Angel and Hope: first meeting (backdated)

[x-trance.livejournal.com]

Around Angel even Hope is affected...

It had been far too nice of a day to spend it trapped inside slaving away over textbooks and these silly prints she was supposed to be studying. So Angel, in a bout of what she considered absolute genius, had packed up her books and pencils and dragged everything outside to crash on the grass, enjoy the weather, and do her homework. And okay, maybe she was spending more time sunbathing than she was doing her reading, but really, did she have to study art history to be a photographer? 

Hope had spent ten minutes attempting to study her chemistry, but the sun shining through the window at what might be one of the final few days of really nice weather of this year could convince even the most diligent of students to take their books outside with them. So Hope had packed up her chemistry text and note book, a sweater, a light blanket and a bottle of water and made her way outside. Finding a nice spot where the sun was not too bright she spread out her blanket and dug out her text again, frowning at the diagrams on the page.

"Done!" Angel cheered happily, tossing her textbook aside and flopping back with a grin. One reading down...too many to go. Lame. Oh well. Hmn. She tilted her head when she saw one of the students not too far away from where she'd set up camp. Wait, what high school student did homework on Sunday? Crazy girl. Angel groped quickly for the camera she'd dragged out with her as well - she was supposed to be taking pictures for one assignment or another. "Hey," she called to the girl as she positioned the camera the best she could - taking pictures upside down was a blast. "Smile!" 

"Huh? What?" Hope quickly glanced up from her book, only to be confronted by a camera in her face. "Why are you..." She took a breath and started over again. "You're taking pictures?"

"Whoops," Angel grinned sheepishly as she snapped the picture and lowered the camera again. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya. I was just messing around." She flipped the camera around so she could check the screen - she'd gone digital today. "Oh, it looks really cute, though." She scrambled up and bounced over to the girl, kneeling down so she could look. "See?" 

Hope carefully put a marker in her chemistry book before looking at the small screen. "The photo looks very nice." She commented. "But... why?"

"Why?" Angel repeated, tilting her head. "Why am I taking pictures?" Huh, nobody had ever asked her that before. "Well, it's fun. Mostly because it's fun. And, you know, I'm supposed to be taking some stuff for class, too. And people shots are great if you can catch a person at just the right time." Which she was pretty sure she had, in this case. "I'm Angel, by the way." 

"I am Hope Abbott. It's a pleasure to meet you." Hope quickly dusted of her hand before offering it to the red-haired woman.

Huh. "Very nice to meet you too," Angel said, taking the offered hand and shaking with Hope. Hope. Right. She was the one who had posted that weird Jane Austen thing on the journals. "Whatcha working on?" She asked after a minute, settling down more comfortably. She was such a bad influence, distracting the good student from her work. 

"I was attempting to get some homework done for chemistry. The nice weather is a little distracting though." Hope explained briefly. "You said you were taking photo's for class?"

"Nice weather exists for the sole purpose of tempting good students outside to ignore their homework," Angel informed Hope wisely. "Yeah, nothing fancy, just need to show the professor lady that I know how to hold a camera. Doesn't mean I can't make it fun, though." 

"It sounds like an interesting class especially if one can create their own pleasure. Will you be doing anything special with the photo's?" Part was curiosity, but another part was a little worried. Hope rather not have the photo on a Facebook page or something like that.

So formal, Angel noted with a bit of curiosity. Out-loud she said, "Just throwing them into a quick portfolio to show my professor. And if I can get any particularly embarrassing ones of people, maybe upload them to the mansion servers," she added with a somewhat evil grin. "Which I haven't done in a while, which is too bad because I have a rather excellent one of Angelo wearing a flower crown...somewhere. Don't worry, though - the one I took of you will only be going in the portfolio." She wasn't so mean as to upload ones of students, after all. She'd leave that to them.

"Ah thank you... That is a bit of relief." Hope gave gave her a small smile, thinking quickly what else she could say. "May I ask if you were student here once?" 

"Yup," Angel replied happily. Well, she'd gotten a small smile out of the girl, that was something. "I've been here since I was fourteen. And a half. The half is very important. I graduated a couple years ago. Don't worry, I'm not just some crazy person who goes around taking pictures of people." 

"It must have been... interesting years? From what I have seen in the short time I have lived here..." Hope trailed of, not quite sure if she should continue this line of questioning.

"Oh it's been tame since you got here," Angel told Hope quite seriously. "I have soooo many stories, and you can't make some of this stuff up." Of course, some of those stories were just horrifying, but she wouldn't share those. No need to traumatize Hope. 

Hope just tilted her head at the young woman besides her, her eyes questioning. "Matt spoke to me a little about a place called Genosha?" She remarked carefully.

Angel's smile faltered for a moment. Genosha. That would be one of those horrifying stories there was no need to traumatize Hope with. "Um...yeah. That was a thing. A recent thing. What did Matt tell you?" She asked, curious. 

"I believe he just told me the basics. About being kidnapped and why they were kidnapped. And a little about what happened after that." 

"Ah. Yeah. That happened." Angel stretched her arms over her head for a moment. Hope was lucky she'd missed that particular crisis. "It was messed up, not gonna lie, but...hey, we're here and the bad guys aren't. Heroes won, that's the way of the world, right?" 

"It would be nice if was always that way, yes." Hope remarked neutrally. "It must have made for a number of unnerving school years though?"

"Well, yeah," Angel admitted. There was no point in lying, after all. "But if you just constantly focus on the bad things, you're not going to have a very happy at life. Take the good with the bad and decide which is more important, ya know?" 

"That is a fair point." Hope allowed. "I do hope my time will be a little quieter..." 

"And that my dear Hope is the kiss of death." Angel sighed dramatically. "Because you said the dreaded Q word, toads will now rain from the sky and it will somehow be your fault." 

"I see." Hope replied dryly. She quickly looked up and checked the sky. "Luckily I do not see any toads falling yet, so I hope we are safe for the nonce."

Angel giggled. "It'll come when you least expect it. One morning you'll wake up, you'll say hi to your roommate, go brush your teeth, come back in and open the shade and BOOM - toads will be hitting your window." 

A small smile flashed over Hope's face. "As long as they stay outside, the toads can sit in front of my window. I will just pull the curtains closed."

Angel giggled. "Fair enough. Better get used to hearing lots of ribbiting then," she said, poking Hope's arm. "Ribbit, ribbit," she added in her best impression. 

Hope's smile widened and she quickly covered her mouth as a few giggles escaped. "I did not think toads ribbit. I thought that were frogs?" She inquired dryly. 

Angel thought about it for a moment. "I think you're right," she agreed. "Toads croak, I believe. But if I were to sit here and try to croak you might think I'm weird."

"There is not too much of a difference between croaking or ribbiting from that perspective. You are trying to imitate an animal in both circumstances."

"True enough." A rather loud growl interrupted any more conversation. "Ooooh, my stomach is trying to get in the game too." Angel winked at Hope and made an 'om nom' sound. "Come on, let's go grab a snack."

Hope quickly glanced at her chemistry book, considering for a moment. Everyone had been telling her that she needed to relax a little more. So with a firm gesture she gathered up her things. "I think that is a wonderful idea."