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Tallulah was one of those people who was not only chronically on time, but chronically early. She and Jaimie had agreed to meet at five - which meant she showed up at four fifty and got a table near the window. It never crossed her mind to request somewhere that anyone walking by in the street wouldn't see them - why shouldn't she go out for dinner with a friend? Even if he went to Hillworth? Out of uniform, high school students were virtually indistinguishable from each other.

She didn't want to order without him there, so she took long, slow sips from her water and waited. She couldn't hold it against Jaimie that he was not as neurotically organized as she was - most people weren't. Some days she saw this as a sign of superiority, but it was the weekend and even she had been a little bit lax today.

She shooed the waiter away again. It was getting close to the actual time now.

Tallulah watched the entrance.

Tallulah motioned for him to sit down and shook her head. "Don't worry," she said, and it was more a polite order than a suggestion. "I haven't been here long," she said, which was not quite true, but in the grand scale of things, she didn't really think ten minutes was too long. Sundays were unplanned for a reason, and it involved the occasional Saturday afternoon or evening plan.

"I hope you didn't have to sew rain jackets together to get here," she said wryly as she passed him a menu. "Did you mean it when you said I could tempt you to a veggie burger?"

In a perfect world, everyone would be a vegetarian and no cows would have to suffer in the name of American Cuisine. In the mean time, though, she would have to do with trying to convert the populace once meal at a time.

"And of course we have to get an order of fries," she added. "Since this place is famous for them."

"Soy beef substitute, I think," replied Tallulah after a moment's pause. "Onions, sprouts, all the normal seasonings? I think they change the recipe depending on what's in season. It's good," she assured him.

Now that she thought about it, she wasn't so sure what was *in* the veggie burgers so much as she was sure what *wasn't* in them.

The waiter returned once more, seeming a bit exasperated but thankful that the other diner hadn't shown up. "Can I get you two anything to drink?" he asked.

"Unsweet tea," replied Tallulah, and looked at Jaimie.

"My parents and I did some traveling up in New England when I was a little kid," she explained. "Vermont-ish. It's dairy farming region. We went with some cousins to a place where they raise cattle, and after we went to this steak place that was associated with the farm..."

She paused for a second, frowning at the memory. "My cousin told me that I was eating one of the cows we'd seen that day. It took about three hours to get me to stop crying, and I haven't eaten meat since."

"Childhood trauma," she shrugged, and smiled. It was a bit sardonic. "It really changes a person."

"Yes," nodded Tallulah. "By a couple years. We're close now, but I was so mad at him for the longest time after that. Of course, now it's just a funny story to tell at family reunions..."

"I'm an only child," she added, as if that would explain anything. "What about you?"

The waiter returned with their drinks. He set them down and asked, "Are you two ready to order?"

"A veggie burger for me," said Tallulah, handing over her menu, "And an order of fries for the table. What about you, Jaimie?"

She wasn't going to force him to eat the fake meat if he didn't want to, but the look on her face seemed to indicate she would like it if he tried.

"I always sort of wanted a sister," said Tallulah, a bit wistful as she watched the waiter go. "Is she older than you or younger than you?" she asked, and rethought the sister thing. If she had a sister, she'd have to share a bedroom, and what about the difference between older sisters and younger sisters? Maybe it was better that she was an only child.

"Causing chaos?" she asked. "Is that why you're at Hillworth?"

She wasn't sure if she actually wanted to know, or if it was even polite to ask that sort of thing, but it was already out there and there was no taking it back.

"Oh," said Tallulah, frowning slightly. She really hadn't wanted to know. The question had just... slipped out. But there you had it. She was eating dinner with a thief. Reformed thief? Everyone stole sometimes... well, she hadn't, but she was trying to qualify his behavior. And if he was at Hillworth then it was because he was trying to change. Maybe she could help!

She replaced the frown with a confident smile and said, "Because I don't have a tremendous enough stick up my butt to go to Crystal." Or enough money, but that was another issue.

Then she thought of Mili and felt bad for the comment.

"I mean, some of the girls there are nice - I know some girls there who are nice - but on the whole it's very snobby. I looked at it for a while before I started high school, but in the end I decided Meadowview was where I belonged."

"So are you from here in town?" she asked, trying to keep things going. At Meadowview, the kids were practically guaranteed to be locals to some degree, but she knew Hillworth and Crystal drew from all over.

Tallulah sputtered at the uniform comment. "Oh, I like our guys uniforms," she said jokingly. "They're... youthful. They look like boy scouts."

She stirred her tea. "Anyway, I'm sure our boys would trade for your uniforms any day of the week. Sure, they're fine now while it's still warm, but wait until November." The winter months were always slightly miserable in the Meadowview uniforms.

"Oh," she sighed. "The fighting. I don't know if it's anything important. Destiny City hasn't really got, say, gangs or anything like that, has it? Maybe it's just college kids playing laser tag."

This theory was, of course, only barely plausible.