that they'd probably found out anything that needed to be gossiped about.

Monet pushed her green curry away with a happy smile.

"At the very least, there's always someone doing something unbearably dorky to laugh at, so it's almost better than tv, even if having a life is nearly impossible."

Jubilee shook her head in amusement. Monet was abrupt, and could be incredibly clueless about other people's feelings but she was fun to shop with, and possibly the rest would change in time.

"Like, Dude. Life is where you find it, ya know? You just need to talk to people more, and less talk at them. They kinda take offense when they think you're not listening to them at all. So, you coming to this Brighton thing? It's gonna be pretty damn cool, supposedly there's some very cool clubs. Just gotta find something perfect to wear for it. Was definitely thinking black flared hipsters with a red shirt and my yellow jacket."

Monet shrugged. "Most of the time I'm not listening to them. But I don't know about the yellow. You have a bit of a yen for bright colours, don't you?"

Jubilee nodded, looking down at her clothes. "Bright colours always make the world seem that little bit cheerier, ya know? Kinda makes up for the greyness that can be around sometimes. So, we so have to go somewhere truly snazzy to show off our new clothes tonight. What do ya think?"

Monet laughed. “You’re on.”