Welcome to Gaia! ::

*When Cora said the words, Luke looks around .... to see that no one heard or cared. Ha, right on.*

*Luke kicks it back, and feels the exact sensation Cora described. He clenches his eyes shut and opens them.* Well, get ready. You're gonna feel it again.

*Luke counts at the table and orders 8 shots. With Cora's help, he brings them over. Once everyone has one, he stands over next to Aimee and announces.* This table is way too sober. We need to get started here!

*Luke lifts his shot glass.* To the new Junior Editor - Thelonious Lord of the Dance.

*Around three hours later...*

*Throughout the night, they bar-hop to local bars near campus. These are build to be much more low key than the ones Cora has seen before, but they are just as crowded, as this is a Saturday night on campus.*

*Luke is sitting with Max and a few other guys he ran into from the Lacrosse Team. They are laughing racously at Max's story from a few weeks ago, that somehow never got told.*

*Max is flailing his arms around drunkenly.* "So I fall asleep on the couch downstairs, you know by the staircase? Wearing nothing but my boxers."

*Luke adds in. He's tipsy, but not too bad.* "Who's surprised?! Raise your hand if you're surprised!"

*Max continues.* "Except somehow during the night, my boxers fall down, so I've got my a** hanging out. No sheet, no covers. Nothing." *Luke starts to laugh, but Max goes.* "No. No. It gets better! So... in the morning, this little freshman comes down. You know, blonde hair, in pigtails. And I'm lying on the couch, still drunk, 5 'o clock shadow, snoring, and I got a half stock of morning wood. ... I wake up when I hear her coming down the stairs. I look up... We look at each other." *Max waves his hand, as if giving a howdy-dowdy.* "And I go - 'Hey. How you doin'?"

*Luke can't get a word out, he's laughing so hard.*

*Max is laughing now too.* "I s**t you not. She actually shrieked and ran back up the stairs."

*Luke wipes the tears from his eyes.* "Christ! We can't take you anywhere! Everywhere you go, you pull your pants down."

"Hey!" *Max points to him drunkenly with his beer bottle.* "The ladies love me!"

*Luke shouts.* "The POLICE are going to love you, if you keep doing that. You're a menace to society!" *As the laughter dies down, Luke looks around ... checking for Cora.*

*Aimee sidles up to Luke.* Hello, everyone. *Aimee throws back her hair, which has gotten mussed up. She's sweating a little from dancing.* Whoo. You guys behaving yourselves?

Good God, there's more?! *Though she's leaning into Luke, Aimee hits Max lightly.* You never stop. *jingles her purse, where her camcorder is* And now I have the footage to prove it.

:::Cora chuckles, and puts up her hands accepting the blame this time:::

Guilt where guilt is due hm..?

:::She looks at Max, and smiles...differently this time.

From the moment Cora walked out wearing the outfit she and Aimee bought during their shopping spree, she realized that she had the ability to get reactions out of people... boys mostly, but even the females reacted a certain way. She was figuring out that looking at someone a certain way, or talking to someone a certain way had a lot more meaning than she originally understood... and she had started to use it before she knew what she was doing.

And a few hours in, it was obvious to her what the consequences where. Max had been very friendly and welcoming... until the point she realized what was up and she shut down... he'd been very careful to avoid her since then:::

*Aimee laughs and says.* "No, no no. Not America's home videos." *she says grandly.* "I think this is the PERFECT audition tape from America's Next Top Model."

Hey! Hey! You're not here to make friends! You're here to win! *Aimee says.* "I could be your production manager. Chuck could be your publicist. Cora could be your connection outside of Phildelphia..."

*Aimee tapped a finger to her lips.* Speaking of Theolonious, where IS the man of the hour?