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[x-shinobi.livejournal.com]

Backdated to Tuesday, around three in the afternoon. Amanda gets her promised phone call from Bethany, and they get to know each other a bit before they decide to put painting the town red together on their calendars. Ein from Cowboy Bebop cameos as Milo, Bethany's Welsh Corgi. Always reassuring to see one's favourite stars get work, no?




It wasn't often the phone in Room 201 rang, and when it did, nine times out of ten it was for Paige, usually her family. So when it started shrilling as Amanda and Paige sat at their respective desks actually doing homework, Amanda ignored it. Paige, with a roll of her eyes, picked up.

"Hello, Paige speaking... Oh, she's right here, just a minute." Paige cupped her hand over the phone. "Amanda, it's for you." Unfortunately Amanda had her headphones on - music helped her concentrate, and her and Paige's tastes were different enough for them to settle on the headphone compromise - and continued to ignore what was going on around her. Paige called another couple of times, gave up and threw an eraser with frightening accuracy, bouncing it off the back of Amanda's head. "Phone!" she said, as Amanda yelped and turned around indignantly.

"Who the fuck...?" Then she remembered the emails of last night. "Oh, fuck, Beth!" She lunged at the phone. "Hello?"

"Oh, good, I was worried she was going to start hitting you with the receiver or something," comes the amused-sounding response, accompanied by very muffled ambient noise of traffic and some shouted conversation. "It's, uh, Bethany, incidentally. But I think I heard my name and an 'oh fuck', so you remembered. I'm touched, really!" Her voice carries a faint Bronx accent, and is a bit on the deep side, in a smokey sort of way. "Not calling at a bad time, am I?"

"Nah, yer saving me from the evil that is long division. Perfect timin'." Amanda plonked herself down on her bed, waving as Paige excused herself for a snack and to give her roomie privacy - and she wouldn't be able to concentrate with Amanda chattering in the background, either. "Okay, Bethany - hate it when people call me Mandy, so I'll remember not t' do the same t' you."

"Math? Yuck. Happy to be of service." There was a brief pause as Bethany squeezed through a bit of congestion on the sidewalk with a roll of her eyes, grunting as she adjusted her backpack after it slipped. Then, she's beaming cheerfully, and it definitely carries into her voice. "You won't call me Mandy? Well, good, 'cos that'd get awful confusing. ..hem. Sorry. Beth, Bethany, whatever rolls off the tongue easiest. I'll live either way."

Amanda laughed. "Smart arse, are you? My favourite kind of people. All right, neither of us will be called Mandy, how's that?"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Bethany replies sagely, quickly swapping her phone over to her other ear. "So, that was Angelo's girl who answered, huh? Or do you have other roomies kickin' 'round in there?" Small-talk. Must make small-talk. Awkward silences are.. awkward.

Thank fuck she can do the small talk thing. "Yeah, that was Paige. 'S just me an' her in here right now, tho' we're s'posed t' be gettin' another girl sometime soon. Dunno when. 'S not bad - I hate rooming on me own, but I don't like being too crowded either. An' she doesn't snore an' doesn't mind me mess, so we're good." Amanda thought around for a question of her own, and her eye caught her laptap. "'S just you an' your folks where you are? You said somethin' 'bout losin' yer bed t' yer mum's mate."

"I know what you mean. It sucked when my brother was still here - we had to share a room, and I love him to death, but. well. Not so fun when he had girlfriends over. The couch and I are very good friends." She snickered and rounded a corner, the traffic noises in the background beginning to die down as she moved off a busy street and into a residential area. Almost home. "My mom's? Nah, it was my own buddy who was being greedy, I probably just phrased it goofy. Damned insomnia. But, yeah, s' just me and my folks. It isn't so bad, really, even if they do occasionally get on my case."

"Tell me about it. Not the folks part, but the gettin' on yer case. Still, it's good t' know yer got someone watching out for you." Amanda frowned, not wanting to get into all that - the whole point was a normal conversation, remember? - and leaned back against the wall. "Where's yer brother gone off to? Uni?"

"Yeah, he's getting his nerd on at NYU. I don't think he skates anymore. S' a fuckin' travesty." Bethany grumbled for a moment, rolling her eyes skyward. "What d'you do when you're not stuck with math, anyway? Besides having excellent taste in music, I mean."

"I'm stuck with everything else?" Amanda chuckled. "Fuck, I'm gunna sound bloody borin' t' you. Seems like I've done nothin' but study for the past three weeks. Not school, tho'. Stuff t' do with me mutation."

"See, that ain't boring," Bethany laughed. "Now, the studying I do? Boring as all hell. So, out with it! You said over the phone, and look at us. Talking, on the phone. So spill."

"All right, but you asked for it." Crossing her legs underneath her, Amanda took a breath. "This is gunna sound weird, but... how much are you willin' t'stretch t' believing? Not just the mutant thing, I'm talkin' about other stuff. Stuff like... magic."

Bethany couldn't help another laugh, grinning wryly as she responded. "I've met some of your classmates, and grew up in New York. It takes a lot to get me to think something's weird." She paused a moment, pulling the phone away so that she had something to blink at before yanking it back up against her ear. "Magic? Serious?"

So far, so good. "Yeah, magic's real, demons're real, there's a whole world out there regular people don't know about," Amanda recited in a sing-song, rolling her eyes. "Me mutation is t' absorb mystic energy from places an' things an' sometimes people - occult stuff, Stonehenge, all that shite. I use it t' do magic. 'M a witch, 's the official term." She waited for Bethany's reaction, unconsciously holding her breath.

It wasn't a very long wait. "That is so fucking cool! Jesus Christ, and I thought being able to go through walls was a bitchin' mutation!" Bethany let out another laugh, though this one was close to an outright cackle, a massive grin splitting her face. "What kind'a magic can you do? I mean, is it, like, D&D-type fireballs and magic missiles, or fruity Harry Potter crap?" She paused, grimacing with a quiet 'whups'. "Uh, no offense if it's the latter.."

"None taken. That Rowling woman's got no fuckin' clue what magic really is. She can kiss my arse." Amanda couldn't help the relieved grin. This was the first time outside Brighton an ordinary person had reacted so enthusiastically to what she could do. Although she was getting an idea that whilst Bethany wasn't a mutant, she was far from 'ordinary'. "Ain't the D&D stuff either - 's mostly Wiccan, with some other stuff thrown in. Callin' the elements - tho' don't call Water in the middle of winter 'less you like cold showers - healin' spells, some leviatation an' teleportin', tho' those ones take more power 'n I'm allowed t' have at the moment." Amanda shrugged, forgetting she was on the phone and Bethany couldn't see it. "Some potions, glamours, an' some really small mind-cloudin' spells. I don't use those much at all - too much hassle with the consequences."

"This is the part where I admit that all I know about Wicca comes from Buffy, right?" There was a quiet jingling sound as Bethany fished her keys out of her pocket, tromping up the driveway to the house she shared with her folks - and, given the muted barking that's gradually getting louder, a dog. "'course, even then, I wasn't paying attention to the magic, really. There was other eye-candy in those scenes, y'know?" The door is unlocked and shoved open, and Bethany let out a yelp as the dog promptly leapt up into her arms, having to scramble to keep from dropping the giddily yapping welsh corgi, or the phone. "Jesus, mutt! Gonna kill me! - Uh, sorry, dog is happy I'm home.."

Amanda laughed, and waited until the noise died down a bit. "'S all right. Sounds like it's happy all right. As long as it ain't a Doberman or somethin'. What's its name?"

"His name's Milo," Bethany replied, shoving the door closed behind herself with a foot before carting herself, and the aformentioned pooch, off towards her room. "He's a tiny little thing, a welsh corgi." She paused for a moment, and added, "Y'seen Cowboy Bebop? He's like Ein. Only stupider, in a cute, dorky sort of way."

"This is gunna sound weird, but I have no idea what yer talkin' about," Amanda said with a grimace. "Up 'til three months ago I was livin' on the street, so me pop culture references ain't up to scratch. The kids here keep tryin' t' make me watch 'Buffy' tho' - might have t' take 'em up on it, if only so I can laugh at the magic bits."

"Shit, really? Suck." Bethany deposited the dog on the foot of her bed before shucking her backpack, opting to worry about homework later and instead concentrate on more pleasant things. "I'll have to make you watch it, then. S'a cartoon. Shinobi could probably tell you more about it, or.. oh, nuts, what's Jamie's friend's name.. Doug? He seems like the kind'a guy who'd recognize it."

"This is one of those weird Japanese cartoons, right? Doug an' Shiro - he's another student here, up himself Japanese bastard - talk about 'em sometimes. An' hey, I'm willin' t' try anythin' once. More 'n once if it's fun." A mischeivous grin crossed her face. "An' more 'n that if I don't get caught."

Bethany's own mischevious grin was plainly apparent over the phone line. "Oh-ho-ho. I begin to see why you and I have been put in touch. You're soundin' more and more like my kind'a girl." Beaming, she plopped down to sit at her desk, reaching over to flick her computer on. "You doin' anythin' this weekend? Sunday, I think I'm gonna go catch a flick, cause some havoc. Y'know, usual teenage girl stuff. Wanna come?"

"Would 'fuck, yeah!' sound too desperate?" asked Amanda, chuckling. "I've just spent three weeks in an occult convent - if I don't get somethin' fun t' do, I'll end up madder 'n a boxful of badgers."

"Not too desperate, naw," Bethany laughed, beaming cheerfully as she entertained herself by spinning her chair around. "Convent, huh? More-suck. We'll see what we can do t'make you feel human again, don't you worry. Auntie Beth'll take goooood care of you."

Amanda dissolved into laughter. "'Auntie' Beth, eh?" she said when she was able to talk. "Maybe I should be havin' a word with me 'Uncle' Pete." Composing herself some more, she explained: "Pete's one of the guidance counsellors here, an' his sister is the one who sent me here. So I call him 'Uncle' Pete t' get up his nose. Or at least that's the way it started. I think he's gotten used to it now. So yeah, the thought of you an' him..." She collapsed into giggles again. "You'd have t' meet him t' fully appreciate the joke. He's bad tempered an' very English."

"'Bad tempered' and 'very English' don't mesh so well in my head, but I'm a damn dirty New Yorker who has a pretty.. sissy stereotype for most 'very English' folks. Makes for a funny mental image, at least." She paused briefly, then cracked a wicked grin. "I'd say 'momma will take care of you', but that can be taken in a whole slew of wrong and naughty ways."

"Hugh fuckin' Grant has a lot t' answer for," grumbled Amanda. "Think more along the lines of 'Snatch' or 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and you'll have Pete." Then the other half of what Bethany had said registered, and she burst into laughter again. "You, Beth, are a very naughty girl. I think I like you."

Bethany whistled lowly, her eyebrows creeping up her forehead. "Pete sounds like fun," she replied decisively, nodding her head firmly. "You'll hafta introduce me some time. Sooner or later, these pesky preconceptions of brits'll go away. Sooner, if you two help." At the laughter, she let out a brief cackle of her own, regaining her wicked grin as she swivelled her chair around to face her computer. "T'anks. I like me, too."

"Remind me I owe Shinobi for puttin' me onto you. In a good way, of course." Amanda grimaced, switching the phone to the other ear and massaging the flat one. "An' yeah, you should meet Pete sometime. Maybe on one of our clubbin' nights - he offered himself as driver."

"That's the one thing I haven't really gotten to do. Clubbing. Is my street cred ruined now?" Snickering, Bethany propped her chin up in a hand, peering after Milo as the corgi bounded back into the living room. "Aha, sounds like my dad's home. But, yeah, I'm totally in for clubbing sometime, if you guys don't mind a boring ol' girl who can't do magic or make shit explode with her mind along cramping your style. And hey, gimme a ring on Saturday night, or Sunday sometime. We'll go paint the town red."

"Well, yer cred's damaged, but it ain't fatal. I prescribe a night out with our lot as soon as possible." Amanda's accent changed with the last sentence, became more 'newreader English'. Then she snorted and continued in her normal voice. "An' don't give me that borin' old girl shite. You don't have t'be a mutant t' be interestin', an' I'll kick the arse of anyone who says otherwise."

"Honest? You'd do that for me? You're so sweet." Casting a glance towards the door, Bethany bit her lip to hold in a grin, quieting her voice as an even thicker Bronx accent echoed faintly over the line from the next room. "I should go and pretend to be studious, 'fore dad sees I'm being a bad little slacker. The perils of being a cop's daughter. You'll call, though, right? Still got the number?" She was dimly aware of how hopeful she sounded, but paid it no real mind.

"Yeah, I should probably get goin' meself - need t'play babysitter to the new roomie since Paige has disappeared again." A small note of disappointment entered Amanda's voice. She'd really enjoyed this call. "An' I've got the number - I'll give you a call later on in the week. Provided there ain't any disasters. An' I'll see you on whatever day this weekend. I'm pushing for Sunday, meself - got this new magic tutor t' see in New York, an' that's fucked me Saturday."

Bethany couldn't help the surprised noise that greeted this news. "Local magic tutors? Jesus. The town really does have fuckin' everything, don't it?" Shaking herself, she shot another look towards the door, quickly swivelling the chair around to put her uncovered ear towards it and lifted her free hand to hide her mouth from view, because - as everyone knows - teenage girls are masters of stealth. "I'll make sure my weekend's clear, so whenever you're free is cool. Have fun with the new roomie an' Professor Merlin, or whatever."

"That's what they say in the tourist brochures, any way. You can get anything you need in New York. I'll tell you about it when I see you. Tho' I ain't gunna be able to look at him now without thinkin' of him as Professor Merlin."

"You're welcome," Bethany replied in a chipper voice, beaming cheerfully behind her hand. "The best way to tolerate teachers is to laugh at them when they ain't lookin'." There was a pause as a decidedly masculine voice - her father's, no doubt - called out a curious-sounding "You home, slugger?", and with a nearly audible pout, she sighed. "Time for me t'scoot. Talk to you later, Amanda."

"Cheers, Beth. Nice talkin' t' you."