Adrienne & Layla | Saturday afternoon

[x-mandelbrot.livejournal.com]

Adrienne comes bearing hellabuns to check up on Layla and her recently discovered powers set. They also talk school and Layla makes an odd, impromptu offer.

Hopping off her bike, Adrienne stashed her helmet and pulled the bag of Hellabuns out of her jacket where she'd stashed it. They were only slightly squished! In her riding boots and leathers she exited the garage and was about to head for the mansion to seek out Layla when she heard the sound of a skateboard on a ramp. Grinning, she changed direction and headed around back, then sat down in the grass by the ramp to watch the girl, not wanting to call attention to herself lest she disrupt Layla's concentration. She'd never really paid attention to skateboarding before. It definitely wasn't baseball, but it looked like fun nonetheless.

Layla had her iPod on and old school Our Lady Peace blaring in her ears. It suited her just fine to help everything around her fade out into white noise. She came up one side of the ramp and went into a crooked grind, holding the back truck while she slid along the coping before coming off and heading back down. The girl was obviously working on picking up more speed as she would pop up at the top of each side only to turn and head back down, each time gaining more and more air until Layla went into a spin with her body while her board went into a kickflip. Her feet found her board after a 180 rotation of her body and she landed back on the surface of the ramp with more speed than she had come up with. Grinning, she rode her board to the other side, shifted her weight and simply rode back down backward to help slow her momentum. It was while she was rolling up the other side that she caught sight of her audience and waved. With her board slowing, Layla simply jumped off at the next apex before her board rolled back down the wall of the ramp and she went sliding down after it.

Pulling an earbud out, Layla unhooked her helmet and nodded to her teacher. "Have you been here for like ever and I just totally didn't know it?"

Adrienne shook her head, mouth full of pastry. "Just a few minutes. Those were some sick moves, bra," she said in her best skaterboy voice, then made a face at herself. "Wow. Don't ever let me say that again. Want a Hellabun?"

"Do I ever refuse food?" Her tone said duh without Layla having to. Grabbing her board, Layla walked over to where Ms Frost was camped out. She laid her board down and sat on it before making a grabby hand at the bag that presumably held the hellabun glory. "And if you ever say that again there will totally be consequences. I'd hit you but then you'd break out the Frostbite and my ass would be so fucking flattened. Which would totally like undercut the whole 'no, bad teacher!' thing I'd be going for, y'know?"

"Righteous, bra," Adrienne nodded sagely, then dissolved into giggles as she handed the pastry bag over to Layla. "Okay, yeah, I think I've dissolved into bad eighties stoner stereotype. I don't even know how to do skater. So I'm just gonna stop. It's good to see you out and about, even if what you're doing while out and about fills me with fear of you breaking your bones."

Fishing out a hellabun in all its sticky, cinnamony glory, Layla groaned. "Dude, that is your only free pass. You keep it up and you are totally getting some sort of consequences. Once I think them up." She held the hellabun out of Wonderfost's reach so she couldn't try to take it back now that consequences were being threatened and passed the paper bag back over. "And, dude, no worries. I've totally got mad not getting crippled skills. I've been doing this shit forever. Like, I probably spend more time skating than in school and you're not worried I'm gonna like burst a brain cell or whatever, right?"

"No, I'm never worried you're gonna burst a brain cell in school," Adrienne answered, smirking as she poked Layla in the shoulder for emphasis. "Although, you presumably have more than two brain cells. But only two arms, two legs, y'know. So it's good you've got mad not getting crippled skills. How long have you been skating?" Forever didn't seem entirely feasible to Adrienne, somehow.

"Since I was eight," she answered offhand, though she had to swallow down the lump in her throat that came with the answer. Layla used the hellabun to cover that and buy her some time by taking another bite. "But mostly since I was ten. Like all day every day whenever I could since I was ten. "Til I landed in the land of no close indoor skate parks last winter." Frowning, Layla made a face like something smelled funky to help convey just how she felt about being mostly benched through the winter.

"Nothing's close here. No skate parks, no bungee jumping, no zorbing. If we lived somewhere nice I could ride my bike all winter, but noooo, it has to sit in the garage getting all fat and atropied all winter." Adrienne chewed thoughtfully. "If I had access to my money, I'd build you a skate park. When I get it back I'll definitely build you one," she offered with a nod, though she didn't sound overly optimistic about that happening. "Ooo, we should get Chuckles to build one in Salem Centre. He's got lots of money."

Layla rolled her eyes. "It's pretty sweet to have a skate park around but like I haven't seen that many people on boards in town. It'd totally be useless except for like me and it's totally lame to do something like that when it's pretty much just for me anyway, you know? I deal. Besides, VibraSocket took me t trade out my license for a real one so like next winter I can drive to the city when I'm desperate if I want. Or I'll just like do trapeze shit instead, you know? Like, I've got options even if it sucks to not be able to skate all winter like I could before."

Adrienne lay back in the grass, using her jacket as a pillow. "I don't think it would be lame to do something just for you," she answered with a smile. "Besides, you saved my life in Genosha," she said lightly, "a bunch of times. That's worth a skate park to me, even if you don't need one. But for now, all I got is Hellabuns."

"Hellabuns are better," Layla declared before taking another bite. She rather conveniently skipped over any mention of having saved her teacher's life because she didn't like the memories that came with it. That guy just stopping and dropping dead, bleeding out of what looked like such a small hole in his body. Unmoving. Not thinking about it had worked pretty well so far, even if sometimes she woke up from dreams about it. Hellabuns were way better than thinking about killing people.

"I agree," the psychometrist answered happily. Layla's avoidance of the rest of the conversation wasn't lost on her, however. "I'm sure someone- or multiple someones- have already given you the 'there's people you can go to if you need to talk about it' speech," she said more quietly, "but, y'know, there it is again. Personally," she added with a smirk, "I wouldn't recommend myself, since I suck at comforting people and my way of coping with shit is usually to do something stupid like issue ridiculous challenges to people, but... I'm here for you if you wanna talk. In a not-at-all creepy way, in case that sounded creepy."

The girl wrinkled her nose and shifted, clearly growing more uncomfortable as the topic was brought out in the open. Without addressing anything her teacher had just said, Layla shifted gears a little and suddenly asked, "Did you tell anyone? About what I did? To, uh...save your life that time?" She didn't know if Herr North had told anyone either but only he and Ms Frost had been there, had seen her pick up the gun and shoot the man.

"Uhh," Surprised, Adrienne sat up again, "no. I've tried to talk about it twice: the first time I was deflected and the topic changed, and the second time I got accused of trying to lead a 'togetherness parade'? I don't even know what that is. But no, I haven't told anyone. Is this... does this have anything to do with your... new talent? Do you not want people to know about that?"

"No." The response was immediate and emphatic. "No, I don't want them to know! Seriously, how many students pick up a gun for the first time and shot some dude dead with it around here?" Maybe she didn't want to know that. "I mean, Herr North told me to keep it and I shoved it in some dude's face and Ms Munroe saw and I think maybe Molly and Eighty-Three and Marius did...but they don't know I ever used it on anyone other than that and...I don't think I want people knowing." Layla couldn't put her finger on why she didn't want people to know other than the fact that she didn't want the 'killer' mantle hung around her neck.

"Of course not," Adrienne nodded, tone reassuring. "I sort of meant did you not want people to know about your new power in general, not... how it came to light. So now I'm not sure what you're saying you don't want people to know," she admitted. "Of course I'm not going to tell anyone how your precognition came to light. But... do you not want anyone to know that you have this ability at all, either?" Adrienne had no problem keeping Layla's secrets, she just wasn't sure what exactly Layla wanted her to keep secret.

"I think people probably know," the girl told Adrienne with something of a frown. "I mean, I don't care if they know. I just dunno what to do with it. But, Herr North said he thinks it's an instinct, not really precognition. But, I mean, Doctor Grey and Mister Haller both know." Layla shifted and took another bite of her hellabun, growing markedly more awkward. "So they launched us into that fucked up Moreau dude's head, right? With the other Ms Frost - who's totally a bad ass, by the way, in case you didn't know - and the Smartass nerd and Mads and Meggan-with-two-G's. And there was, sort of, this other me running around. So I figure they all know anyway. I just...don't want people knowing I shot a guy is all."

"No worries. I won't tell anyone," the psychometrist assured the girl. "I won't tell anyone you said my sister's a badass, either. Even though it's certainly true. Still, not good for my reputation if she's the badass. As for what to do with it, whether it's an instinct or a precognitive power, you should probably work on developing it regardless, right?"

Layla took on the definitive look of a sulky teenager. "That's what Herr North said too. You know you're both seriously useless about being helpful, right? He was all 'experiment' like I know what the fuck to do with that. I dunno what to do with 'instinct' when I, like, only know the difference between it being my idea or like a power when I'm in some asshole's head and can see the other me flagging shit down and shit."

"Hey, I can definitely be helpful!" Adrienne protested. "I have a couple experiments in mind, actually," she added with a smirk. "Of course, what I'm thinking is predicated on what I'm assuming is going on in your head and what you've told me North thinks is going on. He mentioned you going to see Marie-Ange Colbert, a precog, in Genosha if he didn't make it, right? But now you're saying he thinks it's an instinct? Why does he think that? How does it all work?"

Layla wrinkled her nose, shoved the last of her hellabun into her mouth and tried to figure out if there was a shorter way to explain this. Herr North had gotten the like forty page version. was there like a forty word version? "So, like, there's me, right? Actual me who is all here in me-world. And then there's other mes. And they're out there in not me-world. They hang on the astral plane I guess? We saw them there anyway. Anyways, Other Laylas like run around like survey the possibilities, right?" Wait, was she jumping too far ahead? Layla's hands came up and waved in front of her like she was trying to wipe something away. "Hang on, so I'm thinking about something, right? Like something important like, uh, 'how do I stay alive' or something, right? And then the Other Laylas go running around and surveying, right? And it's like, 'okay chick, here be your options for how shit turns out,' right? And then I'm like 'wow, most of those blow, but that one's okay' and then that Layla comes back to me and like shows me what to do. Or she does on the astral plane. Out in like me-world it's just that I just know what to do. Like...how'd I tell it to Herr North? Like directions! Like turn left, go four miles, turn right. And you don't know that you're turning right because of construction or a car wreck or something. You just know you gotta. That make sense?" She wasn't sure it made sense because that was like a quarter of the words she'd used to explain it to Herr North. Sure, Layla had been thinking about it a lot since then but that didn't mean she was making more sense. She might've been making less sense from all the over thinking.

"I... think that makes sense," Adrienne admitted, nodding. "Luckily I play a lot of video games so I can get a pretty good visual from the whole 'other mes' on the astral plane thing." She also had some statistical formulas of regression analysis she'd learned in economics classes going through her head, but she wouldn't bore Layla with equations. "I do agree with Ninja, I don't think it's precognition," she said, "what with you're saying you just know what you have to do without knowing why. Instinct definitely seems more appropriate."

Layla nodded along, shoulders relaxing back into their casual slouch. "Yeah. So, see, you get why der Fremde's whole 'just experiment' thing is sort of, like, not useful? Because, dude, when you just have a like a gut instinct or something how do you tell the difference between like your own instincts and this weird other mutant instinct thing?" The blonde girl was back to frowning. "Nico wants to test me for magic to rule it out but she's gotta talk to English about it first."

Adrienne frowned- now she was confused. "English? Oh, you mean Zeus? Yeah, she's a smart cookie, I'm sure she'll be able to figure out if it's magic. As for how you tell the difference... I may have a way to sort of... provide a control group in terms of experiments Ninja seems to want you to come up with?"

Now it was Layla's turn to be confused. "Zeus? You are talking about the blonde British chick that works with the spies, right? 'Cause that's who I'm talking about. I think it's more like...Nico needs her, uh, permission? Or help? Or something like that. Anyway, whaddya mean control group?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Zeus." She gave Layla her 'concerned adult' face. "Nico's a sweet girl, but from what I've been told she seems to... blow things up sometimes. So it could be permission or help she needs. Just... yeah, the two of you shouldn't do anything without Zeus knowing. I don't want anyone getting blown up accidently." She polished off her hellabun and balled up the paper bag. "I mean... well, because I read the history of objects, right? So I can take predicative readings on different possible outcomes, and then we can see what your instincts tell you about them and how that affects the object, right? Sort of, play with your scope, see how different factors play into the intuition, factors I can control through reading possible futures of the objects."

"I can't just make it happen. I dunno how to do that," Layla pointed out. "I can control my zombie-ing better." There was something of an intolerant edge to her voice. It had nothing to do with Ms Frost's suggestions for training but rather her words about Nico. "And Nico's the one who's been trying to help me control that, for the record. Her and English are trying to get me to feel my chi or whatever. And Nico's actually really, really helpful even if we're kinda making shit up as we go, okay? Nothing gets blown up normally. She just can't test me by herself is all." A little defensive of her friend? Well, yeah, probably just a touch.

"Okay, I'm sure she's been really helpful," Adrienne retorted, putting her hands up defensively, "sorry. Don't get me wrong. I like her, she was a student of mine. I just..." don't want anything to happen to you. "If something were to... Never mind." She squirmed uncomfortably. "Just forget I said anything. Of course nothing's gonna get blown up. I was just being stupid. Genosha's still got me in SuperParanoid mode, I guess."

Layla bristled but refrained from saying anything. She and Nico had a deep, passionate bromance going on and she generally got defensive when people said anything she took negatively about any of her friends. It was possible Jessie and her craziness and Genosha was also putting Layla a bit on edge, but the teen would definitely blame Jessie wholesale if given the option. "Did you know Sir Socket apparently blows shit up in the classes he teaches? Or so he claims. Well, no, he said the sciences where stuff blows up. I think he might have just been trying to get me to take the classes with the lure of blowing shit up. And then I'd get there and there would be nothing blowing up. And then he'd go back to FailSocket status."

"I think that's exactly what he's doing," Adrienne answered, conspiratorial tone to her voice. "He's damn sneaky that way. But at least he has the option of bribing you to take his classes with the prospect of blowing shit up," she added, slightly wistful. "There're no explosions in math. And it's not like I'm ever gonna take anyone on another field trip again, so I don't even have that to lure kids in with." She smirked at the mention of luring kids in. "All I've got going for me is the fact that some sort of math class is mandatory. It's like it's Hallowe'en and he's the guy with the awesome anamatronics in his yard and he's handing out cans of soda and full-size chocolate bars and candy apples, while I've got the dog that never shuts up and I'm handing out damn toothbrushes." She worked up to a pout when she finished.

Ignoring her teacher's pout entirely, Layla beamed. "I don't have to take math! I've gotta take, uh, English, History or some other social studies thing, PE and, like, electives. And, okay, you're awesome and all but I am so not volunteering for more math. No. Nuh-uh. Ain't happening. But, hey, you wanna teach me history? 'Cause Mister Guthrie is all 'and here's extra credit assignments!' like I asked for it or something." The blonde narrowed her eyes, lips pressing into a thin line. "He kinda sucks that way." Now Layla was the one pouting. "But at least I get an excuse to like go flying around on a trapeze for credit still. You think there's like a not boring version of English class? Like, is the literature class lame? Herr Wuschelig teaches that, doesn't he?"

"He does," Adrienne nodded. "What sort of history do you want me to teach you? I mean, would this be an independent study sort of thing, like how I was the instructor on record for Sooraya last year when she wanted to take Muslim history? Or are you saying you want me to teach a scheduled class you can take with your peers?" She didn't want to step on Sam's toes, after all.

Layla wrinkled her nose. "I hate scheduled classes with 'peers.'" That, actually, was probably pretty clear to all her teachers because when Xavier's had started adding in distance ed classes so the classes were "full" Layla's grades had taken a sharp downturn. It wasn't just because of her terminal road kill status. Some grades had suffered more than others because some of the teachers had adapted to keeping Layla involved better than others. "Independent study stuff is so much less lame. But I dunno. It just says I need to take social studies. I dunno what qualifies. Something not boring as fuck? If I'm gonna get up at five every day basically then people need to not make me go to sleep!"

"Just checking. Because scheduled history classes aren't really my turf anymore, Mister Guthrie took them back since he's been qualified longer than I have, and I don't want him to like, knife me under the bridge one night for encroaching on his turf. But I can do independent study if you want," she nodded, smiling. "And the good thing about independent study is that a ton of sh...stuff qualifies. Why don't you write out a list of some topics you find interesting sometime before...August, and we can come up with a curriculum that doesn't put you to sleep?" As long as it didn't involve field trips.

"I know Mister Guthrie took history back. And I like him but...I don't like normal classes much." There went the nose wrinkling again. "And he's cool. He's just...I dunno. He's alright for English but we have awesome history vibe," she gestured between Ms Frost and herself. "But I dunno what interests me. Can you, like, give me suggestions and then I can like wikipedia link myself to death and figure shit out that way? 'Cause I dunno where to start. I mean, I like the like histories of Native American tribes. You know, not just 'white people came and killed them because white people are assholes,' but like other stuff. Like how I was telling you once about how the Comanche who were rebelling against their land they were all nomad-y around being claimed were totally sold out by one of their own when they were hiding in that canyon and then those assholes came and like slaughtered all their horses and it like broke their spirit and shit because they were horse people? I like stuff like that."

"Social history," Adrienne nodded. "So do I." Of course, she also liked political history, the stories of those in power and how they used it, but the study of how that power affected other people, shopkeepers and labourers and artists, was also of equal fascination to her. "Well, there are a couple things we could do with that." She ramped herself up into businesswoman mode, which was pretty much the same as teacher mode, actually. "The most obvious would be to do a History of Native Americans, focusing on some different components than just the overview you had in your American history course. As a branching out of that, and because I've been doing some casual reading on industrialization lately, maybe we could look at the degree to which Native Americans became integrated into cities that were becoming industrialized, and looking at specific questions related to that, such as how they spent their time, how did they adjust to these new jobs in these cities that were changing so fast? What did the women and children do that was different from the men? Were they organized somehow, by culture or religion or politics?"

She was staring down at the grass as if looking at a table, pointing at things that only she could see. "Did they have any... way to express themselves within their neighbourhoods or towns or cities, both to each other and to their government? Or," she swept away whatever she had built in her mind's eye, "we could look at an area like Hell's Kitchen and ask those questions about the immigrant population? We could do something similar with post-Civil War African Americans, maybe? Where did they go when they were suddenly freed, and what did they do? How did their education, work, religious practices, marriages, and social practices change because of this war?"

Realizing she'd been on a bit of a ramble, she blinked away the mental images she was working out on the imaginary table and focused back on Layla. "Or we could look at specific groups, like freemasons, correspondence societies, women's suffrage groups. Or we could do some stuff with Europe? I can keep going," she chuckled.

"What is a freemason? 'Cause I like know the word but I don't actually know what they are or what they do or whatever. Are they like, uh...people who, um, build brick shit? Or something?" Hell, that didn't even sound right to Layla. She made a face and shook the thought away. "I like the Native American thing. Or the Hell's Kitchen thing. Or both? I dunno. And I know there used to be, like, mad gangs in New York. Like, uh, in Gangs of New York. Learning about the real thing would be kinda awesome. In a social history way." If what she liked was social history what was normal history? Boring History, Layla provided mentally. "Is social history like...I dunno, like history and, uh, sociology? No, that's not the one. What's the one where you study cultures and societies and shit?"

"Anthropology?" Adrienne asked. "Yeah, it is. I guess all the different artsy fields used to be super segregated until like, the seventies, I think? Late sixties? And then when the world started being all social revolution because of Vietnam and the Cold War and everything else that was going on, the study of quote-unquote history broke into all these fragments cuz people were interested in different things instead of just the usual names and dates of politicians and kings and wars. So the different fragments got mixed with these other disciplines that had been super segregated before. So, like, social history is a bit of anthropology. Intellectual history is a little bit of literature and philosophy cuz it's the study of people's written thoughts. Political history, military history, economic history, they all draw on other fields, too. At least, that's the way it got explained to me," she shrugged, smirking slightly. But yeah, why don't you wikipedia link yourself to death about the Native American thing and the Hell's Kitchen thing, and you can decide? And I can do some more research myself and see if there's a way we can incorporate both into an independent study course? Oh," she added as an afterthought, "a Freemason is someone who's in this worldwide... frat, I guess? Some sort of fraternity of Freemasons that's been around sine the early 1600s I think? I think they're places where men used to go to talk about books and ideas and politics? I don't think they build anything, but I'm not really sure if maybe they used to. I don't know much about them, honestly."

Layla pointed a finger at the teacher with her best stern look...which wasn't really all that stern. "Lady, you're supposed to be helping edumacate me! How're you gonna edumacate me if you don't know what you're talking about?" She huffed, crossed her arms over her chest and did her very best sulk. Layla was by far a better sulker than a scolder. That last for all of about fifteen seconds before she relaxed and broke out in a grin. "Totally sounds like a plan, though, Ms Wonderfrost. Totally wiki link me to death. And I'll leave a post-it note on my laptop so when Sarah finds me all comatose and shit they know it's totally your fault. I mean... " Her eyes shifted up and to the side for a moment before she was grinning again. "Hey, wanna learn to skateboard?"

Adrienne's response about not knowing what she was talking about, and about the post-it note, died on her lips with Layla's question about learning to skateboard. "You mean, in general, or, like... now?" she questioned, not quite sure what Layla meant.

"What, you got anything else to do?" There was an impish grin on the girl's face and maybe just a little bit of a challenge in her tone. "I promise to keep you on flat land because I'm not stupid enough to let you on the pipe. I mean, unless you wanna walk on it and be totally in no way connected to a board. You plus board equals flat ground asphalty type surfaces, you hear me?"

"I hear you," Adrienne chuckled, stretching her legs out on the grass and her arms above her head, "and as a matter of fact, I don't have anything else to do. And I'm already wearing my reinforced gear from the bike, so why not? Let's do it," she grinned. "But if I fall and knock all my teeth out I'm putting a post-it note on my face that says it's totally your fault."

Layla considered that, cocked her head to the side and shrugged. "That's cool. When people ask I'll tell them you hardcore wanted dentures and I was just tryin' to help." She hopped up and held a hand out to her teacher to help her up. "C'mon Wonderfrost, let's see if you can hang."