Welcome to Gaia! ::

This made it way too easy to sexually harrass her. Without warning -- a sort of red blur in the mirror -- a hand came down, smack in the center of her butt, a light whip like a beesting before it came back up and its owner said, "Dead center, Rel, am I right?"

There had been a reason that Jace had not walked to school with her that morning; that Jace had returned home after she'd slept; that Jace had come late to school that way, not turned up in the morning, with Beatrix waving both Irelia and Wisp out the door with no small amount of impatience. They'd both thought that maybe Jacoba had a cold and had a day off.

The 'eldest' Darnell hadn't got a cold; the eldest Darnell had about four inches of height, respectable b-cups, and a terrible smirk in her eye as she watched the other girl smoke. "Now if that isn't totally ******** disloyal," she said, "smoking without offering your best friend in the whole wide world one? Damn you are such a b***h."

She ran one hand back through her crop of crimson fuzz, glossy golden shoulder muscles bunching as she did so. Jace had shoulders. Jace had abs. "God knows why I love you," she added.

"Hey, right here, right now?" Jace leant up with one long tanned arm and plucked the cigarette out of Irelia's hand as it was retrieved from the girl's ample brassiere, digging around in her own pocket for a light. She couldn't find one, so she pressed her hand to the end of the cigarette: this seemed slightly odd, but whatever, her brow was furrowed in concentration and her tangerine eyes narrowed as though to set it alight with the Power Of Her Brain. "No wonder everyone calls you easy, cupcake."

A tiny curl of smoke came up from her finger; eventually, touched to the tip, the cigarette actually came alight. Jace stuck it in her mouth and took a long drag off it, admirably not even coughing. "Get down from there, you gigantic retard," she said, "you and your crazy graffiti obsession, I'm gonna tell M.B. -- what's that about Antony? God, how do you know anyway? His wang's invisible."

She winked. Somehow Jace winking now was a lot more devastating than younger Jace's winking, which just looked like an epileptic seizure. Especially when she flipped the cigarette out of her mouth and offered it to Irelia, slightly touched at the end with remnants of the redhead's Blistex.

"Last night," her friend said airily, though she was so filled with self-satisfied glee that it was hard not to laugh. "I came home late -- M.B. wanted me to stay in bed, talk ridiculous mom crap -- " it didn't sound like Jace really minded -- "you know, bonding time, made sure I had clothes before I went to school. It was actually pretty cool, she took time off work and we both came in like ten minutes ago for last classes. Also, check it."

She made another slightly lame little flame come up from her finger. It flickered and choked a little, but it was there. "Fire water burn, bitches," said Jace a little glibly, and took another drag off the cig as she parked herself next to Irelia on the sink. "I always knew I was a magical child. -- Anyway, so, here I am, here you are, aren't I goddamn awesome for keeping the secret? You and Wisp were all like wailing ambulances the morning of, Christ. Me, I played it cool." (Never mind she'd gone and had to basically weep into Antony's shoulder.)

Jace immediately flailed her wrists in approximation of a teenage girl, rolling her eyes in her head and letting out a high-pitched squeal. Jace obviously did not think much of teenage girls. "Oh boy!" she said, and dropped the cutesy act -- "Being in teendom? This. Is. Retarded. Holy s**t. I don't even know how to play this goddamn game. Uh. Who has the biggest boobs -- Rory Zee, Aurora has goddamned jugs. b***h doubles as a flotation device. Chris is gonna get himself into trouble when he's teenager -- seriously, shotgun weddin', heard it from me first. Your turn."

She slugged most of the cigarette.

"You're fancy," said her friend as they left the bathroom, and it wasn't quite flirting -- of course it wasn't flirting, they were best friends, best friends didn't flirt. She slung one arm around the taller girl's small waist, giving a middle-finger salute to some face she recognised in the now-smaller crowd that she towered over. Squeaks on linoleum. Shrieking. "Some girls just need a kitchen table. Guess you're an uptown girl, Torstenn."

She also patted her back pocket. "And I have some more death sticks," she said confidently, "I nicked a packet off Grandpa. Rite of passage. Stole Akili's first pack of cigs."

Akili probably would have been proud.

"Oh my god you want to move out already," said Jace, "jesus, we'd have to get jobs. That requires working. Do I look like I want to work. Anyway, M.B.'ll probably make us graduate before we can move out -- and she won't let me go with you even if you are my Good Influence, she thinks I'll be racin' cars and having illegal parties. Even if I'm like 'holy s**t my best friends are Irelia and Antony, the only thing they'll get up to is college applications,' you two are so unbearably utterly square."

Jace held on to Irelia like a quarterback might with the head cheerleader, comfortable, pretty possessive. But Jace was always like that. There was just something different to her now -- something aggressive, something womanly maybe, something different in her slouch. Her sleeveless t-shirt rode up to reveal slashes of tanned stomach and chick muscle: she hadn't really softened except for boobs and butt. "We'll have to do what every other teenager does," she said, "hang out in the bus shelters. We'll bug Antony. Damn, we should go get a tattoo! Yes! Let's go bug Iggy's dad."

"I am pretty sure I would get a skull vomiting snakes and fire," said Jace practically, "that's something that never goes out of style, you know what I'm saying?"