Friday afternoon, Rec Room

[x-siryn.livejournal.com]

Terry and Angelo talk about parties, teenage angst tendencies and voice lessons, before they run into sticky ground on the subject of family.



Angelo wandered into the rec room, carrying the puppy, and stopped in the doorway with a grin when he saw that the room was occupied - a small redheaded shape was sprawled on one of the couches, half asleep, with Dogma playing on the TV. "Hey, Terry."

“Mmphm,” she responded then shoved the afghan away from her mouth, blinking drowsily up at the boy and puppy, “Hi, Angelo.” She yawned and sat up, tucking her feet up so she wasn’t taking up the entire couch.

Angelo settled onto the couch with a friendly smile, putting Joyita in his lap, which she promptly abandoned to go sniff Terry's face. "Good nap?"

Terry giggled and dug her fingers obligingly in to scritch behind the puppy’s ears. “Yes. Matt with wings and playing baseball. Then we went flying after we saved the world from a popcorn monster.” She grinned.

Angelo laughed. "Popcorn monster? Sounds interestin'."

“Caramel flavoured,” she nodded. “How about you? How is your day so far?”

"Not too bad", he answered with a smile, drawing up his legs. "Friday, you know."

“No more classes for two whole days,” Terry agreed happily, “And Halloween to end it all well. Have you decided on a costume?”

He nodded. "Yeah, Clarice's makin' me one. A skeleton. You?"

“No idea. I should have pestered Clarice for one as well, I suppose.” She shrugged, optimistic enough to believe that inspiration and a costume would just magically present itself in the next two days.

"Might not be too late - she likes a challenge. Could just ask her for whatever she can do in two days an' see what she comes up with."

Terry thought it over, “Maybe I will. If she’s got time enough that would be great.” She dodged an enthusiastic lick from Joyita and giggled again.

"So, what else have you been up to?"

“Just the usual. Classes, voice lessons, avoiding my dad. Ignoring the endless whinging that goes on around here.” Terry rolled her eyes.

Angelo grinned wryly. "Probably should start doin' some of that myself. The last one - don't need voice lessons or to avoid your dad, an' I do classes."

“It’s rather pleasant. And you can get a lot more done. Saves you hours and hours of time.”

"Now you're just bein' logical."

“Sorry, terrible habit of mine.” She attempted to look contrite but ruined it with a sardonic little smirk, “I’m letting my age group down. Who ever heard of a logical teenager?”

Angelo chuckled, then thought about it mock-seriously. "Well, Jamie doesn't do badly there. But you're outnumbered, I think."

“Jamie doesn’t count. He’d want to be counted once for each dupe if he did so he doesn’t.” She snickered, “If I’m outnumbered then I can angst about how oppressed and misunderstood I am. Ha! My teenage rep is safe.”

Angelo grinned and nodded. "Angstin' makes up for the logic, so you should be fine."

“Well it’s that or my criminal past and I don’t feel bad about that so, angst about logic it is.” She pressed her hand to her forehead melodramatically and adopted a heavy aggrieved tone, “Woe is me, I’m so misunderstood.”

Angelo blinked at the mention of the criminal past - Terry was the last person (well, second to Rahne) he'd have expected to hear that from - but he figured if she wanted to go into detail, she would. "That's the spirit."

“Nah, angsting is overrated too. Plus my roommate would probably try to cheer me up and I’d end up covered in green glitter.” Terry didn’t figure that anyone really needed to know what she’d spent her childhood doing but also didn’t see any reason to hide it. If he asked, she would have explained.

"Hah. You think she wouldn't cover you in glitter just because she got bored? Green is optional."

“We’ve got sort of a truce on that. She doesn’t glitter me without reason and I don’t practice arias in the room.” Terry frowned, it wasn’t like she’d meant to break the snow globe.

Angelo nodded. "How're the voice lessons goin', anyway?"

“Under control. Alison says,” Terry grinned when she mentioned the teacher, “I’ve just about got it to the point where I can start really learning to use it and not just scream.”

"Oh, that's great. Weren't you workin' on singin' with two voices, or somethin'?"

“That’s easy stuff,” she said, “Jay can sing four part harmonies by himself. I’m only up to three.” She sounded faintly envious.

Angelo looked impressed. "'Up to'? So you could do more with practise? That's pretty neat."

Terry hesitated, “I don’t know, actually. I’ve never tried more than three. That might be my limit. Course, it’s more than Dad can do.” Her smirk reappeared, satisfied with that if nothing else.

Angelo grinned, then asked curiously, "Why do you not get on with him? Don't have to tell me if you don't want, I was just wonderin'."

“I didn’t even meet him til I was about 12. He didn’t even know I existed. Then Uncle Tom was caught and Sean Cassidy shows up and expects me to welcome him into my life with open arms.” She snorted, “Of course, after a year he decided that he didn’t really want a daughter after all and sent me here.”

Angelo frowned. "Not that I'd know, but couldn't he've thought he was doin' what was best for you? Mutant school an' all that..."

“If he wanted to do what was best he’d have sent me here right off like Uncle Tom wanted,” she replied bitterly, “He dumped me here because I wasn’t the daughter he expected and didn’t like it.”

Angelo shrugged, not really knowing enough about the situation to judge. He did point out mildly, "Seems kinda strange that he'd show up to work here if you weren't the kid he wanted, though."

“He says he wants to be a family.” Terry shook her head, “He should have thought of that before he put the man who raised me behind bars. I want nothing to do with him.”

"Me, I'd take all the family I could get", Angelo said softly. "But it's your life, an' your call."

“He’s not my family. He’s just the sperm donor. I’ve got his mutation, that’s plenty.” Terry was suddenly very tired of this conversation. She pushed Joyita off her lap and back at Angelo then stood. “I’ve got homework to do.”

Angelo nodded, taking the puppy back automatically. "Yeah... sorry..."

Terry sighed, “It’s fine. I just…he dropped me. Just flat out left. It wasn’t the greatest feeling.” She found the remote and stopped the movie, cutting Ben Affleck off in mid-sentence.

Angelo nodded again, sadly. "Yeah, I can see that. Won't bring it up again, promise."

“I didn’t mean to be such a bitch.” Terry didn’t apologise well, she shrugged uncomfortably, “I’m not angry at you.”

"'s okay", he assured her. "No hard feelin's?"

“Not if you don’t.” She sighed again, “I really am going to get going though. I think I’ll play a bit. I haven’t practiced as much as I should have.”

He nodded. "Fair enough - any idea when the band's next playin'? Although I guess with the Jono situation, that might not be soon..."

“No. Without Jono, we’re pretty well stalled. How is he doing?” Terry asked, more worried than she would readily admit.

Angelo shrugged miserably. "Not really sure. He doesn't come out of his room that much - but when I've seen him, he's still been all wrapped up. He's workin' with Nathan, though, an' Askani."

“Is that helping at all? Or is he still…you know?” She moved her hand vaguely.

"I don't know. I hope so. Or that it will, at least."

Terry nodded, her expression concerned, “Yeah, me too.” She sighed, “I’ll see you around, Angelo.”

He nodded back, raising the hand that wasn't hooked in the puppy's collar to wave. "See you 'round."