Angel and Maddie: Great Minds For the Greater Good

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Maddie stumbles upon Angel and drafts her into helping with An Awesomest Idea Ever.






Angel was frowning as she made her way up to the main part of the mansion, slowly flipping through her recently developed pictures. Was I sleep-photographing or something? She wondered unhappily. As far as photos went, these weren't some of her best work. She paused on the one she'd taken of Vance on the roof a few weeks earlier. The ones of people aren't all that bad, she decided after a moment, paying absolutely no attention as she made her way to the stairs.

At the top of the staircase, Maddie paused, and frowned at the presence of the other redhead. Apparently, the universe was just going to keep giving her the giant finger when it came to banister sliding. Lately, it seemed, there was always someone she had to be careful and not knock over, which totally blew all her plans. Ah well. "Yo, Firecrotch," she called down. "There's a giant Japanese Hamster about to eat your face off."

"Cool," Angel called back distantly, still going through her pictures. Flowers, flowers, flowers. So many flowers...

Angel blinked and looked up at Maddie, standing at the top of the stairs. "Firecrotch?" She repeated. Because that was the part that concerned her. Not that a giant Japanese Hamster about to eat her face off, but the fact that she was not about to let "Firecrotch" become a permanent nickname. "It's Pants On Fire, thank you very much," she informed Maddie with a smile.

"Pfft." The younger girl bounced down the stairs until she was standing as close to eye level with Angel. "It got your attention didn't it?" She craned her neck to try and take a peek at the pictures in Angel's hands. "What you got there? Wow. Do you have like a flower fetish or something? Am I looking at intimate pictures of your floralry lover? Cause that would be awkward."

"Hey now, don't be going and calling it awkward. What Bob and I have is very special." How Angel said that with a straight face, she'd never be able to guess. "Actually, I was just bored in the garden one day so I started taking pictures. But that's not nearly as much fun as pretending I'm having a secret affair with a flower."

"But Angel," Maddie whispered, her eyes darting about to make sure no one would overhear what she was about to say. "He's naked!"

Angel looked around quickly as well, then put on a conspiratorial smile as she leaned in closer to Maddie to whisper as well. "Yeah, he is. But this isn't nearly as bad as one of the pictures I have of him. You can see all his parts in that one. And Mother Nature was quite kind to him, in my totally biased opinion."

Maddie gasped, as one was wont to do upon hearing salacious news, and assumed the quintessential look of a scandalized Stepford wife: eyebrows arched high as her eyes opened wide, hand covering her gaping mouth. She held that pose for a second or two, then flailed her hands, wiping away Angel's words as if they had been written on a blackboard. "NO no no no no," her whisper was more frantic. "Angel. I'm fifteen. That's basically hardcore Flora Porn. I can't look at that! It will traumatize me for the rest of my life. I'll have to sit with the professor every afternoon for tea." She reached out and gave the older girl's shoulders a shake. "Tea, Angel. Why would you want to impose that on such a young mind. I have barely begun to live!"

"Oh, don't worry," Angel said with a smirk, storing the pictures away in her pocket. "There's a very firm eighteen-plus filter on the heavy stuff. Right now all you have in your mind are the disturbing images my words brought to life. You won't have to spend the rest of your life having tea with the professor. I'd say a week or two will be enough to banish the bad thoughts from your young, impressionable, innocent mind." Not that any of the stories Angel had heard about Maddie even hinted towards her mind being innocent. But that was beside the point.

Maddie dropped her hands from Angel's shoulders and began fanning herself. "Whew. I was getting really worked up there for a moment." She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply through her nose, and exhaled a long breath from her mouth. "Sorry," her eyes popped open and focused back on the girl in front of her. "I just needed a moment to re-center my Chi. Now, seriously, what are you doing?"

"Well I hope I didn't off-center your Chi too much with my flower porn," Angel replied with a grin. "And, seriously, I just finished developing some pictures I took. Believe it or not there aren't just flowers in here - and they're not all terrible, either," she added, frowning. "I don't know what happened to some of them.

Anyways. What're you up to? Something sinister, I assume?"

"Me? Sinister?" The younger girl gasped again and brought her hand to her chest. "Never. That's an absurd idea. But your answer is totally wrong, by the way. You are going to come and help me with something. I have heard tales of your prankings, and I need a mind that can keep up with mine. So come on, we're going to the Boathouse."

Angel quirked and eyebrow, a half-smile pulling at one corner of her lips. "Oh I am, am I?" She asked, ignoring the ego in the back of her head that wanted to acknowledge that people knew of her and her pranks. Not the time for that. "Well, I mean, I suppose I could...seeing as how you asked so nicely and everything." She wasn't going to try and tease a "please" out of Maddie. Mostly because the teen probably wouldn't listen. "This isn't the part where you try to kill me though, is it? Because a little warning for that would be nice."

Maddie smiled her dazzling smile that blinded people with her pure innocence. "Why would I kill you," she asked sweetly. "I already told you I need your brains. For an important project. To turn the collective frown of this mansion upside down. If you catch my drift?"

If there was one thing Angelica Jones knew and knew well, it was the "innocent" smile. But she was all for making people, smile, so... "My brains are at your service," she told Maddie with a smile of her own. "Provided this project doesn't involve somehow humiliating me in front of the collective mansion population, because then I would have to set your bed on fire. So. To the boathouse?"

The younger teen shot Angel a look of "girl, please" and scoffed at the mere suggestion of humiliating someone just for kicks. She didn't play that way. Shame and humiliation were powerful powerful tools that should not be used lightly, and never just for the punchline of a joke. Maddie had standards, and she was going to keep to them. "Anyways...." Completely ignoring the comment and question, Maddie looped her arm through Angel's and began to tow her newest stooge in the first steps toward the Boathouse.

"You see Angel, there comes a time in everyone's life when they simply have to admit that they require assistance. That a task, while possible to complete alone, will simply take too much time and will never be done by the deadline. So I need you to help me build a life-size Monopoly game. Starting with the playing cards and money."

"I...what?" Whatever Angel had been about to say in reply to the comment about needing assistance was lost in the wake of Maddie's request. "Monopoly?" She'd seen (and done) some strange things before. But this? She tilted her head curiously, considering the idea. Maddie wanted to build a life-size Monopoly game, but where in the world would she...oh. "Gonna display it on the lawn for the mansion to see?"

"I was thinking that someone harness Molly's moose to be the guy on horseback (since there ain't no way in hell I'm going near that thing)," Maddie continued to prattle on as the duo walked arm in arm. "And possibly steal Kurt's dog for the dog piece. And a wheelbarrow. And spray paint the board on the lawn (we're going to need to make sure the forecast isn't calling for rain). Well map it out with string first, but you need to be able to see the lines. Anyways that's not for awhile. Right now I'm working on painting all the playing cards out of odd cardstock ends from the art room, they don't need to be too big you know? And money from construction paper. The houses and hotels I'm at a loss for at the moment, but we have time. All this needs to get done before school starts. And is secrecy level Alpha Alpha Alpha, which means that no one can know. Unless we both agree on them knowing. What do you say," Maddie halted, unhooked her arm, and held out her hand to Angel. "Partner-in-crime (on a provisionalary basis)?"

Angel rested her hands on her hips for a long moment, her eyes focused on Maddie's outstretched hand. It was...a brilliant plan, she had to admit. The deadline was the beginning of the school semester - that wouldn't be too much of a problem. Especially with the two of them working on it. And...well, she loved the idea. "We'll work on the houses and hotels," she said with a grin. "There are plenty of odd things hanging around here we can use." She took Maddie's hand, and they shook. "Partner-in-crime. On a provisionalary basis."

Comments

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This? Is the best idea ever.