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Dani had been staring at the freckled new kid, there was no denying it. He was new, so he was interesting, at least temporarily; soon enough he would become just a regular student and she would either recruit him as a friend or not. Given the way he'd suddenly grinned (oh, she had seen that look before) she decided likely not.

He only reinforced this idea when he moseyed over, laid it on thick, and offered his arm like he was prince charming and she was some kind of Disney princess.

While she was totally adorable, she was so -- ugh, so totally -- not interested. Just because she was cute didn't mean anyone who felt like it could walk over and hit on her, okay? It got old. Also, she was still completely trying to bully Parker into dating her. Probably.

"Ugh, no thank you." She lifted her hand, the gesture all attitude, and brushed him off. "Last I checked, glancing at someone wasn't like, an open invitation."

She'd thought this was the guy all the girls in her homeroom had been buzzing about having a Total Gay Moment with another guy, but obviously, she was wrong. How many new kids had more freckles than face, anyway?

Dani's ego was a little disappointed that he dismissed the topic so quickly, but it was quickly swamped by relief that she didn't have to get physical to convince him that she wasn't interested. While Dani wasn't the type to go beating on someone for flirting with her, she had been known to shove a guy back with a bad-tempered look, and it tended not to make her many friends. She wasn't too concerned considering she had friends and was totally awesome, anyway, so people who didn't like her were only hurting themselves, but something about Ignacio's speech caught her attention.

His name, actually. Hadn't been saying something about an Ignacio? How they knew his name already was beyond her, but gossip mills were fast and furious things. All she knew about the other half of the Gay Moment was that he had dark hair and his name was apparently "Gray." Well, and the word in the halls was that they knew each other from before transferring together, though it had seemed a surprise to them both.

Fate or something, probably. Dani wouldn't go entirely out of her way to figure it out, because the story was bound to come to light eventually, but she also wouldn't turn away a perfectly good opportunity to learn more.

Especially if they actually were a couple. She could really use a gay girlfriend, okay?

"I am going to lunch," she decided, giving him another briefly suspicious look. "If you're going to lunch too, fine. You can sit with me if you want," she added, appearing to think she was very gracious in doing so, especially considering he'd just hit on her, ugh.

After a beat, she added, "Just as a niceness to a new student, though." She liked to be Completely Clear if it at all possible.

Grayson. Gray? Things were lining up, and Dani was as pleased as if she'd orchestrated the entire scenario herself. Without giving it another moment's thought, she yanked her lunch bag out of her locker and nudged it shut with her hip, grinning. "Lead the way!"

Dani was clearly a teenage girl. She could go from sulking suspicious to sunshiney smiles in about .3 seconds, and she didn't seem ashamed of this fact. Her needs were simple, mostly, and as long as she was kept in a good humor, the world would be a beautiful and lovely place.

The trek to the lunch room was a short one, and since she already had her food in hand, she said cheerfully, "I'll get us a table. Go find your friend and bring him over, okay?"

Finding his friend wouldn't prove to be difficult. He was standing in the lunch line, as Grayson was far too lazy to ever pack his own food in the mornings, having an apparently animated conversation with a classmate. The girl seemed pleasant enough, a bit giggly, but overall it looked like they were having a nice conversation.

He reached over for an apple, placed it on his tray, and smiled at the girl. When Ignacio got within earshot, he would likely only be able to catch: "-plans for prom. Are you going with anyone?"

His first week back, and they were talking prom already?

It was playing out like a bad scene in one of those Japanese comic books - you know, the boylove ones. Cute, willowy guy was talking to a girl in the lunch line, and the other guy came over and marked his territory with a smile and proximity. Grayson didn't see it this way, having no concept that Ignacio was interested in him for anything other than friendship, but the girl's eyes went a little wide at the intrusion.

"This is Natasha," Grayson supplied, giving the girl a brief smile before glancing back to Ignacio. "We have homeroom together."

And they sat beside each other. He liked her well enough; she was friendly and personable, and they'd already spent the majority of the week getting to know one another better in class. He'd actually been sitting with her at lunch, too, mostly for lack of anywhere else to sit.

"Nice to meet you," Natasha said, barely managing to hide her interest. "Are you Gray's friend? He mentioned a few people he knew going here."

If she was keenly interested in the fact that this boy had popped up when they were discussing prom, she didn't show it.

They moved through the line, Grayson adding this and that to his tray, until they finally reached the end. He punched in his student ID to pay and didn't notice that Ignacio was smuggling food out in his pockets, considering his eyes didn't tend to stray to the shorts his friend was wearing if he could help it. Grayson really didn't like Meadowview's uniform.

"That sounds nice. I'll sit with you." Grayson glanced to Natasha, asking, "Would you like to sit with us?"

"Actually." Natasha looked over, saw a friend gesturing to her. "I'm going to sit at the usual table, okay, Gray? Maybe we'll have lunch together tomorrow or something."

That said, she juggled her tray, waving a little to Ignacio. "Nice to meet you! I think we have a class together? I'll see you then." and she was gone, no doubt to gossip with her friends about what she'd seen and heard in the line.

Not thinking much of it, Grayson looked to Ignacio for guidance. "Where are we sitting?"

"That's good." Grayson followed where he indicated, and was surprised to see Dani sitting at the table. She'd mentioned that she went to Meadowview, but he hadn't thought that Ignacio would make friends with her. Not that she was unlikable, just that it was a little too odd, considering he'd met her only the night before with Jude.

She looked up, and appeared equally surprised to see him. "Grayson?"

He blinked, breaking into a broad grin, and slid into the seat across from her. "Hi, Dani."

For some reason, it hadn't clicked to Dani that Gray = Grayson = Leo. She felt a little silly in retrospect, but she was too happy to see him again to care. Dani wasn't the type who liked to work in a team, but Sagittarius and Leo hadn't been completely horrifying to work with, unlike just about every other senshi encounter she'd had, so she didn't want to burn any bridges.

Really, really didn't want to burn any bridges.

"How are you? Oh my gosh, I just realized, we didn't exchange numbers." She dug around in her purse, tossed her phone to him. "Program yourself in mine and give me your phone, okay?"

Used to being swept along in the tide, Grayson caught her phone and then passed his own, pausing a moment to grin at Ignacio. "Dani and I met yesterday." Details weren't necessary. It would probably be assumed that they'd met at school.

What a small world.

Once the phone business was finished and everyone's mobiles were back in their proper hands, Grayson began to eat. He was glad to see Dani again, though he wondered at not seeing her in class. When he voiced this, she informed him that she was only fifteen, and he blinked in surprise. Dani looked much older than she was; he would have assumed seventeen at the least, nineteen at the most. She didn't seem to mind, merely shrugging, and added that a lot of people made the mistake.

She didn't say why, which he assumed was because of her cleavage. Grayson had glanced, had improperly used it to gauge her age, and moved on. He figured that was a pretty normal response for anyone.

"I need to clean my phone out too," Dani said breezily, unaware of Ignacio's motives for doing so. She was also going to add special tags to all her senshi contacts, just... nothing so obvious as "SENSHI" right next to their names.

"Mine's new, so." He leaned toward Ignacio, nodded slightly at his phone with a small smile. "Careful you don't delete me."