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xp_logsFollowing this phone call, Amanda and Bethany finally put faces to the names, and get on scarily well.
Amanda was nervous. The girl who had teleported into a hell dimension without a second thought, who had lived on the streets of Brighton for a year and a half and emerged relatively unscathed, who had faced down Romany Wisdom and insisted on returning to the school, was trying unsuccessfully to look relaxed as people gradually filtered into smaller groups and conversations.
She wasn't the only one. Despite the fact that this was not the group's first meeting, most of the kids present still seemed at least a little bit nervous - and Bethany was no exception. She was just nervous for completely different reasons. Content to stay in her booth, she looked down and fiddled with the collar of her too-snug, why-God-why-did-I-wear-this-thing t-shirt before she cast a quick look around. Talking to people, she could do. Meeting them? Not so much.
'Right, if I don't do somethin' now, I'll end up sittin' here all fuckin' day,' Amanda thought to herself, finishing her Coke - she wasn't huge on the coffee - and setting the glass down with a little more firmness than perhaps she should. She reached over and poked Shinobi. "Hey, I wanna talk t' Bethany. Is she here?"
Blinking, Shinobi looked up as he was poked, starting to open his mouth before the girl seated across from him immediately pointed towards Bethany's booth. "She's over there," the girl supplied, and Shinobi grinned cheerfully and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, there you have it," he chuckled, unable to resist the sudden need to return the poke in kind. "Go on, have fun. You'll do fine."
Biting back a most un-punk-like squeal as Shinobi's poke hit one of her ticklish spots - he had an unerring knack for doing that - Amanda swatted his hand and got up. "Why wouldn't I be fine?" she said as she squirmed past him, ignoring the way her voice cracked a little on the last word.
He slowly tilted his head to one side, looking a bit surprised at the crack in Amanda's voice as she moved by. "Can talk about it later, if there's anything to talk about," he said after a moment, ignoring the knowing expression on the face of the girl who'd pointed Bethany out.
"Sure. See you in a bit." Amanda did notice the expression on the girl's face and winked at her, making her suddenly look away, discomfited. That particular matter taken care of, Amanda made her way to the booth she'd pointed out, feeling like every eye in the room was on her. She was actually dressed up, or as dressed up as she could get without wearing the leather pants she'd bought in London before coming back: least-ratty black jeans, her tight Union Jack t-shirt, and the Docs, of course. She'd debated taking out some of the piercings - they were a bit confronting on first meetings - but decided against it in a fit of 'fuck her if she don't like me as I am'. And then she'd wondered why Bethany liking her was so important in the first place.
The shirt is fine. Stop fucking fiddling with it before you stretch it out. Making a face at herself, Bethany put forth some effort and shoved her hands down into her lap, where they could wring each other instead of her shirt. Her clothes were pretty plain, for a change - the shirt was a plain, uninteresting gray, with her usual olive green cargo pants held about her waist by a belt, and a black hooded sweatshirt tied by the sleeves around her hips. The Skechers on her feet were new, so as far as she was concerned, she was dressed way the hell up for this. Chancing another glance up, she paused when she saw someone approaching, brightening as her head put 'teenage girl + union jack shirt' together and promptly sliding out of the booth to get to her feet. "Amanda?"
"Don't tell me, the shirt gave it away, right?" Amanda said with a grin, sounding far more relaxed than she felt. It wasn't as if she met people like this all the time - before the school, her social interactions fell into two groups, people she met on the streets and those she met in clubs. Neither were really into in-depth conversation. Or any conversation, for that matter. "An' unless me rep's gettin' more widespread than just the school, you must be Beth."
"The shirt did help," Bethany admitted, cracking a sheepish grin before remembering herself and quickly sticking out a hand. "An' yeah, that's me. Nice to actually meet-meet you. Couldn't tell you on the rep thing, but after this thing..?" She made a thoughtful noise, casting a quick look around to make a mental tally of the various gossips present. "...yeah, you'll probably get a rep, at least as 'that girl who was sitting with Beth'. Which isn't a bad rep to have, I hope."
"Well, it's that or 'that girl with all the metal in her face an' the funny accent'. Which is what I usually get. I think I like the new one better." Amanda paused a moment, and then shook the girl's hand. "Nice t' put a face t' the voice an' the email."
"Likewise. I'd'a offered to send a picture, but I'm not terribly photogenic." In her opinion, anyway. She made a face, shrugging and giving Amanda's hand a shake that felt far more confident than she did. Conversation, conversation.. think, Bethany, think! "You weren't here for the first meeting thing, were you?" she asked after a moment, her brow knitting up in thought. "I don't think I saw you here, anyway, though I was kind of distracted.." She nodded towards Shinobi, with a sheepish smile.. which was soon joined by a very faint blush. "..oh. Duh. Have a seat?" She pointed back at her booth, coughing quietly. Stupid stupid stupid.
Amanda smiled at Bethany's awkwardness, but not in a malicious way. More relieved - she was just as nervous, which made her feel a lot better, although she wasn't entirely sure why someone would be nervous about meeting her. "Shinobi has that effect on people," she said, sliding into the seat opposite the one Beth had been sitting in. "Distractin', I mean. An' yeah, I weren't here the first time. There was some stuff goin' on, an' I wasn't feelin' up t' bein' social. That's mostly sorted now." Unconsciously, her hand moved to the pendant Romany had given her, the warm stones oddly reassuring. "An' you are - photogenic, that is," she added, and then immediately wondered what on earth had made her say that.
With a quick look down to her shoes, Bethany slid back into the booth, reclaiming her previously vacated seat with a quiet chuckle. "The curse of celebrity. Poor guy must get sick'a it." She rested her hands on the table and almost immediately regretted it, since it left her with nothing to fidget with, her knee almost immediately beginning to bounce unseen to relieve the tension. "Glad stuff is sorted. Life can be a hell of a bitch sometimes, needs a good kick in the nuts to get it back in order again." She nodded sagely - and then the compliment registered, and she blinked once, looking across the table with an odd smile. "Pfft. Bull. I am not."
"I think that's why he likes the school so much - he gets treated same as the rest of us. I forget half the time he's famous." With a chuckle, Amanda went on: "You should have been in Brighton with us - paparazzi all over the place. An' Sarah, his girlfriend - she has her own groupies now. It was hysterical."
"He showed me a picture, last time I saw 'im. Can see why she's got groupies." Grinning lopsidedly, Bethany propped her chin up in a hand. "From what all've you are telling me about Brighton, it's my kind've town. I'd just have to tolerate a plane or a boat long enough t' get there. Hate public transportation." She shuddered.
"Yeah, she is pretty hot - but you didn't hear me say that," said Amanda with a conspiratorial grin. "She was doin' okay, 'til they told her about the website - she ain't exactly used t' public attention. An' yeah, Brighton would definitely be yer kind of place. Still, if Sarah can do the plane thing with the whole fear of heights she's got, yer'd probably survive. 'S just a matter of havin' plenty of distractions. An' nicotine gum, in my case. Nine hours is too fuckin' log between fags." And the fact the coffee house was non-smoking wasn't registering on her at all, oh no...
Bethany was doing fine up until 'fags', and then she showed just what a mature American she was by sputtering and clamping a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly. She gets out a strained "Sorry!" between giggles, letting her forehead go *thunk* against the tabletop. "Oh, God, I'm a bad, bad person. Maturity! I have that, I swear!" Clearing her throat, she straightened back up, squaring her shoulders and trying to keep her lips from twitching. Steady on. "See, I just don't like public transportation. Heights've nothin' to do with it. Don't like not being in control of my well-being like that. S' why I walk home from school instead of taking the bus."
Amanda looked bemused at the outburst, and then it registered. "Oh for fuck's sake..." she began, amused. "You know, yer the first person since I got here that's actually done that? I've been expectin' it, an' not one of the people at the school pulled me up on that. So I gotta thank you for not disappointin' - what's the point of havin' slang from another country if we don't have these sorts of jokes?" She waited until Bethany had gotten herself under control and was reaching for her water glass before continuing. "I met a couple of Aussies at a club in Brighton once - England's crawlin' with 'em, actually, makes you wonder if there's anyone left in the country - and they were tellin' me what 'root' means down there."
"Aussies in England? Didn't they get kicked out?" Grinning massively, Bethany finally let her hand drop back to the table, rolling her eyes at herself. "I must be making a great first impression. I'm full of stereotypes, ain't I? God." Slowly shaking her head, she looked curiously towards Amanda, an eyebrow creeping its way up her forehead. "Oh boy. I both want to ask, and very much don't want to ask. I know too many bad things as it is, I think."
"Well, they're a former colony, an' still part of the Commonwealth, so we have trouble gettin' rid of them. An' I've got t' say, they make good bar staff - every pub in England has an Aussie behind the bar, it seems like. But yeah, in Aussie-land, 'root' means t' fuck. Brings a whole new meanin' t' 'rootin' for yer team', eh?"
"Take one for the team," Bethany agreed seriously, obviously having to put forth a great deal of effort to maintain her deadpan. "I can see you're going to be a terrible influence on me. Good. I owe Shinobi thanks for puttin' us in touch, too." She gave up on holding onto her straight face then, smiling brightly and self-consciously running a hand back through her hair.
"Yeah, I definitely think Shinobi deserves somethin' for this. More 'n the usual - we have this whole f... cigarette currency thing goin' on. I'll have t' check with Sarah, see if there's somethin' he likes we can surprise him with. If you want, that is. Means yer'd have t' put up with me again, if it involved some kind of shoppin' trip."
"You say that like it'd be a bad thing," Bethany replied, keeping her smile. "I'd be up fer that, sure. Excuses to go out with cute girls and spend gobs of money are good in my book." She waggled her eyebrows before ducking her head, valiantly trying to ignore the exasperated voice chewing her out in her head.
Amanda was glad Bethany had ducked her head, because it meant she missed the faint blush that coloured her cheeks. Or most of it, any way. And there was no way to hide the rather pleased smile. "Glad t' be of help then," she said. "Can't say I'd mind horribly hangin' around with you for any length of time neither." Then, before things could degenerate any further, she glanced around the shop. Several of the other kids who were there quickly pretended they hadn't been watching the pair at all. "I think we're crankin' up the rumour mill here," she said with an amused smile.
"So?" Bethany lifted her head, laughing from a mixture of amusement and nervousness. "Let 'em talk. Gotta entertain themselves somehow, don't they?"
"So long as they don't give you any shite for it later, I don't care. I'd offer t' put a hex on 'em or somethin' if they did, but I ain't supposed t' do that sort of thing any more. 'S all about the beneficial magic these days."
Bethany looked amused at the qualification of 'any more', glancing out over the crowd. "Ah, they'll tease, but they've learned to accept it," she replied after a moment's thought, nodding to herself. "I am who I am, an' if they don't like it, they can get somebody else's tests to cheat off of." Pausing, she looked over to Amanda again, her smile going almost bashful. "You'd seriously hex them if they gave me hell?"
"You sure you ain't from Brighton?" Amanda asked, teasing. "You really would fit in there." Then she shrugged. "Sure I would. I like you, an' I don't like seein' the people I like get shite. It'd almost be worth the karmic backlash I'd get later if I did do somethin'."
"That is quite possibly the sweetest thing anybody's ever said to me," Bethany mused. "Mostly because I can tell you're bein' serious. Thanks, Amanda." Grinning oddly, she cast another brief look out towards the other assorted kids, then the clerk behind the counter. "I think I need coffee," she said thoughtfully, pursing her lips. "You want anythin'?"
"Coke'd be good. Ta." Okay, so she'd be hyper for the rest of the day, but that was going to happen anyway. "Mind if I call Angelo an' Bobby over? They're lookin' a bit lost in that corner over there." Sliding out of the booth, Bethany considered the pros and cons of additional company for a moment - and decided the potential pros were a-ok in her book. "Sure, call 'em over. Dibs on the seat next to you, though." Beaming impishly, she shoved a hand into her pocket to fish out her wallet, and with a chipper "Back in a sec," turned and made her way towards the counter.
"Not a problem by me," Amanda replied, pausing to watch Bethany moving to the counter with a grin, before heading over to get Bobby and Angelo.
Amanda was nervous. The girl who had teleported into a hell dimension without a second thought, who had lived on the streets of Brighton for a year and a half and emerged relatively unscathed, who had faced down Romany Wisdom and insisted on returning to the school, was trying unsuccessfully to look relaxed as people gradually filtered into smaller groups and conversations.
She wasn't the only one. Despite the fact that this was not the group's first meeting, most of the kids present still seemed at least a little bit nervous - and Bethany was no exception. She was just nervous for completely different reasons. Content to stay in her booth, she looked down and fiddled with the collar of her too-snug, why-God-why-did-I-wear-this-thing t-shirt before she cast a quick look around. Talking to people, she could do. Meeting them? Not so much.
'Right, if I don't do somethin' now, I'll end up sittin' here all fuckin' day,' Amanda thought to herself, finishing her Coke - she wasn't huge on the coffee - and setting the glass down with a little more firmness than perhaps she should. She reached over and poked Shinobi. "Hey, I wanna talk t' Bethany. Is she here?"
Blinking, Shinobi looked up as he was poked, starting to open his mouth before the girl seated across from him immediately pointed towards Bethany's booth. "She's over there," the girl supplied, and Shinobi grinned cheerfully and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, there you have it," he chuckled, unable to resist the sudden need to return the poke in kind. "Go on, have fun. You'll do fine."
Biting back a most un-punk-like squeal as Shinobi's poke hit one of her ticklish spots - he had an unerring knack for doing that - Amanda swatted his hand and got up. "Why wouldn't I be fine?" she said as she squirmed past him, ignoring the way her voice cracked a little on the last word.
He slowly tilted his head to one side, looking a bit surprised at the crack in Amanda's voice as she moved by. "Can talk about it later, if there's anything to talk about," he said after a moment, ignoring the knowing expression on the face of the girl who'd pointed Bethany out.
"Sure. See you in a bit." Amanda did notice the expression on the girl's face and winked at her, making her suddenly look away, discomfited. That particular matter taken care of, Amanda made her way to the booth she'd pointed out, feeling like every eye in the room was on her. She was actually dressed up, or as dressed up as she could get without wearing the leather pants she'd bought in London before coming back: least-ratty black jeans, her tight Union Jack t-shirt, and the Docs, of course. She'd debated taking out some of the piercings - they were a bit confronting on first meetings - but decided against it in a fit of 'fuck her if she don't like me as I am'. And then she'd wondered why Bethany liking her was so important in the first place.
The shirt is fine. Stop fucking fiddling with it before you stretch it out. Making a face at herself, Bethany put forth some effort and shoved her hands down into her lap, where they could wring each other instead of her shirt. Her clothes were pretty plain, for a change - the shirt was a plain, uninteresting gray, with her usual olive green cargo pants held about her waist by a belt, and a black hooded sweatshirt tied by the sleeves around her hips. The Skechers on her feet were new, so as far as she was concerned, she was dressed way the hell up for this. Chancing another glance up, she paused when she saw someone approaching, brightening as her head put 'teenage girl + union jack shirt' together and promptly sliding out of the booth to get to her feet. "Amanda?"
"Don't tell me, the shirt gave it away, right?" Amanda said with a grin, sounding far more relaxed than she felt. It wasn't as if she met people like this all the time - before the school, her social interactions fell into two groups, people she met on the streets and those she met in clubs. Neither were really into in-depth conversation. Or any conversation, for that matter. "An' unless me rep's gettin' more widespread than just the school, you must be Beth."
"The shirt did help," Bethany admitted, cracking a sheepish grin before remembering herself and quickly sticking out a hand. "An' yeah, that's me. Nice to actually meet-meet you. Couldn't tell you on the rep thing, but after this thing..?" She made a thoughtful noise, casting a quick look around to make a mental tally of the various gossips present. "...yeah, you'll probably get a rep, at least as 'that girl who was sitting with Beth'. Which isn't a bad rep to have, I hope."
"Well, it's that or 'that girl with all the metal in her face an' the funny accent'. Which is what I usually get. I think I like the new one better." Amanda paused a moment, and then shook the girl's hand. "Nice t' put a face t' the voice an' the email."
"Likewise. I'd'a offered to send a picture, but I'm not terribly photogenic." In her opinion, anyway. She made a face, shrugging and giving Amanda's hand a shake that felt far more confident than she did. Conversation, conversation.. think, Bethany, think! "You weren't here for the first meeting thing, were you?" she asked after a moment, her brow knitting up in thought. "I don't think I saw you here, anyway, though I was kind of distracted.." She nodded towards Shinobi, with a sheepish smile.. which was soon joined by a very faint blush. "..oh. Duh. Have a seat?" She pointed back at her booth, coughing quietly. Stupid stupid stupid.
Amanda smiled at Bethany's awkwardness, but not in a malicious way. More relieved - she was just as nervous, which made her feel a lot better, although she wasn't entirely sure why someone would be nervous about meeting her. "Shinobi has that effect on people," she said, sliding into the seat opposite the one Beth had been sitting in. "Distractin', I mean. An' yeah, I weren't here the first time. There was some stuff goin' on, an' I wasn't feelin' up t' bein' social. That's mostly sorted now." Unconsciously, her hand moved to the pendant Romany had given her, the warm stones oddly reassuring. "An' you are - photogenic, that is," she added, and then immediately wondered what on earth had made her say that.
With a quick look down to her shoes, Bethany slid back into the booth, reclaiming her previously vacated seat with a quiet chuckle. "The curse of celebrity. Poor guy must get sick'a it." She rested her hands on the table and almost immediately regretted it, since it left her with nothing to fidget with, her knee almost immediately beginning to bounce unseen to relieve the tension. "Glad stuff is sorted. Life can be a hell of a bitch sometimes, needs a good kick in the nuts to get it back in order again." She nodded sagely - and then the compliment registered, and she blinked once, looking across the table with an odd smile. "Pfft. Bull. I am not."
"I think that's why he likes the school so much - he gets treated same as the rest of us. I forget half the time he's famous." With a chuckle, Amanda went on: "You should have been in Brighton with us - paparazzi all over the place. An' Sarah, his girlfriend - she has her own groupies now. It was hysterical."
"He showed me a picture, last time I saw 'im. Can see why she's got groupies." Grinning lopsidedly, Bethany propped her chin up in a hand. "From what all've you are telling me about Brighton, it's my kind've town. I'd just have to tolerate a plane or a boat long enough t' get there. Hate public transportation." She shuddered.
"Yeah, she is pretty hot - but you didn't hear me say that," said Amanda with a conspiratorial grin. "She was doin' okay, 'til they told her about the website - she ain't exactly used t' public attention. An' yeah, Brighton would definitely be yer kind of place. Still, if Sarah can do the plane thing with the whole fear of heights she's got, yer'd probably survive. 'S just a matter of havin' plenty of distractions. An' nicotine gum, in my case. Nine hours is too fuckin' log between fags." And the fact the coffee house was non-smoking wasn't registering on her at all, oh no...
Bethany was doing fine up until 'fags', and then she showed just what a mature American she was by sputtering and clamping a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loudly. She gets out a strained "Sorry!" between giggles, letting her forehead go *thunk* against the tabletop. "Oh, God, I'm a bad, bad person. Maturity! I have that, I swear!" Clearing her throat, she straightened back up, squaring her shoulders and trying to keep her lips from twitching. Steady on. "See, I just don't like public transportation. Heights've nothin' to do with it. Don't like not being in control of my well-being like that. S' why I walk home from school instead of taking the bus."
Amanda looked bemused at the outburst, and then it registered. "Oh for fuck's sake..." she began, amused. "You know, yer the first person since I got here that's actually done that? I've been expectin' it, an' not one of the people at the school pulled me up on that. So I gotta thank you for not disappointin' - what's the point of havin' slang from another country if we don't have these sorts of jokes?" She waited until Bethany had gotten herself under control and was reaching for her water glass before continuing. "I met a couple of Aussies at a club in Brighton once - England's crawlin' with 'em, actually, makes you wonder if there's anyone left in the country - and they were tellin' me what 'root' means down there."
"Aussies in England? Didn't they get kicked out?" Grinning massively, Bethany finally let her hand drop back to the table, rolling her eyes at herself. "I must be making a great first impression. I'm full of stereotypes, ain't I? God." Slowly shaking her head, she looked curiously towards Amanda, an eyebrow creeping its way up her forehead. "Oh boy. I both want to ask, and very much don't want to ask. I know too many bad things as it is, I think."
"Well, they're a former colony, an' still part of the Commonwealth, so we have trouble gettin' rid of them. An' I've got t' say, they make good bar staff - every pub in England has an Aussie behind the bar, it seems like. But yeah, in Aussie-land, 'root' means t' fuck. Brings a whole new meanin' t' 'rootin' for yer team', eh?"
"Take one for the team," Bethany agreed seriously, obviously having to put forth a great deal of effort to maintain her deadpan. "I can see you're going to be a terrible influence on me. Good. I owe Shinobi thanks for puttin' us in touch, too." She gave up on holding onto her straight face then, smiling brightly and self-consciously running a hand back through her hair.
"Yeah, I definitely think Shinobi deserves somethin' for this. More 'n the usual - we have this whole f... cigarette currency thing goin' on. I'll have t' check with Sarah, see if there's somethin' he likes we can surprise him with. If you want, that is. Means yer'd have t' put up with me again, if it involved some kind of shoppin' trip."
"You say that like it'd be a bad thing," Bethany replied, keeping her smile. "I'd be up fer that, sure. Excuses to go out with cute girls and spend gobs of money are good in my book." She waggled her eyebrows before ducking her head, valiantly trying to ignore the exasperated voice chewing her out in her head.
Amanda was glad Bethany had ducked her head, because it meant she missed the faint blush that coloured her cheeks. Or most of it, any way. And there was no way to hide the rather pleased smile. "Glad t' be of help then," she said. "Can't say I'd mind horribly hangin' around with you for any length of time neither." Then, before things could degenerate any further, she glanced around the shop. Several of the other kids who were there quickly pretended they hadn't been watching the pair at all. "I think we're crankin' up the rumour mill here," she said with an amused smile.
"So?" Bethany lifted her head, laughing from a mixture of amusement and nervousness. "Let 'em talk. Gotta entertain themselves somehow, don't they?"
"So long as they don't give you any shite for it later, I don't care. I'd offer t' put a hex on 'em or somethin' if they did, but I ain't supposed t' do that sort of thing any more. 'S all about the beneficial magic these days."
Bethany looked amused at the qualification of 'any more', glancing out over the crowd. "Ah, they'll tease, but they've learned to accept it," she replied after a moment's thought, nodding to herself. "I am who I am, an' if they don't like it, they can get somebody else's tests to cheat off of." Pausing, she looked over to Amanda again, her smile going almost bashful. "You'd seriously hex them if they gave me hell?"
"You sure you ain't from Brighton?" Amanda asked, teasing. "You really would fit in there." Then she shrugged. "Sure I would. I like you, an' I don't like seein' the people I like get shite. It'd almost be worth the karmic backlash I'd get later if I did do somethin'."
"That is quite possibly the sweetest thing anybody's ever said to me," Bethany mused. "Mostly because I can tell you're bein' serious. Thanks, Amanda." Grinning oddly, she cast another brief look out towards the other assorted kids, then the clerk behind the counter. "I think I need coffee," she said thoughtfully, pursing her lips. "You want anythin'?"
"Coke'd be good. Ta." Okay, so she'd be hyper for the rest of the day, but that was going to happen anyway. "Mind if I call Angelo an' Bobby over? They're lookin' a bit lost in that corner over there." Sliding out of the booth, Bethany considered the pros and cons of additional company for a moment - and decided the potential pros were a-ok in her book. "Sure, call 'em over. Dibs on the seat next to you, though." Beaming impishly, she shoved a hand into her pocket to fish out her wallet, and with a chipper "Back in a sec," turned and made her way towards the counter.
"Not a problem by me," Amanda replied, pausing to watch Bethany moving to the counter with a grin, before heading over to get Bobby and Angelo.
