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Today was a serious business day! No Zuniga to distract her (especially after the injury she accidently gave him while saving his *ss, WHOOPS), no Jared trying to YET AGAIN convince her that the prom thing wasn't all that bad. Just her, her lunch, a piece of metal, and a metal file.

She technically had two areas she was working in. One area was with all the desks where the "class" part of the shop was. Her lunch was set out, ready for her to take bites out of it. Thank goodness burritos were pretty portable.

The other area was in the shop section. Since all Ellie was doing was filing metal on metal, she didn't have to wear the full protective gear, or even tie her hair back. All the girl wore were some plastic protective goggles, mainly to prevent any metal splinters from getting in her eyes. Last thing she needed to do was get a chunk of metal in her eye, cause some sort of blindness (temporary or permanent), and have to go a while without working on her babies. Permanent blindness definitely was the worst alternative possible, since that would mean Ellie would permanently be without her hobby. Sure, she could have been interested in a musical instrument and not had to worry about being able to see so much. That was a lot of sitting in her opinion, and she needed to be up and doing something. ANYTHING.

There wasn't much being said, since Ellie didn't exactly have anybody to talk to while going back and forth from shop to class, taking in the occasional bite of burrito, then returning to the shop to continue filing her assumed bike or car part. The burrito was half gone already thanks to this procedure.

So involved with what she had been doing, the ever busy Ellie did not even notice a pale haired boy at the doorway. It didn't help that the sound of metal grating over metal was impeding any noise other than the grating from reaching her ears.

1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 she mentally counted as she moved the file back and forth. She continued to work for a while, still blissfully unaware she was now being watched. A minute, then two, and then three passed before she paused from what she was doing. She then jogged over to the desk where her food was sitting and grabbed a bite. It was only once she was mid-chew that she took a good look around.

She grinned as she soon enough found something there she hadn't brought in with her. "Ey, Toby!" she greeted, signaling for him to come closer before offering him a fist to bump with. When he was closer, she would ask him "What'cha doin' 'ere today? Bored or somethin?" She continued to grin quite a bit, being in a much better mood than she probably should have been. Though her right forearm looked okay, it was pretty heavily bandaged up. She didn't bother pointing it out, since it wasn't bugging her in the slightest. The excuse this time she used to cover up the real cause of injury? An accident in her garage with a drill.

As Toby bumbled over which words to use, Ellie's eyebrow lofted up curiously as she listened. This guy was hilariously awkward, like those "teenagers" you found in movies these days. Tripping over their own words and making fools of themselves. It was hilarious in the movie theater, and it was definitely hilarious to watch off the screen. So by the time her friend had finished sorting out what he had been trying to say, the tomboy's grin had spread out from cheek to cheek, at least doubling in size.

Before she could take another bite of her lunch, attention had been drawn to her arm. She glanced at it casually before flexing her fingers on the bandaged up arm. "Yeah, garage accident. Got a drill t'the arm. Sucked balls though, cuz I was about t'go hang out with Zuniga... then this 'appened! Had t'go t'the hospital cuz the damned thing was gushin' blood!" After flexing her fingers once more, she then tightened her fingers closed for a fist. Her golden eyes turned back to Toby, smirking in what one could read as a mischievous fashion.

"Ya wanna see the scab later? I can't undress the bandages 'ere... cuz it's a pain in the a** t'unwrap an' rewrap." She paused, her grin seeming to grow a bit bigger. "We could meet up after school and go back t'my place." Perhaps if she had been like a normal girl, this could have been read as blatant flirting. This was not Ellie's style. If she asked a guy back to her place, it was to hang out, and half the time it was to just show off her projects. Her words could be taken at face value, where as other girls rarely spoke in such a direct fashion.

"Yeah, that sounds good!" Ellie grinned and waved to Toby as he began to flee the scene. However, it was only when the bell rang that she realized why he had left.

"F*ck me!" she grunted out as she began to do the quickest and sloppiest clean up job she'd ever done before in her life. She mentally winced at the scolding she'd probably get from the shop teacher later.

~

By the time the bell rang at the end of the day, the blonde was nearly bouncing off the walls from all the pent up energy. Sitting in a chair for nearly an hour was just too much for her, especially when exciting things were going to be happening soon. It wasn't everyday that you got to take a friend to your house for the first time to hang out. She had practically run to her locker, thrown her books haphazardly into her backpack, then ran back to the shop classroom. She almost collided with a wall (since her "brakes" weren't in the best working condition possible), but it didn't seem to matter too much.

"Didn't think I was gonna be the first t'get 'ere..." she muttered under her breath as she hoisted herself back to a proper standing position.

She waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Wow, Toby was pretty late. She shrugged her shoulders and was about the head out when the boy practically exploded into the room. She slapped him on the back and let out a hearty laugh. "Detention is a b*tch!" she nearly cackled out, 100% able to understand the sentiments. She hardly gave the boy a chance to catch his breath before hiking up her backpack.

"Dun worry 'bout it! Let's get goin'!" Seeming like an overly eager puppy dog, the girl pushed open the door again and began guiding the way to her house. Obviously, the first step was to get out of the school quickly so Toby wasn't caught in the act of detention defiance. Making an exaggeratedly large motion for him to follow her, she began to jog down the hallway, aiming for the closest exit she knew of.

"Hurry up, dude!"

When the boy began speaking, the girl slowed her pace slightly so she could be once again by her friend. The advantage of having long legs was you could run further than a short guy with half the effort. The disadvantage was if you wanted to listen to said short guy, then you had to ease your pace to an excruciatingly slow one. Only when she was close enough for the boy to hear, she let out a hearty laugh. It was a laugh that almost sounded as if he should have known what her answer would be.

"Toby, dude!" she started off, leaning into him slightly. "Don't sound like such'a p***y! Live a little! I'm technically grounded, but both my parents don't come home until late. I can't technically get in trouble, 'cause they said all they cared about was knowin' where I was at. Ain't never said anythin' about not bein' able t'bring friends home!" She grinned before glancing back to their path. They were ambling right up to her home. Certainly, the area was relatively middle class, but out of the homes, the Spectre household looked a bit like a mess.

The lawn was half dying and overgrown in patches. The walkway was a sloppy set of cobble stones placed towards the doorway. The house itself looked as if it needed some repairs, but was deprived of such privileges. About the only thing that seemed to give the property any value was the fact the house was a two story one, despite how shoddy it looked.

Still grinning, Ellie began by hopping onto the first cobblestone before moving to the following ones, one hop at a time. Casually, she pointed out "Yeah, I know, it ain't much t'look at, but it's a place you can sleep in, so it serves its purpose!" When she was at the door, she began to dig for her keys in her backpack, fishing in a semi-lazy fashion into the front pocket of the denim bag.

The girl managed to pluck her keys out of her bag, then set to opening the door. With a turn of her wrist, the door opened. Before the boy entered, she commented on the only thing that really caught her ear:

"...half a lawn. Dead lawns don't get any points, so a half dead lawn is only half a lawn!"

With that, she stood against the door and made a hand gesture of "please, come in." Normally, the guys held the door open for the girls, but Ellie tended to give such rules of etiquette the middle finger. She could open her own damned doors! The blonde, thinking it was best to perhaps give her friend a warning, pointed out "We don't really clean around too much. So don' mind the mess!" When the boy was inside, she shut the door behind him and began to walk towards the living room.

True to her warning, the room was basically less than organized. Quite frankly, it was cluttered. The living room table was covered in magazines stacked in no particular order, DVDs were stacked along the wall and floor, and food wrappers and bits of trash were sprinkled about the floor. Finding herself to be at home, she flopped onto the nearest couch lazily.

"So, ya want somethin' t'drink or anything?" she asked, glancing up to her guest.